Queenstown, New Zealand

We departed from Sydney mid morning with a slight delay in our flight and arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand, mid afternoon, where we checked into the Rees Hotel. We have a beautiful view of Wakatipu Lake – which is the second largest in New Zealand. The air is very dry and crisp. The city has a Breckenridge feel to it and is in the center of ski country. Winter is coming thus their busy season.

We were fortunate to land at the airport as two days prior (due to weather) they were not allowing any flights in. We ventured out to explore the city of Queenstown and found a very hip bar called Ferg’s for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

We also took the gondola to the top of the mountain to check out the view. We were shuttled back to our hotel and prepared to leave early morning for a tour. A bus picked us up at 7 AM . The weather was very cool – 44 degrees – much different than in Australia. The bus tour took us to Doubtful Sound. It was absolutely beautiful, some of the best scenery I’ve ever seen. We were told that the lake is 450 meters deep in many spots and was formed by moving glaciers. They receive up to 4 -5 meters of rain a year! We worked our way through the lake to the oceanfront, where we saw fur seals laying on the rocks – made a loop and came back. The trek included two bus rides and two boat rides.

While on the tour we met John and Linda who were dairy farmers in New Zealand. They told us they milk around 350 cows and their son is taking over the operation. I asked about the land prices in their area and they told me that 130 hectors recently sold for $8 million. (Yikes)!We also met a couple from London, England. They were traveling with a six month old baby for six weeks utilizing their maternity leave. Lastly, we met a couple that just got engaged from the Netherlands.

We got back to our hotel at around 8 PM. We had dinner at the hotel and called it a day. We start early morning for a helicopter ride to a glacier weather permitting.

The tour guides and bus drivers are some of the nicest and kindest people I’ve ever met.

More pictures below.