Advertisement
Published: June 30th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Queenstown
View from top of the Queenstown mountain After the scenery of the Fiordland we headed north for more fun in Queenstown, activities centre for the whole of New Zealand. Unfortunately, on our first day there it absolutely poured down with rain and we couldn't really do anything! The next day we awoke to much brighter skies, so set off to enjoy everything the town had to offer.
Apparently it's essential to do some kid of extreme activity in Queenstown, we settled on Jet boating as neither of us had done it before. Basically you sit in a specially designed speed boat that propells water to make the boat fly around and turn corners really quickly. Our trip took us through the canyons of the Shotover River, where the drivers aim to get as close to the rocks as they can, which means so close everyone on board is convinced you're going to crash! It was brilliant! Every now and then they throw in a 360 degree spins which completely soaks all the passengers. The whole trip was fantastic and really good fun.
The next day we spent walking around Queenstown centre, looking in the shops, walking around the lake and through the gardens before deciding to
Jet boating!
Whhhooo hooo yeah head up Queenstown mountain for some panoramic views of the area. There is a gondala that takes you up the mountain in about 5 minutes, but for some reason we decided to walk up instead. It was a liiiiittttle bit steeper than we had anticipated! It took us over an hour to reach the summit but the views from the top soon made the exhaution and aching legs worthwhile. One of the towns bungy ledges is up there so we watched a few mad people do that for a bit while we got our breath back.
Also at the top of the mountain is the Queenstown luge track! After our luging experience in Singapore we were both keen to have another go. The track here is loads harder than the other one we had done, and included sudden drops and tunnels, all very exciting! And there are stunning views of the surrounding mountains too, all in all a brilliant way to pass a couple of hours. Luging is such good fun, and Rich wants to build a track when we get home. As usual there was a ski-lift to take lugers abck to the top of the track once
Sal on the chairlift
rich walking up the hill you had finsihed the course. So as I got bak to the top in 2 minutes, rich had to walk back up the hill as the ski-lift in singapore has scarred him for life.
After some quality luge action we headed back down the mountain, deciding to take a "short cut" which turned out to be a hardcore descent down the steepest side of the mountain. That night we headed out into Queenstown for food and some drinks. It was the start of Winterfestival, and there was a firework display on. As we were eating our pizzas in Winnies bar, the roof began to open so that everyone could see the firework show...quality!
Next day we headed off to Wanaka, a town only 100km's from Queenstown. On the way we passed the AJ Hacket Bungy site, the first comercial bungy site in the world, where people can bungee from a bridge into the canyon below. We considered it, but as it was hammering down with rain (and we're scared) we carried on...maybe another time.....
After Sal had successfully guided the campervan over the mountain pass, down windy roads, we arrived at Wanaka, and headed straight to Puzzling
world!! Puzzling world is a fantastic place, they have several differently themed rooms and also a huge outdoor maze.
In one of the rooms there were walls and walls of 3D portraits of famous people, such as churchuill, mandella and roosevelt. As you walked around the room the faces appear to turn and follow you, its a really scary illusion. Next room was a tilted room, where you could see water run up hill, and basically stumble around trying not to fall over. After some lunch we headed to the outdoor maze, which was very funny. Apparently the basic challenge of finding the four towers and then the exit should only take 60 minutes...after 90 minutes sal and i were slightly frustrated, but eventually found our way out.
There are also lots of tables with many kinds of different puzzles you could try out, we tried a few and ended up being there for hours. It was great fun and we bought a few puzzle games ot play in the van too.
Wanaka itself has a very nice lake, and is a good spot for outdoor sports. However we have realised we only have 3 more weeks
in New Zealand...aggghhhh!, and there is soo much more to see. So we have cracked on and are making our way to Glacier country...whooooo
Advertisement
Tot: 0.047s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0253s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb