The past few days involved many quick overnights and a lot of driving so we made the decision to plant ourselves in Queenstown for four days. This was an exciting treat that we looked forward to especially since we got an Airbnb. It was very relaxing to have a break from driving.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post (if you are reading these chronologically which you really should be) we were flying by the seat of our pants for the latter half of the journey. Without a specific agenda we really didn’t know where the day would take us. It’s very liberating and allows for a slower pace than if we were on a normal trip. Each day starts off with a “hmmm..what do we feel like doing today?” And some days maybe we are up for lots of exciting activities and other days we just need to chill. Then of course there are some days with conflicting ideas but we seem to work that out. It wouldn’t be sustainable to have each day laid out in detail and it’s more fun to see how each one unfolds. Queenstown, the capital city of adventure, unfolded quite nicely!
If you are looking for some good times, Queenstown is a fantastic place to go. The setting is gorgeous. We had an amazing view of Lake Wakatipu (see below) and a short drive into town from our house. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to have more space (although we always seem to be in one pack anyways) and to take showers without jandals.
Our first big adventure was a helicopter ride which Paula describes in a separate post. I will add that landing on a glacier was as thrilling as it sounds. This experience also resulted in a big change in our itinerary too. We decided that after taking a helicopter to Milford Sound that we would skip the drive. Someday I would love to do the trek out to Fjordland but for now we freed up 3 days for something else…TBD.
Queenstown is a great city for strolling, shopping, sporting, and eating. We had a healthy mixture of all the above. We did some luging down a mountain, jetboating, and a fair amount of lounging too.
The most important thing is that the kids discovered their favorite ice cream shop in NZ – Patagonia. They now consider themselves experts on NZ ice cream shops.
Gondola to the top of the mountain and Luge down
Check out Luke and Ben’s post on jetboating.
And Ian says to tell your kids that the mountain life was HIS favorite thing 🙂
So cool that you’re experiencing all these wonderful things that we have loved as well.