Queenstown (including Mt. Cook), South Island, New Zealand

13th December – 16th December 2017

After leaving Invercargill at 10.45, we had two short bus rides to get us to Queenstown, for our chance to explore the city properly. We arrived at around 2.30, after a bus change and getting stuck in some traffic on the way. Despite Joe saying that it was a no-nap day, he couldn’t resist napping, although I couldn’t blame him as the heaters were on full blast, on the bus, so it was like a sauna!

When we arrived, we walked up to our hostel, where we checked into the hostel and we were shown to our room. We dropped our bags off and went to the kitchen to make ourselves a late lunch, as we had missed lunch time.

Once we had eaten and cleaned up, we went for a wander into the centre of town. Although Queenstown is the liveliest place that we have seen in New Zealand, it is mostly just full of shops, restaurants, bars and expensive activities, so we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves. After walking up and down the streets, we sat on the lake front and did some people watching while we waited for some time to pass.

At 5 o’clock, we were booked into the ice bar in the centre of town. We made our way over there at about quarter to. When we got there, it was already very busy, full of people kitted out, ready to go into the bar area. We were given a big coat and some gloves, and I was given some boots to wear, as I was in my flip flops.

When everyone was ready, we were shown into the ice bar, which was set at minus twelve degrees, so it was very cold – we wanted to feel like everyone at home. We had a free drink included in the price, so we went straight to the bar to claim that, before having a look around at the different ice features of the room. We had a sit on the ice sleigh, we sat on the ice throne and I had my photo took in the ice photo frame. The idea of it was really good, but it was so cold, and we couldn’t manage it for too long. We had a game of ice hockey, on the table, and finished our drinks, before leaving. We managed to stay until about 5.45, and we were one of the latest to leave, but I couldn’t feel my fingers when we did leave.

After we had been in the ice bar, we took a leisurely stroll back to the hostel, via the Village Green. We sat by the Christmas tree on the Village Green for a while and enjoyed the sunshine that we had missed so much. After a while, we left and went back to hostel.

When we got back, we had dinner. We had fajitas and nachos – it was a feast, but we managed it easily. As Queenstown is such a party town, and we weren’t up for that, we went back to the room after tea, for a chilled evening. We were in bed for about 7.45, but it gave us time to watch a film and some episodes on Netflix, before going to sleep.

Our time in Queenstown was always going to be a relaxed one, because even though it’s the adrenaline capital of the country, we had already done a lot of things on our trip before arriving in Queenstown, and everything in Queenstown was much more expensive. Because of this, we didn’t set an alarm to get up the next day, but we were up and ready for just after 9 anyway. We had some breakfast, before packing our day bag and heading out.

Our first stop, and one of the main things that we wanted to do in Queenstown, was the gondola ride up to the skyline. We had our own gondola up to the top, which was nice, as we didn’t have to squash up with other people, especially as it was so hot. When we got to the top, we had a wander out on to the edge to look at the views over Queenstown, which were very beautiful as it is surrounded by mountains. While we were admiring the views, we watched a couple of people bungy off the platform nearby, but it didn’t look very exciting, or even like a proper bungy, but they seemed to enjoy it.

After having a wander around, looking at the views, we went to claim our luge rides – we had three rides included with our pass. We had to get a chairlift up to the top and we didn’t have an option for our first ride, they told us which track (out of the two) to go on, as we had to have a little lesson on how to ride the luges. The ride was much better than expected: it was longer than I thought it would be and the luges went quite fast.

Once we had completed our first ride, we were able to choose which track to go on, so naturally, we went on the other track. I had the GoPro, trying to film the ride down, so although the track was much better, and a little more difficult, I didn’t get chance to have a proper go because of the camera, but it was still fun.

When it came to the third go, we both decided on the second track, as it was much better, so all cameras went away, to give us both a fair chance at the race. After two practice races and lots of concentration, I was the winner of the race quite easily, as much as Joe didn’t like to think we had a fair start (but we did).

After all that fun, we worked ourselves up quite an appetite for lunch. We got the gondola back down to the centre of Queenstown, where we did a mini food shop, and got some nice bread from the bakery, to go with soup that we were having for lunch. We ate lunch back at the hostel, before making a plan for the afternoon.

Once we had eaten lunch, we walked back out into the centre. Our plan was to go to Queenstown Park, and have a wander around there. When we found out that there was a Frisbee Golf (or Frolf) course in the park, and that we could hire out frisbees for free, from Peterpan Adventures, we couldn’t resist to have a go at it.

When we got started at our game, it was much harder than both of us expected it to be: the frisbees were heavier than expected and they did not go as far as I thought they would. Despite the fact that we both nearly lost our frisbees to the lake, as they rolled down the hills in the park, we persevered and played until the end. It wasn’t a great game for me, as I lost every hole (apart from one), so the overall score was devastating for me. It was still good fun though, and I have come to accept the fact that golf is not my forte, whether it’s with a golf ball or a frisbee.

After our game, we walked back through the park, along the lakefront, the views were beautiful, and the lake was a gorgeous emerald colour. We found a rope swing, which I attempted, but it was the hardest one I’ve found so far, so I didn’t stay on it for very long.

Once we left the park, we returned our frisbees and got ourselves some drinks deals from the travel shop (as we are Gold card members since we booked two tours with them in Rotorua). When we left the shop, we walked back towards the centre of town, along the lake. We got ourselves an ice cream from a shop called Patagonia, which was one recommended to us by the manager at our hostel in Wānaka, so it would have been rude not to try it. I got two different flavours, but my eyes were definitely bigger than my belly (for once) and I couldn’t manage it all – and loads of it melted all over me because it was so hot, so that wasn’t fun.

After the ice cream, we wandered back up to the hostel and chilled out for a bit, until it was time for tea. As neither of us were overly hungry after the ice creams, we had quite a late tea. Once we had eaten, we sat in the lounge area, and started to watch Lord of the Rings (I felt like we should as we are in the land of Lord of the Rings and it is referred to everywhere), but I couldn’t manage very much because I couldn’t get into it, so we left and went to watch Netflix in bed, instead.

The next morning, was another chilled one. We got up and ready and wanted to do some research for the day, but the wifi didn’t seem to want to work. We had some breakfast and left the hostel.

We walked into the centre, where there was free internet access and had a sit under the trees, looking over the lake. We used the wifi to find book an activity for the afternoon, as it was something we hadn’t done yet and something we wanted to try.

Once we had booked the activity, we went for a walk around town. We sat by the lake and watched people go by, before walking to the Village Green and doing the same there. We had a very chilled morning and didn’t really do anything special and before we knew it, it was time for lunch.

We went back to the hostel for lunch. We had soup and bread again, and relaxed for a bit at the hostel, before going to our activity.

At 2pm, we had booked in to go jet boating, on the lake and rivers around Queenstown. We got there on time to check in, but we were told they may have to reschedule it to 3 o’clock, as a group of people who were booked in to go with us hadn’t turned up.

As we thought we had to wait, we went into the building to have a look at the underwater observatory (something which is included for after the activity, but they said that we could go down before). It was so cool down there, the fish that were in the lake were huge! It was not what I expected at all and there were so many of them. There were some eels too and when some people fed the fish, ducks came diving down from the surface to steal it, it was quite funny to watch.

After looking at the fish, we went back up and were going to go for a wander before 3. When we got outside, the group had arrived, so we were told our ride could go ahead after all. We were given a splash coat and a life jacket, and we got on the boat.

On the boat, we were both given the seats on the front row, which you think would be great, except we were both too small to see over the top, so we couldn’t actually see much of what was going on around us. We drove around the lake, which was very bumpy – I didn’t know that lakes had so many waves – before we drove down towards the Kawarau River. I was glad to leave the lake and join the river, as the bumps were so intense, we would smack down onto the water with a thud and it started to give me a headache.

The boat drove down the Kawarau River, until it met the Shotover River. Along the rivers, we did some 360 degree turns which were funny because we all just ended up sitting on each other. The waters on the Shotover River were quite shallow, but the boat only needs ten centimetres of water to actually work, as it works by sucking up the water underneath and shooting it out at the back.

After driving along the Shotover River for a while, we turned around and drove back. On the way back, we did a similar route, but with lots more spins. We drove back on the Kawarau River, under some trees, before joining back onto the lake.

The lake was just as bumpy on the way back, but it wasn’t long until we were back at the base. We had one last 360 degree spin on the lake, before our guide (Nick), pulled up to the jetty.

Once we got off the boat, we had another look at the underwater observatory before grabbing our bags and heading out. We walked back to the hostel, so that we could shower, cut Joe’s hair again and get changed, as we were treating ourselves to food out.

After we were ready, we went back to the centre of town. We had decided to try a Fergburger for tea. Fergburger is a restaurant/ take away place in Queenstown, which had a huge hype around it. It was another recommendation from the manager at our hostel in Wānaka, so again we had to try it. I think even if we weren’t told about it, it was a place that we wouldn’t have missed, as there was a constant queue outside of it. Ed (from Wānaka) had said that it wasn’t the best burger he had ever had, but it was good, so we had to try it while we were there – we just weren’t to set our standards too high.

After ordering our food, we had about fifteen minutes to wait, before it was ready. We collected it and took it as take out. We took it to the same floating bar that we had been to the week earlier (when we stopped over on our way to Te Anau), as it was a bar where you could bring your own food. We ate our burgers, which were better than I expected, as I had set my expectations quite low, due to all of the hype, and we had a drink from the bar, looking over the lake.

Once we had enjoyed our burgers and had finished our drinks, we went for dessert – we really were pushing the boat out, plus we were given a 10% off voucher for Mrs Ferg’s ice cream when we bought our burgers, so I couldn’t say no to that! I had the award-winning flavour of caramelised white chocolate and macadamia and Joe got his usual mint chocolate – they both tasted good though. After eating our ice creams by the lake, we made our way back to the hostel as it was getting cooler outside and I wasn’t prepared for the temperature change.

Back at the hostel, we packed up and got ourselves an early night, as we had an early start in the morning, to catch our bus to Christchurch (via Mt. Cook). We watched some Netflix in bed, as usual, and got ourselves some free popcorn from reception – something that they offer but really shouldn’t as it was tasteless and dried your whole mouth out, so we ate a piece each.

When the alarm went off at 6.30, I was not prepared for an early start after the luxury of lies ins for a few days. I reluctantly got up and ready, so that we could head towards the bus stop, ready for the 7.30 bus. Once we had got onto the bus and everyone was checked in, we drove around Queenstown collecting people from different stops, before driving towards Mt. Cook.

Along the way, we had many beautiful views and the driver had lots of interesting information and funny stories about the areas that we were driving through – he seemed to know everything, it was great. My favourite story (which is a true story) was of a rogue sheep, who broke away from the rest of the flock when they had been put up on the hill by their farmer. He would do this every summer to give them some more freedom and then round them back up and bring them down for winter. He would count them each time but one or two different he wouldn’t worry about.

One year, when he was bringing his sheep back down the hill, he had one extra sheep and this sheep was carrying a lot of wool. It is thought that the sheep wandered off and was missing for five years, before he decided to come back and join his flock one winter. The farmer couldn’t believe how much wool he had and when he was eventually shorn, his wool weighed 26 kilograms (a merino sheep usually has 5kg of wool each year, which is why they think it was five years that he was missing).

The sheep was taken into the local school, where the children fell in love with the sheep. They had a competition to decide its name and in the end, it was voted to call the sheep Shrek. The children in the school wrote books about Shrek the Sheep which they took around the schools in the local area to try and sell to make some money for their school. As it went so well, they took it further and went to schools all over the South Island where they made more money than they could have ever imagined. They used the money to buy new equipment for their school, before giving some to their community. We drove by a toilet block in the centre which had a photo of Shrek on the side and I couldn’t believe the size of him! I just wasn’t sat in a good spot on the bus to get a photo, so I had to google one to put on here.

We carried on driving and had our first stop on Lindis Pass, which is over 900 metres above sea level. Lindis Pass was the highest point that we would get to on the trip to Mt. Cook and the views were beautiful all around.

After Lindis Pass, we carried on driving through the beautiful landscapes and stopped again at Peters Lookout, where we had more pretty views.

Although the weather was dry, the clouds were lowering over the mountains and we weren’t able to see the peaks of some of them, including Mt. Cook itself. The Maori name for Mt. Cook is Aoraki, which means cloud piercer. They called it this, as their name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, meaning the land under the long white cloud and as Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, it pierces the clouds. We carried on going and reached Mt. Cook village in time for lunch. When we arrived at the village, we weren’t as close as I expected us to be and the peak was covered by clouds, which was a little disappointing.

Once we got off the coach, we found a table and ate our lunch before going for a walk. There were lots of walking paths that lead up to Mt. Cook but as we were on limited time, we couldn’t walk too far. As the weather wasn’t great and we couldn’t really walk very far, we wished that we had thought ahead and booked in to stay over for a night to give us some more time.

After our walk, we sat back in the centre as we had a little bit more time until the bus was leaving. The driver had told us before we got off that the weather can change so quickly, so to be ready with cameras in case the clouds clear. Unfortunately for us, the weather changed in the opposite way and Mt. Cook wasn’t visible to us at all and the rain started to come down.

At 2.15, we got on the coach and carried on towards Christchurch. By this time, we were both completely wiped out and ended up having a nap. We were asleep for ages and probably missed some great views and stories, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

When we woke up, we had arrived at Lake Tekapo. On the edge of Lake Tekapo is the church of the Good Shepherd. It is a beautiful little church on the edge of the waters and is understandably the most photographed church in New Zealand. We had a little look inside and walked around, before we had to be back on the bus.

As we carried on, we saw more beautiful views, before we had a final break (for the driver) in an area called Geraldine. After about half an hour, we got back on the bus for the final time, at 5.30, and drove towards Christchurch.

Queenstown is by far the busiest place that we have seen in the whole of New Zealand. Although we used our time there to wind down a little and have some time off our hectic schedule, there is so much on offer in Queenstown. I loved that we tried new activities, even though I was awful at Frolf, I love that we almost saw Mt. Cook and I love that we ate even more ice cream! Time to carry on to Christchurch, our final New Zealand stop (I’m not sure how that has come around so quickly)!

To travel is to live, Katie x