Musings of an Idiot

Queenstown Day - 1

I have just come back from a short trip to the South Island and I just realized that all the experiences are too long to write in one big blog entry. So I have decided to divide it into each day spent, so I can also put up as many pics as possible for each of the days.

The whole point of the trip was to attend Rachel's wedding in Alexandra on saturday but as it happens the flights are costlier over the weekend and so Lance and me decided to fly out earlier to Queenstown - spend a couple of days there before going to Alexandra. We took the earliest flight out of Auckland on Thursday morning and it is always hard waking up in the early hours of the morning to catch a flight - the body doesn't like it that much.

Well the good thing was that the flight was great - perfect weather conditions and a real smooth flight. The only thing that was annoying was a girl sitting a row behind us who had the most annoying shrieky voice that one can ever hear. She just didn't stop talking through the journey and it took a lot of effort to block her voice out. Lance started solving a newspaper puzzle after the stopover at Christchurch and full credit to him that he managed to finish it before the flight landed in Queenstown.



Much has been made about the 'landing' in Queenstown - it is supposed to be really scary and turbulent as the airport is nestled in the hills and one tends to catch a lot of wind coming from the mountains but luckily for me - the landing was perfect and there was no turbulence whatsoever. Tania - Lance's sister picked us up from the airport and both her and Andrew (her husband) were kind enough to put us up at their place.

Since it was a beautiful day we didn't waste any time and hit the road straight away. Queenstown is stunning and everywhere you turn all you can see is natural beauty. It is called the adventure capital of the world for a good reason and there are so many things to do here - especially if you have some money to spend. And even if you don't have any money there are still heaps of things to do.





At one point Lance and me decided that maybe we should walk all the way to the top of Bob's peak but after a short distance we felt that it probably wasn't such a good idea and so we took the gondola to the top. On the way up we saw someone take a bungy jump and just judging by the height we were at - I would presume that it must be a terrifying jump.



The views from the top of the observation deck are stunning. You get a great view of Queenstown and it's surrounding areas. And on a stunning day like this the beauty is magnified.




After spending a good chunk of time taking in the views, the next stop was a few rounds of Luge . We had to take a lift to the starting point and as we put on our helmets I noticed a booth which said that you could buy photos of the Luge drive. I presumed that it was a pre-paid service and asked the attendants if I could pay for the photos now and it cracked them up and Lance joined in the fun and they were laughing there heads off at me because they thought I wanted to buy pics of someone else. Well the misunderstanding was cleared up once they stopped laughing and they explained that we pick our photographs after the ride and then pay for them. I wasn't embarrassed, I was pleasantly surprised that people can find so much amusement from presumptions about other people. :-)



Oh about the Luge - it is a gravity ride on a 3 wheel cart. The unique braking and steering system provides the rider full control and allows them to travel as fast or slow as they wish. It is so much fun - you get used to it on the first round and by the third round it is exhilarating when you can go through tough bends at a good speed. Lance was cheeky and he overtook me on the last go and beat me by whiskers - well actually a little bit more than that.


After the luge- we carried onto the top of Bob's peak and the views from there are even more stunning and it is also the point where the parasailers take off. It was a fascinating process to watch and the number of people who were doing it grew exponentially after we got there.












After spending half an hour at the top, we walked back and the rest of the day we explored the town. It is a small place but at the same time there are so many nooks and crannies that you do end up in some interesting shops. Also the biggest thing about Queenstown is that it has a massive tourist population and that gives the town a completely different vibe. There is manic energy and excitement in the air. After walking about for what seemed ages - we went back to Tania's place and I had a nap - which was so refreshing, considering that I had been up since 4.30AM in the morning.


The evening was again beautiful. I was taking photographs from the room I was in and I chanced upon a couple who were throwing stones into the lake and getting it to skip the maximum number of times that they could. They were having so much fun that I couldn't resist but take a few photographs and I got one that was eye catching because of various reasons. I rushed down the stairs and showed the pic to Tania, Andrew and Lance - all of them agreed that the pic was definitely something special. Lance suggested that I should talk to them and share the pic with them incase they wanted it. I thought that it was a weird suggestion as it meant walking up to complete strangers and telling them that I had taken a photograph of them without their knowledge but if they wanted it then they could have a copy of it. But I thought why not and so just walked up to them, introduced myself and showed them the pic. They loved the pic, so I gave them my card so that they could email me for the pic. It was pretty nerve wracking for sure but I felt good by the time I came back to the house.

Labels: Adventure, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

posted by Amit @ 12:49 PM