13.15 Queenstown: New Zealand's 'Adventure Capital'

 

15.A Clouds Hugging the Remarkables Range beyond Queenstown

On our recent travels in New Zealand, Jean and I spent three nights in Queenstown, in the inland southwest of the South Island. It’s set at the foot of mountains bordering Lake Wakatipu. It’s hardly a typical Kiwi town. It’s substance, somewhat like Rotorua on the North Island, is to serve as a tourist center. Should non-Kiwis trouble themselves to come to Queenstown?

It turns out that it’s no big trouble coming to Queenstown. It’s been a tourist draw for some time. Although it sustains a population count just under 30,000, it merits an international airport served by Air New Zealand, Jetstar, Quantas, and Virgin Australia. Besides air connections to various New Zealand destinations, Queenstown sports competitive year-round connections with Sydney, Australia, and seasonal competitive connections to Brisbane and Melbourne. The Aussies are drawn virtually year-round to Queenstown, but especially in the winter. Wintertime sees increased traffic because of several ski runs and resorts just outside Queenstown.

Queenstown is a jumping off point for numerous diversions besides skiing: bungee-jumping, hiking (or ‘tracking’ in Kiwiese), mountain biking, hang gliding, jet-boating, and so forth, not to mention just plain old sight-seeing. Those who don’t wish to sightsee via auto or bus can avail themselves of balloon, fixed-wing, or helicopter tour services. There are numerous restaurants, cafes, bars, and shops in Queenstown, not to mention a considerable range of overnight accommodations. 

We spent one full day in Queenstown, walking around, dropping into a few stores, and ascending Bob’s Peak via the Skyline gondola service. Skyline is the same outfit that runs a comparable operation in Rotorua and elsewhere. At the top there’s a restaurant and conference center as well as a café and store. The aforementioned gondola run and another facilitate hang gliders, mountain bikers, and lugers. The Kiwi luge course isn’t via a metal tube as found, say, in the Alps but via a paved track available for year-round use. Queenstown Skyline offers two luge tracks, one for beginners and one for advanced lugers. We didn't luge but went tracking, enjoying quirky framed viewpoints such as the one evident in photo 15.N, below.

While we enjoyed Queenstown and Skyline Queenstown, our primary reason for coming to Queenstown was to visit Milford Sound. The air distance between Milford Sound and Queenstown is 71 km or 44 miles. Yet a non-stop road journey between the two points takes about 4 hours one-way. I’ll cover our bus expedition to and cruise on Milford Sound in a subsequent post.

Until then…

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

P.S. 16 July 2017. Queenstown and, more generally, the southern half of the South Island is a great place for viewing (and photographing the stars), as made evident in photos accompanying this New Zealand Herald article on the photography of Jake Scott-Gardner and Joanna Scott.

P.P.S. 14 April 2018. A Japan Times article carried a story about a sake that is being brewed in Queenstown, which has the first and only sake brewery in New Zealand. The sake is called Zenkuro (roughly meaning 'all black'), in a tip of the hat or the glass to New Zealand's All Black rugby team.

15.B Downtown Queenstown

15.C Shopping Street, Queenstown

15.D Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown Promenade

15.E Queenstown Beach from Promenade

15.F Native Tree in Queenstown Gardens

15.G Life-Size Moa Statue, Queenstown

15.H Bob's Peak

15.I Skyline Gondola Connecting Queenstown & Bob's Peak

15.J Lake Wakatipu from Bob's Peak

15.K Queenstown & Lake Wakatipu

15.L Queenstown & Frankton Arm (or Bay)

15.M Helicopter on Bob's Peak

15.N The Ben Lomond Scenic Preserve Seen Thru a Frame