Queenstown

Even before our stay, Lisa had raved about Queenstown, as she had already visited and fallen in love with the town during her previous trip to New Zealand. Queenstown is a truly beautiful city and is situated right on a lake. Before we arrived in Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand, we visited one of the famous bungee jumping bridges. However, we both had too much respect for it and just watched the spectacle. Besides bungee jumping, skydiving, mountain biking, speedboating, etc., there is really something for every adrenaline junkie here, provided they have the necessary cash.

Since our gold find unfortunately didn't quite cover the cost of a luxury accommodation =), we returned to one of the surrounding campsites after an extensive stroll through the city, which admittedly is not easy in and around Queenstown. We chose the Moke Lake DOC campsite, which is rather unspectacular in terms of facilities but is beautifully located.

The next day, we drove from Queenstown towards Glenorchy. A route that we can highly recommend to every New Zealand traveler, as it has been rated one of the top 10 scenic routes in the world by Lonely Planet. Spectacular views of Lake Wakatipu, snow-covered mountains and the breathtaking panorama invite you to take several photo stops along the way.

Glenorchy itself is also very beautiful and is literally the gateway to Paradise. However, we cannot really recommend the road to Paradise, as it was by far the worst gravel road we have driven on in New Zealand. The campsite in Glenorchy is also recommended as it is well equipped and not overpriced. We used the kitchen to treat ourselves to pancakes for the first time on our trip, which turned out to be very successful, but according to Lisa, they are still not as good as the pancakes from Schramberg ;-) In Glenorchy, we also had the feeling that we missed something, as we unfortunately had to choose a hike to Bob's Peak in Queenstown instead of the hike to Mount Alfred with its great views due to lack of time. If we ever visit New Zealand again, we will definitely bring more time here ;-)

The hike to Bob's Peak, after we returned to Queenstown, was equally spectacular and an absolute highlight. We had decided to save the completely overpriced 33 NZD per person for the gondola and instead hike the Tiki Trail (about 1 hour of steep ascent over 450 meters of elevation). We were greeted by a breathtaking panorama...

The effort was rewarded (at least for Tobi) with one of the famous Ferg Burgers. We had been told that this is a must for every visit to Queenstown, and the long queues naturally raised our expectations even more. Conclusion: The burger fully lives up to its reputation and is definitely recommended =D