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Published: November 25th 2014
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Queenstown, with 20.000 inhabitants is a major tourist destination in New Zealand. The beautiful scenery surrounding the city and the wide range of activities are what attracts more than 2 million visitors every year. Queenstown is more expensive than most other parts of New Zealand, but I didn’t find is as expensive as some people say. I liked the place and I thought maybe I should have stayed less time at the hotel-job and look for a job in Queenstown. On the other hand, maybe I wouldn't have been able to save the same amount of money. Once I arrived in Queenstown aboard Jetstar, I took a bus from the airport to the city centre. There I had to change buses and continue to Fernhill, where I was staying. I stayed with my French mate Romain, who I met in Rotorua more than half a year before. He was in Australia and came back to New Zealand about a month and a half before and is working in Queenstown now. Fernhill is not too far out of the city centre, but you need to climb to get there. The road towards Fernhill mostly ascends and it takes around 25-30 minutes to
walk from town and we had to do that three times. The other two times we got a ride with my former colleagues who are working in Queenstown now.
I had a good first impression of Queenstown. The mountains still had some snow on the top, even though it was mid-spring. The landscape is stunning and sometimes it literally made me say “wow”! On the first day we went for a stroll around town and I tried the popular “Ferg Burger”, where they sell some huge burgers and there is always a long line of people waiting to be attended. I had a “wild Fiordland deer” burger and I think that was the first time I ever ate deer meat. The burger was good, but it wasn’t “amazing” and I believe the place is a bit over-hyped. I wouldn’t tell other people that they “have” to try it when they go to Queenstown.
Activities you can do in Queenstown and surroundings include skydiving, paragliding, bungy-jumping, jet boating, rafting etc. All of which cost quite a lot of money so I wasn’t interested. Romain and I went up a hill in the gondola (cable car) and then
we came down on a luge. It’s like a small cart with a handle which you have to pull towards you to brake and push forward to let it roll down. I had a package with four rides and I did both tracks twice. I thoroughly enjoyed the
luge rides. It’s simple but awesome! We had lunch near the gondola station, from where you have excellent views over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. Then we went down and were picked up by Faye, my former-colleague from Malaysia. She had a car from her friend so she was able to show us around a little bit. Very nice of her, sweet as always! She took us to Arrowtown, a tiny, charming town outside Queenstown. We visited a small site that used to be a Chinese settlement, built by Chinese immigrants who came in the late 1800’s to work on goldfields in the area.
In Queenstown I also met with Ryan, another former-colleague from the UK. I met him and Faye for lunch one day, then we went for a walk around the beautiful
Queenstown Gardens and we had some drinks in the city centre. That same evening I went back to
town with Romain’s roommate and Romain came along after work,
where we played some pool and drunk some beers.
From Queenstown I went to
Te Anau for two nights. The town has a bit over 2.000 people and lies at the shores of Lake Te Anau. Here I stayed with another former
colleague, Mic from China. Te Anau itself doesn’t have much to offer, it’s a good place to go for some walks and to just relax! From Te Anau I went to
Milford Sound (Piopiotahi), located in Fiordland National Park. The whole south-western coast of New Zealand consists of many fjords and Milford is by
far the most visited one because it’s accessible by road. Once there, you cruise on a boat through the fjord for about 1,5 hours. The landscape is
absolutely stunning...I was impressed! It rains a lot in the fjords and there were several waterfalls to be seen, coming down off the steep cliffs. I chose the perfect day to go; it was sunny! Fjords are formed by old glaciers which cut through the landscape. After the glacier melted, it left the narrow landscape with high, steep cliffs behind like you see today.
I left Queenstown with the bus towards Christchurch and it was a loooong drive. We made a lunch-stop at Lake Tekapo, with stunning views towards the mountains
(Southern Alps). In Christchurch I stayed just one night and then took the bus to
Akaroa, located on the Banks Peninsula. Akaroa was settled along the Akaroa
Harbour by the French in 1840 and it retained its French flavour. The name of many streets start with “Rue”, like “Rue Jolie” and the name of many
businesses are also in French. Akaroa has about 800 people and is a popular destination in the summer. A lot of people from Christchurch go to Akaroa or to other parts of the peninsula for a weekend. Many have a second, holiday home there. Like Te Anau, in Akaroa there isn’t too much to see and do either. But it’s a lovely, little town. I met here with my former colleague, Louis from France. He’s doing WWOOFING (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), which means working in and around a farm for about 4 hours a day and getting free accommodation and food in return. He was enjoying it and learning a lot of new
things! By coincidence I bumped into two other former colleagues here, Sam and Kimberly from the UK. It’s a small world! I didn’t do much in Akaroa but it was good to just chill and relax, sleep a bit longer (after having to wake up early almost every day before getting here), go for a little walk around town and have some drinks with my former colleagues. There were cruise-ships in town each of the days that I was there. Louis had one day off and we went for a hike up Stony Bay Peak at 806m. We had out bottles of water, sandwiches and fruits to have lunch on the way. We took
our time, no rush. It took us about 2,5 hours to reach the summit where we just hung around for some time before going back down.
It was really nice to meet so many former-colleagues again and spent some time with them. More from New Zealand in the next blog, which will be the last blog from New Zealand!
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
The colleagues" king!
I think you had the perfect job--now you have colleagues for meet-ups everywhere--how fun. Your photos are great as usual, and I'd really like to try that luge ride--what fun!