After several days of staying in Holiday Parks, and sleeping on thin cots in crowded rooms, everyone was excited to stay in a nice home when we arrived in Queenstown. The house actually exceeded everyone's expectations, providing a great kitchen and living spaces, a hot tub, and panoramic views of one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Queenstown, with a population of about 13,000 and formed in 1863, is situated on the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the Remarkables, a stunning mountain range. The town is the self proclaimed adrenaline capitol of the world, hosting the first bungee jump and the shot-over jet. It is known for the sports, adrenaline junkies, and some of the most beautiful views that New Zealand possesses! Here was the view from the deck off our rental home.
The downtown area of Queenstown is VERY touristy, at least for NZ. It felt a little like Fisherman's Wharf in SF, but maybe from 30 years ago, before that lost its quaintness. Lots of ways to spend your money, lots of shops, an actual Starbucks(!), street performers, and all set in a very pretty spot. The waves of Take Wakatipu laps up to a beach just off the city center and the mountains rise up from the lake on all sides of town to frame the city. Wow. One evening, we went into downtown and watched a very PG-16 rated street performer swallow fire and juggle with fire, all with volunteer help from the audience. We kept our distance. After, we went into the Botanical Garden in town and saw lots of exotic trees (at least to us.) Here is a picture of Anne and Sue in front of the monkey puzzle trees, a tree in which the male and female cones grow on separate trees. Very odd looking.
While some people were downtown playing with fire, the girls, Jen, and Susan decided to hike up to the famed Basket of Dreams on top of Queenstown Hill. This hike traversed through a historical area, with informative signs about the history of the town, up to a viewpoint that allowed for a jaw-dropping view over the lake and Queenstown! The lights of the town (it was evening at the time) lit up against the lake, and the dark purple mountains with ominous clouds created a truly beautiful sight! The Basket of Dreams itself is a sculpture that wants you to "reflect inward on the passage of time and your dreams for the future."
The Following morning, we took a pretty epic (one might say stomach churning) drive along a narrow winding road that hugged the coast of Lake Wakatipu for about 30 or so mile to its northwest to the town of Glenorchy. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was pretty low, so we could not see the higher mountain peaks surrounding us, but the road and the very blue lake were scenery enough.
Glenorchy is called "Gateway to Paradise" and we found it to be accurately described! It is the starting off place for the famed Routeburn Track - a three to four day Great Walk that goes from there to Milford Sound area, and though we didn't do any real "tramping", it was clear why the town is so well known! It's small and quaint, with a load of history and lovely views!
We stopped in a small cafe, which not only had excellent coffee but a few very cute cats as well. The most interesting portion of this trip may have occurred out back, in the statue garden the cafe maintained. The family wanted a picture in front of one of the sculptures, so we asked a Japanese tourist to take our photo. We then were surprised when his entire group (of at least 20 people) came over and started snapping photos of all of us! They kept it up, taking candids and posed shots of each of us with various sculptures, making it hard to keep a straight face for good photos that we were trying to take of ourselves! We estimate that this one tourist bus of Japanese people must have taken over 500 combined photos. Of us : ) 250 or more of Lindsay alone, who they must have thought was very stereotypically Kiwi, but who of course is American. Heh.
After our adventures at the cafe, we went to the old Glenorchy port for a picnic lunch. The old train and storage building was transformed into a museum detailing the history of both the port and the formation of the town, and what they dubbed the "shortest railroad track in the world" - it was only about 100 meters in length! This area, specifically the old building against the lake, created more beautiful views for everyone to enjoy.
What a fun day exploring the area. In the afternoon, the girls went bungee jumping, which will be the subject of our next post.
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