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Published: March 18th 2008
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As soon as we left Omarama, we seemed to enter Wild West country; dry mountains of reds and burnt browns - all that was missing was a tumbleweed or two. You get to take in sooooooo much scenery simply driving through New Zealand, it's amazing. Things got a lot greener as we approached wonderful lovely beautiful Queenstown. I love this town! It looks like the most perfect little alpine resort that you could imagine; minus the snow(at this time of year). The town curves around one side of Lake Wakatipu, and is completely surrounded by stunning mountains, most of which make up the Remarkables range. There's a beautiful little harbour, and all the streets are winding and mostly cobble locked. The town centre is tiny, and really just comprises of a few central streets. Ahhh, it's just all so pretty, and there's oodles of gorgeous restaurants and cafes (carrot cake a go-go!). It's really touristy, but it's all done so well, none of it seems tacky - even the Starbucks is beauitiful! We're staying in Bumbles backpackers, which is about a three minute walk outside the town centre. We spent our first afternoon having a wander around town, and indulged in
some amazing coffee and cake in Vudu cafe.
We were up and at 'em George Mc Fadden at 7 bells the next morning to make the long drive down to Milford Sounds, an area of Fjordland around four or five hours south of Queenstown. We had originally planned on booking a tour, but then realised how much money we could save my driving ourselves down, so we bundled into the car (Spud slept until midday!) and hit the road. Milford Sounds apparently gets about 6 metres of rain a year, which is a lot even by Irish standards. As luck would have it the heavens decided to pour about half of the annual amount down on us on the one day we choose to see the place. The rain was torrential (I'm talking end of the world proportions here) after we were on the road for just an hour or so; so much so that we could barely see the scenery that we were driving through. We got down to the Sound with plenty of time to spare (we had a cruise booked for 1.15pm), so we spent an hour sitting in the tragic little coffee shop watching streams of
people walking in and out, looking like they had just been through the turbo cycle of a washing machine. With no sign of the rain letting up we got a bus to the boat (obviously ours was the smallest one in the harbour!), and hopped on board, trying to ignore the fact that we weren't really going to be able to see anything. Thankfully we bought rather fetching plastic ponchos in the coffee shop, which did actually make a bit of a difference. We were pretty much confined to the covered inside area of the boat, although me and Sib did make a very valiant journey to the upper (open) deck to take some photos. The wind and the rain was so strong, and I was laughing so hard that I nearly didn't make it up the stairs. Some woman asked me if I had been drinking - surely that's some sort of a racial slur???!! We managed to get some snaps, and although our vision was severely impaired by the weather, the entire area looked incredibly mystical with everywhere covered in a misty dense fog. There were waterfallls gushing down the huge fjords, and I got absolutely soaked trying
to take a photo of the biggest one. As if on cue, just five minutes before the boat pulled back into the harbour, the clouds parted and the sun came out. Typical! We had fantastic views on the drive back, and stopped several times to take yet more photos of the lakes and mountains. We pulled over in a redneck outpost by the name of Te Anua for our dinner, and to be honest, I think we were lucky to escape with our lives. Seriously scary locals. Oh, and there was a bit of an incident with my credit card being swallowed by a petrol machine, but it all worked out alright in the end!
Wednesday was our last full day in Queenstown (I don't wanna leave!), and we took the gondala (which is a cable car, as it turns out, not a skinny boat) up the mountain, where there's a lovely complex with stunning views. You take a chairlift up a little further where's there's a luge track (a bit like go carts) - Sib was a bit of a daredevil, but me and Claud were a tad more Driving Miss Daisy! That night we had arranged to meet
up with our friends Barry, Claire and Matt, who were in town for the night, but before that we had an experience that will remain with me for some time. It goes by the name of Fergburger, and it is, by all accounts (and duly so), a Queenstown institution. Fergburger is not just a burger joint (which opens from 8am til 5am, for future reference), it's a place where dreams are made. Wonderful dreams. The burgers themselves are about the size of a dinner plate, and are stacked full with amazing, beautiful goodness. I had some sort of Bombay Chicken masterpiece, and the girls had beefy goodness, and we all left the establishment enlightened, enriched, and wonderfully wonderfully happy. God bless you Fergburger.
We had a great night out with the lads; Queenstown is a real party town due to the constant stream of backpackers passing through, and it's also activity central (sky diving, bungees and all that jazz) so everyone is on such a high, there's a great atmosphere everywhere. It has a couple of really cool bars too, and thanks to those bars it was with slightly sore heads that we checked out of hostel (late, and in
a hurry) the next morning. I don't want to say goodbye, so instead I'll say Queenstown I will be back!
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Poncho
Hey Sis,, hope its only the wind under that poncho, very fetching !!! ... x