Queenstown, New Zealand

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We had planned to fly from Hobart to Queenstown all in one day via Melbourne and Christchurch.  But when Air New Zealand changed the time of the Melbourne-Christchurch bit, we were not able to catch the final leg down to Queenstown. We were able to change our car reservation so we decided to spend the night in Christchurch and drive down to Queenstown the next day.  

At the airport I'm not sure if we were about to be deported or awarded a hefty fine, but we did have some anxious moments after the discovery of some lentils and barley in our luggage.  We had declared all sorts and to be honest I'd forgotten about the lentils.  We'd already had our hiking shoes valet cleaned by the nice Primary Industries officer but the final x-ray weaseled out the illicit lentils.  After this we were home free, tired from a busy week in Hobart and a very early start, happy to get to our motel.  We had arrived at the end of the first day of New Zealand being open to more general tourists but things were still quiet.  First impressions included $2.80/l fuel prices!  And we planned to do a lot of driving...

Promotion of the Antarctic Centre begins at Christchurch airport

I don't include enough record of the day to day necessities of life. Countdown to what?

Day 1 covid test done the following morning, we set off via a return to the airport to pick up an errant kids backpack that was left in the hire car shuttle.  Another stop to do groceries and a visit to the bakery in Fairlie before heading east towards the hills.  The scenery was spectacular and we stopped for a walk at the Lake Pukaki kettle hole.  This was an hour very well spent but it did mean driving into Queenstown in the dark and missing out on the views.  Can't have it all.

Lake Pukaki

We woke up to a great view over the lake on Wednesday.  Queenstown is the so-called adventure capital of New Zealand, a longstanding tourist destination replete with every adrenaline sport you can name, as well as all the cool kids brand name shops, and the usual variety of upscale cafes, ice cream stores, and restaurants.  By now both Crystal and Toby were feeling a little jaded from bugs picked up along the way.  I headed up into the forest for a run/walk and took Felicity to the grocery store before the big event of the day: jet boating.  This was something I remember from my last visit here 25 years ago and thought it would be good family fun.  We had a beautiful evening for it and I think everyone had a good time despite some aches and pains from the high speed 360 turns.  

The view from our living room in Queenstown

The view from the trail above our living room in Queenstown

Neat little two person shark jet boats down at the town pier

Mini jet boat

Medium-mini jet boat

On a bigger jet boat heading up to the Shotover river

A calm evening returning to Queenstown at the end of the jet boat ride

Thursday we took a walk up Queenstown Hill to see the views and the Basket of Dreams then had a rest and headed into town for ice cream at Mrs Ferg's and a wander around the gardens on the peninsula in town. We agreed that a week or two would have been nice in Queenstown but were grateful for the good weather that we had had for our time here.  Tomorrow we would start the long drive towards Nelson and an overnight stop in Harihari...

Hiking up Queenstown Hill, club in hand to ward off the... birds?

Basket of dreams sculpture on Queenstown Hill

Looking out over Lake Wakatipu

No discount for namesakes

Playground down by the lakefront

Cool slide, nice view

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