And now to something completely different! - Queenstown

29/10 - 03/11

After 3 weeks in Southeast Asia we were already looking forward to a change of scenery. However, the journey to New Zealand is quite tiring even from Asia. 3 flights - the longest one being 11.5 hours - and a total travel time of 22.5 hours prove that New Zealand is in the middle of nowhere. I wonder where New Zealanders go on vacation? A weekend city trip to another country is only possible to Australia and the South Pacific. Everything else is simply connected to a very long flight.

In New Zealand, we had a domestic flight from Auckland to the South Island to Queenstown, where our trip was supposed to begin. The approach to Queenstown was already much more impressive than any previous one: the whole time you have snow-covered mountains, green hills, and steel-blue lakes in front of the window and you land right in the middle of it all.





Queenstown itself is a nice little town that offers mainly landscapes and action activities. You can reach everything easily on foot and even though there are a lot of tourists, the town still maintains an attractive idyll. However, we still need to get used to the price level after Asia (in the first week in New Zealand we spent almost as much as in the previous 3 weeks)! But after such a long journey, we won't worry about money for now...;)

Also, it's a bit difficult for us to choose the right clothing. As long as the sun is shining, even with displayed 21 degrees, you feel like walking around in swim trunks. As soon as a cloud appears, it immediately cools down and you feel like unpacking your ski underwear.   

After 12 hours of sleep, our first real day began with a little delay. Out of the countless action offers - I won't even start listing them - we decided to go for a round of jet boating. You shoot with about 90 km/h over a river that is sometimes only ankle-deep through a canyon and occasionally make a few 360-degree spins. But we would have preferred to take the wheel ourselves.

However, we were too stingy for the overpriced photo and video recordings. An Indian family was kind enough to offer to send us the material by email, so we can present the cool photo here.



The Indian father of the family especially made us laugh with a photo of his parachute jump. A parachuting Indian, whose gray full beard is spread all over his face and who grins from one ear to the other...:)

Apart from the jet boat, we spent a morning indulging in the mountain bike park. The cable car takes you and your bike up the mountain and then you have the choice of 30 different trails of all difficulty levels to ride back down. Each descent takes between 10 and 20 minutes. In between, you also have some time to enjoy the weather and the view. After 7 descents (Emi took it a bit more leisurely and only went up and down 4 times), it was enough, our whole bodies were in pain. I always thought that going uphill was the tiring part...





For me, it is clear, especially after this experience: mountain biking is the ideal summer counterpart to skiing in winter! After overcoming the initial fearfulness, Emi also enjoyed it - but for her, it is only an option if there is a cable car going up, going uphill is not an option! :)

After this exhausting bike day, it is of course a particularly wise decision to go on a 3-day hike...not! With muscle aches all over our bodies, we set off on the Routeburn Track.



The hike itself is not very challenging, you cover 32 km with about 600 meters of altitude in 3 days. If you're determined, you could probably do the whole program in one day, at least that's the impression a few trail runners we met on the way gave us. The exhausting part of the 3- to 4-hour daily stages is more the packed backpack. You stay overnight in huts that only provide the bare essentials: a mattress in a dormitory, a few gas stoves, and a toilet. Everything else you have to bring yourself. Of course, this affects the weight of the backpack - we each had between 8-10 kg of ballast on our shoulders.

The effort is rewarded, however, with impressive landscapes. 

Admittedly, as Austrians, we are quite used to this kind of landscape, but New Zealand is still more untouched. What is also impressive is the diversity of the landscape. At first, you walk through dense (rain)forest, and in the next moment, you find yourself in front of a crystal-clear mountain lake with snow-covered mountains in the background. You go from a 'Jurassic Park' to a 'Lord of the Rings' setting. Also, at the moment, it is waterfalls season, as the snow on the mountaintops melts and finds its way into the valley, which means you pass countless waterfalls along the way.

On the last day of our hike, unfortunately, it started raining and it became noticeably cooler. When we arrived at the destination, we changed into dry clothes and waited to be picked up for a side trip to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is actually a fjord - and the most famous and popular one in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and after 3 days of landscapes, our enthusiasm for more landscapes was limited. All we could do was imagine what it must look like here in good weather...





After a tiring 5-hour bus ride back to Queenstown, we finally found ourselves under the long-awaited hot shower and in a cozy, warm, and soft bed.

Conclusion:

Although we are on the other side of the world, apart from jet lag, we don't have the feeling that we're actually there. Everything seems very familiar. The landscape is impressive, although for residents of an Alpine country, it's nothing completely new. There are countless pubs/bars where you can eat excellently (especially burgers and beer/IPA). New Zealand feels like a mix of Austria (landscape) and England (culture) to us. 

Queenstown itself is a small and quite touristy town on the South Island. On the internet, you can also find the - in our opinion - very fitting description 'Capital of Adrenalin'. There is practically no activity that you can't do here. So if you're looking for action and have plenty of money, Queenstown is the perfect place for you. You can easily spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars here.

Hasta pronto!

E&L

>> Next stop: Wanaka <<