Queenstown

Saturday 2 February 2008

After we finally found our hotel (the woman who answered the phone when we rang for directions has clearly never had to give directions before!) and checked in, we caught the bus back in to the township and had a wander around. The bus service here is fantastic. We could pick up a bus right outside the foyer entry at our hotel, and for $4.50 each could get a return ticket for the day into the town. If you wanted unlimited trips, including in to Arrowtown it was $13, but for our purposes the return ticket was sufficient. It stopped at most of the resorts and hotels on the way into town, and stopped at a central point. They ran every half an hour during the day up until fairly late in the evening. All the drivers were friendly, and didn’t mind the dumb questions tourists asked them.

Anyway, a quick wander around the town, and down to the waterfront ensued. More “oh my god” scenery.

By this time, we needed suitable refreshments, and walked back to an Irish bar, with the best views of any bar in town. A few bevvies there sitting in the sun refreshed us suitably. We also found out that they were replaying the England v Wales match the following afternoon. Well, we knew what we’d be doing tomorrow afternoon!

Dinner that evening was at a nice little, indoor, restaurant, just behind where the TSS Ernslaw docks. After a nice meal, it was back to the hotel for some zzzzz’s.

Sunday 3 February 2008

Breakfast this morning was at a place recommended by the Lonely Planet folks. And it was well recommended – if you are in Queenstown, you should have breakfast at Vudu. Breakfasts were hearty but not huge, so they didn’t leave you wanting to have a Bex and a nice lie down afterwards, but you were sufficiently fortified for the day ahead.

Thus fortified, we walked up to a bird sanctuary – the Kiwi Birdlife Park - which is next to the lower terminal for the gondola. The sanctuary is well worth the $30 per head entry fee. We were a little worried that it might be a bit lame after the first enclosure didn’t reveal it’s tuatara to us, but the next display – Kiwi House No. 1 certainly made up for it. They’re speedy birds! Kathy can understand why loose dogs love them so much – they’d be fun to chase. It was fantastic to sit there in the gloom and finally see them sniffing around, and running about – and they do run! The rest of the sanctuary was great after that.

We finally saw tuatara, but baby ones. We also saw kea, shovellers, blue ducks with ducklings, black stilts, other duck species, parrots, and 2 of the saddest New Zealand Pigeon Kathy thinks she’s seen in a long time. They didn’t really have a big enough enclosure (Matt: boy those birds are big – every time I see them I wonder what they taste like on the BBQ). Apart from that, it was great. We spent a lot longer there than we anticipated, but enjoyed it.

After the birds, we went up the gondola. It was spectacular! The view as you go up and down is simply jaw dropping:


And yes, Matt did stand up and take that photo! And now he knows why you don’t stand up in the gondola cars!

The view from the top is absolutely stunning:

It was so beautiful – just awesome, in the truer sense of the word.

After heading back down, we decided some fortification was in order, and so headed off. We went to the old court house building for a late lunch – the place was appropriately named ‘Guilty’ for fantastic tapas. We then went across the road to the Speights ale house. This place didn’t really grab us. It was trying to be a really swish brewery pub (if anyone reading this has been to the Malthouse, or Macs Brewery Bar in Wellington, it wanted to be like that, or any of the Monteiths tap rooms), but failed. It looked as though it was doing it on the cheap, and it showed. Just as well we weren’t hanging around, as we had rugby to watch! So, it was back down to the Irish pub for the biggest bollocking English rugby has had for a while! Go you good things! The fantastic result for the Welsh aside, it did show us the difference between Southern and Northern Hemisphere rugby watchers. The crowd was predominantly from the UK and Ireland, and very well mannered and well behaved. We were quite rowdy in comparison. We might have to tone our enthusiasm down a little in UK pubs, if the behaviour of the backpackers was anything to go by. (Matt: remember the pomms in Sydney for World Cup in 2003? I think those young boys in Queenstown were an exception) After more food at the Dux de Lux Queenstown (and more beers…), it was again back to the hotel for restorative sleep.

Monday 5 February 2008

Today, after a late-ish breakfast at a nice French style café, we went for a walk in the Queenstown Gardens. The Lonely Planet describes it as “lush and peaceful”, and so it is, but it is also full of lovely walks. The best takes you right around the peninsular that the gardens are on, and then back up into the formal gardens. On the day we did it, that was a good thing as it took us out of a sharp, cold, wind. It was still beautifully fine, though. Apart from the various walks, it looked as though it was also part of a Frisbee golf course, and it also appeared popular with the lunchtime runners from corporate Queenstown (yes, we did have a later start).

When we finally wandered back in to town, we bought tickets for the TSS Ernslaw, one of the things on Kathy’s “must do” list. A light fortifying lunch, and it was time to catch the boat!

The TSS Ernslaw (TSS stands for Twin Screw Steamship) has been plying the waters of Lake Wakatipu since 1912, and she runs for 11 months of the year (she’s out of commission for 1 month for repairs and maintenance). In the past she used to carry passengers, freight and livestock up and down the lake, but now she just carries passengers from Queenstown to Walter Peak Station and back again. (see http://www.realjourneys.co.nz/ for more info). The round trip takes about 1 ½ hours, and we really, really recommend it. While the wind was too cold for us to sit outside in comfort, the trip sitting inside was really toasty. It comes from the Ernslaw being a coal powered steamship! They’ve opened her up in the middle of the top deck, so you can stand and look down at the firemen and engineer doing their job, or you can actually go into the engine room and watch them at work from the walkways over the furnace and pistons. It was very, very cool. Well, hot actually, but fantastic nonetheless (that’s becoming a really worn out word, isn’t it?). The trip there and back was just stunning. We didn’t opt to do the farm excursion options, but plenty of others did, so there were less on the trip back then on the way over. If anyone is familiar with the Muttonbirds and their song “Ngaire”, they will appreciate it when we say “I’ve seen a lot of new shoes today”. One of the passengers was from New Jersey, and boy, was her accent a stereotype! What is it with American’s and gum?!? I know many cultures chew the stuff now, but please! Ah well, each to their own.

Dinner that night was at a nice Thai place, after wine at a nice winebar away from the waterfront. Matt paid for having his tom yum hot the next day, though!

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Today, we decided to take things easy. A late breakfast (much heavier than the past couple, but Kathy had pancakes – it was Shrove Tuesday after all!), a gentle wander, then we sat outside our favourite Irish pub. Kathy wrote up text to copy in to this blog, and we both sat and read our books. We set up a gentle conversation with a busker who was working on the waterfront opposite us – we both had an aversion to the gulls being fed by others! Naturally, we did have to give him a ‘donation’…

Dinner that night was at a fantastic waterfront restaurant. Lots of fresh seafood – including whitebait and Nelson oysters…

It did our souls good to have a day not doing much. Although it might sound from what we’ve written above that we’ve spent most of our time in Queenstown boozing (and we have spent some time it’s true), for us a holiday is also about taking time out and not doing much. Up until today we hadn’t had that opportunity. We have not done any of the adventure sport activities available to us in Queenstown – that’s not our style. We’ve enjoyed a lot of good Otago pinot noir (and to our fellow wine wankers – yes, we have a fave and yes, we have the details of the Australian distributor!), and we’ve sampled some of the gentler pleasures that Queenstown offers. We’ve looked at the stars at night. We’ve sat and watched the sun setting over the Remarkables – both from the waterfront in town and from our hotel. We’ve sampled the pleasures in various licensed establishments. We’ve sat and looked at the scenery. We’re not as poor as we perhaps could be. But this is a town we should, and will, return to. (Matt: 4 nights, no hangovers, the Queenstown tourist bureau will be upset!)

Other impressions of Queenstown – most of the employees in the hospitality industry are not Kiwis. Predominantly Poms, but also Americans and Western Europeans. To hear the New Zealand accent really jarred. Queenstown is really a place which will take a huge chunk of your cash. A really huge chunk. But it’s also a place where you can have a heck of a lot of fun.