Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown (3 days,3 nights – Nov 28-Dec 1)

Queenstown is "Ground Zero" for adventure travel in the South Island and is a great home-base for most outdoor adventures. The town itself is very similar to an Aspen, CO with a lot of booking offices for tours, clothes boutiques, restaurants and bars. Given all that there is to do here, we recommend spending NO LESS than three full days here..and even that is too little time!!

Where to Stay
Queenstown in general is not cheap and hotels or managed apartments can easily rent for $200+ a night. However, if you have a rental car, consider staying in Arrow Town which is a small little town 10 minutes north of Queenstown. The money you will save on lodging makes the drive into Queenstown well worth it. We stayed at the Orchard Cottage and it was fantastic. Our room was an individual cottage with bedroom, living room and kitchenette just off the main house. We were the only ones on the property too. The best part was our rate of $140 NZ a night...which we learned was cheap compared to Queenstown prices. If rooms are available, we recommend staying here. Check out the rates on Trip Advisor.

What to Do
There is so much to do here...it's a matter of figuring out how adventerous you want to be. I am amazed by all the things that one can do here including bungee jumping (it was invented here), orbing (which involves being strapped inside a large plastic ball and rolled down a hill), jet boating and kayaking, to name a few. Below is a list of what we tackled for our short 3 day stay.

Jet Boating
This is a MUST do and something that can't be done many other places in the world! The Shotover River runs through the South Island snaking through many mountain gorges. The river runs deep in some areas...and very shallow in others. These conditions are perfect to skim across the water at 60 mph, brush up against the cliffs and twist and turn around the river bends. There is only one company that has been approved to run jet boats on the River; Shotover Jet . Consider booking the afternoon before for a mid morning run. The big tip is to arrive a half hour before your run to be first in line....to have your choice of seats. THE place to sit is in the back row on the driver's side of the boat. This spot is "ground zero" to get bounced around and soaking wet. Dee Dee and I had a GREAT TIME and would be willing to do it again the next time we're there.

Milford Sound
The Milford Sound is a natural beauty that is like no other in the world. However, it's also one of the most elusive with the ever changing weather conditions. If the weather is good, we highly recommend making the effort. There are 3 options to visit Milford Sound:
1) Take a small plane from Queenstown out to the Sound, take a boat tour of the sound and fly back. This trip takes about 5 hours in total.
2) Take a bus out from Queenstown to the Sound, take the boat tour and then take the bus back. This tour takes 12 hours...and your on the bus for 10 hours total.
3) Take an overnight tour where you drive out by car to the Sound, stay over night on a boat in the sound, tour the sound in the morning and drive back to Queenstown the following day.

If you have the means, we HIGHLY recommend flying out to the sound to make the most out of your time in Queenstown. The flight out is in a six passenger propeller plane which is FREAKY, but really great and takes 45 minutes each way. We felt like we could touch the mountain tops as we flew by. The boat tour is 2 and a half hours and your draw will drop as you float by the snow capped mountains, waterfalls, rocky coves and spot the occasional penguin and seal. After the boat tour was over we flew back and enjoyed a late lunch in Queenstown. The big rub with this option is the cost. The complete tour runs roughly $350 NZ each. Ouch!!!! We highly recommend booking with Milford Sound Scenic Flights for we were impressed by the pilot and how the company took care of our needs.

We met others who did the bus trip and the overnight trip. Both people said while the Sound was beautiful, the 10 hour bus trip was too long or that there is not enough to really see to warrant an overnight. We felt we made the right choice. Be sure to take your Dramamine for the flight out and check that you have enough room on your camera's memory card to take a TON of pictures. I took 50+.

Visiting Queenstown
The town is very much like an Aspen, CO or Tahoe, CA in it's style of shops, restaurants, casinos and outdoor focus. This is a great place to buy gifts for friends and family. Be ware that there are no "great deals" on the most popular items like outdoor clothes, jade and wool (possum wool, I might add).

Relaxing by the Pier
After we got back from the Milford Sound trip we drove into Queenstown and headed for the pier. There is a great grassy park near the pier that is close to many waterfront restaurants. We grabbed a sandwich and bought gelato and pulled up a strip of lawn to relax. The Dramamine made us a little drowsy so we ended up taking an hour nap on the lawn after we ate. The sun was warm and a light breeze blew off Lake Wakatipu.

Where to Eat
There are so many restaurants here that looked really great. Below are our recommendations, but feel free to find some on your own!

Breakfast and Lunch
We got breakfast and lunch foods to eat at our cottage or duing the day at the grocery store in town. Buying food here saved us from paying high prices at the restaurants.

Joe's Garage
This place is tucked down an alley way and is more of a locals spot. Go here for a STRONG cup of coffee. I got an espresso and I was wired until I got home the following week.

Dinner
The Bunker
Like Joe's this place is tucked down an alley way and is more known to the locals. This place is pretty pricey, but really great. The exterior is non-descript and the interior is very lounge-like replete with James Bond pictures on the wall. To make it more intersting, the bar tender piped lounge music (Sinatra) through out the restaurant. We could'nt help but order a dry martini before dinner. The food and wine list are FANTASTIC. I got the lamb and Dee Dee got a pork sholder. Both dishes were very tender and tasty. The bill was not tender...be prepared to use the credit card. However, it's well worth it.