Wednesday and Thursday (3rd & 4th) at Queenstown

After a lovely day and two nights in Wanaka, where we did little, except for lovely walks around the lake, we made the hour and a half drive from Wanaka to Queenstown, through a beautiful area, with lots of fruit stands and wineries!
We stopped at a fruit stand, and bought cherries, apricots, peaches and kiwi, and some local rata honey. It was a bit early for wine tasting, but we did stop for a latte along the way.

We arrived in Queenstown, which is located on Lake Wakitipu, around noon. The town had on it's best holiday mood, with lots of bikini-clad people enjoying the lake and the surrounding areas. There were lots of boats taking people out on cruises and doing parasailing, right from the wharf. Lots of wharfside cafes, restaurants and bars. This place just says "vacation!"

After we got checked into our motel, we headed into town for a wander around. We had a lovely walk around the Queenstown gardens, and around the lake. We stopped for a beer at an Irish Pub and listened to the guitar music being played by street musicians. Then we ended up having dinner there as well.

We had an early evening, and were meeting Craig and Stephen on the flight in from Auckland at 9:00 am Thursday morning. They had rented an apartment with a lakeside view for 6 nights, which was just wonderful.

Craig and Stephen


Craig and Stephen's flight was right on time, and we were able to check into our apartment at 10:30, get all unpacked, and ready to start our day! Since the weather was so beautiful, and expected to hold for several days, we decided that when we went into town we'd book our trip to Milford Sound for Friday, the next day.

We had a nice wander around town, got our Milford Sound trip all packed, and had a wonderful lunch at Cow! Cow is a fabulous pizza place that is located inside a stone building from the late 1800's, that was used to milk the cows in, to supply milk to the local establishments. Instead of transporting the milk, they herded the cows into town, and to this building for milking, then herded them back again. Very clever for the days of little or no refrigeration

Thursday afternoon we took the gondola up to Bob's Peak. It provides an incredible view of the Queenstown harbor, gardens and town. We were able to do some hiking while we were up there, and saw some amazing toadstools! We watched the people luge down the hill, and waited to see if someone would bungy jump from the platform, but no one did - certainly not one of us!

After we came down on the gondola, we stopped at a grocery store for some breakfast and lunch items, and of course, some gin and tonic! Then we headed home, where we had the rest of our lunch pizza and salad for dinner, following a G&T, of course!

Then it was early to bed - Craig and Stephen had been up early to catch an early morning flight, and we needed to be on the road by 7:00 am to get to Milford Sound in time to make our 12:30 sail.

Friday: Milford Sound!!

Here's the view from the top of the gondola - you can see Mt. Earnslaw in the background, lake Wakitipu, and on the right side of the picture is the platfrom from which you can bungy jump! The little peninsula on the left is Queenstown gardens.

Another aerial view. The peninsula you see on the left is the golf course and some very exclusive homes!
At the top, with a typical, gorgeous New Zealand sky! I love the clouds!

We saw lot of wild foxglove growing.

This silver fern was at the entrance to the Queenstown gardens.

Some of the beautiful roses growing in the garden

This is a monkey puzzle tree - I'd never seen one before - pretty amazing!

Here's a close up. Bryan says that it's related to the Norfolk Island Pine. It was quite prickly!

We found lots of toadstools on our walk - here's one that's opened up, and you can see the little white spots on it. We kept watching for elves, but they were too quick for us!

This is Mr. Rees - he was the first person to settle in the Queenstown area.

Looking across the lake from the walkway along the gardens.

Looking back into the Queenstown Harbor

One of the monuments in the gardens. This one was for Captain Scott, one of the explorers of the Antarctic who did not return from the trip.

Stone bridge, ducks and Lily pads in the garden

Another view of the fountain and bridge.

Doesn't that look inviting??

A great vacation spot!

In the gondola, heading down!

One of the bungy jumping viewing platforms.

Couldn't get enough of the lake/mountain/sky landscape! This is Walter's Peak.

In case you were wondering.....

Another view from the top of the Remarkable Mountains across from Queenstown.

Another view in a different direction - this is the road to Arrowtown.