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Published: December 16th 2009
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Well, what an experience!! Queenstown has many a reputation, for either being too commerical, too touristy or a massive bubble of mayhem. Personally I found all of the above to be true.
Firstly even flying in is an experience by itself. I should have guessed by the warning given by the pilot to those who have never flown in before of the flight path and terrain we would encounter. Queenstown is surrounded by mountains and Lake Wakatipi, so to clear the mountains and land, we had to do about 3, 360 downward spirals around the mountain ranges to actually get low enough to land. Now, I am not a nervous flyer, but out of my plane window the mountains looked pretty close, the plane was at one seriously unnatural angle, and the runway seemed to appear from nowhere just as i was sure we were about to die!
Once landed though, from the offset it is breathtaking. There is a chill in the air as we are so southern, but the sun was beaming and the view on the bus ride in by the lake is simply stunning. The town is directly on the lakeside and overlooked by the
Remarkables, which are still snowtopped. Even my hostel felt 5* with the balcony view!
I had flown in to meet my previous backpackers on the kiwi experience bus, and once i was settled and showered, they were there in abundance. The sun shone for about 4 days solid, and the temperatures were well into the mid 20's which was stunning.
This is not known as the adrenalin capital for nothing, there is simply everything you could want to do here on offer - at a price of course, but nonetheless available. There are bungy's galore, river rafting, river boarding (minus the raft!!) jet boating, paragliding, skydiving, and my favourite to date - Canyon swinging. These crazy dudes had found a canyon and set up some zip wires so that you freefall off this ledge down the cliff face for about 60m, and then the ropes kick in and you swing a 200m arc across the floor of the canyon. Now this seems bad enough, but then the kiwi sense of humour kicks in. You can pick about 10 + different ways to fall, whether its upside down, backwards off a chair, after being electrocuted - you get my
drift?? And the guys who run it also play off your fear, and you can tell they get a little bored sometimes! I went as a spectator (there is no way i'd do it!) and the funniest thing was one woman from Taiwan thought she'd boooked canyoning (very very different) then went very green when she realised what she had let herself in for! So you can imagine why people come to this place.
This vibe is basically through the whole town, and with a huge amount of travellers passing though every day, it is non-stop. The drinking establishments are obviously geared up for the clientelle, and the town is basically 24 hours. I literally lost 9 days here very happily, and still wonder how it went by so fast! Not wanting to be an adrenalin junkie this visit, my stay was very low-key, and consisted of sunbathing, the odd drink (??!) and many games of football in the park. This however was probably the most dangerous sport i could have picked as i did manage to trip over my own big toe and leave it swollen and purple for 5 days! its still not right now and sure
it shouldn't have the lump it does!
Fergburger - Amazing. This is a world famous burger joint which i first heard about in Toronto, massive gormet burgers, with just a massive queue whether its 9am or 5am! The public park also has a frisbee golf course!! However, the one day we went to play the rain didn't let up! this was the only thing, when the sun wasn't shining, it was an english winters day.
I have fallen in love with Queenstown, as i felt I would, and did have every intention of staying put, however it just wasn't right this time, and with CV's printed off in hand, I felt I couldn't stay here just yet. Therefore i have headed back up North for more of a beach summer before inevitably returning here for the snow and much boarding - and i look forward to it. Now i just have to fly back out of this crazy place - wish me luck!!!
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