Sometimes, while traveling, you’ll be hit with the thought, “Wow, I’d love to live here.” I’ve experienced it maybe three times in my life, and one of those times was when I visited the gorgeous Queenstown in New Zealand. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy having the stunning snow-capped Remarkables mountain range and Lake Wakatipu in their backyard?
Heartland Hotel
We booked a room at Heartland Hotel which is located in central Queenstown, a short walk from town.
The room is nice with a breathtaking view. However it sits on top of a steep hill and if you’re anything like me (super not fit), you’ll find yourself out of breath by the time you reach the top. So if that’s an issue, I suggest looking for a hotel closer to town.
However, this hotel was considered central enough for the purposes of the tours we booked for Milford Sound and Lake Glenorchy.
Skyline Gondola & Luge
The Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world, but since my friends and I are not adventure-seekers, the most adventurous thing we could bring ourselves to do was ride the luge. You can book tickets for the skyline gondola and luge through Viator.
The Skyline Gondola followed by five downhill luge rides offer visitors to Queenstown the ultimate combo. You’ll appreciate the rugged alpine scenery that each experience has to offer.
Make your way to the Skyline base, about a 10-minute walk from downtown Queenstown. You’re treated to panoramic mountain vistas from the enclosed gondola, which carries you up 1,476 feet (450 meters) — considered to be the Southern Hemisphere’s steepest cable car ride.
At the top of Bob’s Peak, board a two-seater chairlift that takes you high above the Skyline building. Then choose from two distinct Skyline Luge Queenstown options: the scenic track or the advanced track, or alternate between both.
Part go-kart and part toboggan, the three-wheeled luge cart is steered on a leisurely ride around gentle bends on the scenic track, while the advanced track boasts a steeper gradient, higher speeds, banking corners, tunnels and more. Both provide the utmost safety features and allow you complete control.
Cruising downhill, you’ll take another chairlift to the start zone to complete all five rides before returning to Queenstown by Skyline Gondola.
– Viator Description
We actually have the exact same thing in Sentosa island in Singapore, but the big difference is the view – the one in Queenstown is so unreal, a lot of people thought the background of my picture that you see in my pictures is photoshopped. It is not.
Riding the luge is fun and exhilarating, and it’s a good thing that you can have five rides because once is not enough.
After each luge ride downhill, you need to ride the chairlift that brings you up to the top again, and this is the part that I didn’t enjoy because I’m scared of heights. However I just had to swallow my fear and force on a big smile whenever I was in front of the camera until I eventually got this shot that looked like I wasn’t scared.
Even if you’re not into adventures, it is worth riding the gondola up the peak because of the fantastic view. I highly recommend it.
Spring Flowers
We visited Queenstown in September so it was Spring, just in time to see beautiful bunches of flowers everywhere. We didn’t even need to seek them out, they were on the streets on the way from our hotel to the town, and they were in the park in town, too.
The town, by the way, has a lot of restaurants and shops with interesting items for sale like sheepskin rugs, Puka shell jewelry, and souvenirs. They even have a Pandora shop where I bought my first charm for the bracelet that I got as a birthday gift.
Food
The most popular restaurant in Queenstown is a place called Fergburger. They serve gigantic, delicious burgers that are so good, there’s always a huge queue for it. We actually ate it twice in the three days that we were there.
The first time we had it, it was for lunch. We somehow managed to find an outdoor table in the packed restaurant, and I had the Ferg Deluxe (which comes with bacon) with a glass of mulled wine, which I was excited to try because I’ve never had a hot wine before. Turns out it comes with cinnamon, which I don’t like, so note to self: do not order that again in the future.
The second time we had it was for dinner on our last night in Queenstown. We ordered our burgers for takeaway this time, and had a picnic on the park bench under the Spring blossoms.
Another restaurant we went to was also a popular one called Joe’s Garage which is a cool cafe for brunch.
We also found a dessert place one time, an ice cream place that served the New Zealand flavour called hokey pokey, which is plain vanilla with lumps of honeycomb toffee. Ice cream is definitely a must try in New Zealand, since their cows make such good milk.
Do note that food is pricey in New Zealand, though, meals in restaurants always cost upward of $20, so if you’re on a budget, I suggest renting a place with a kitchen and buying groceries to cook your own food.
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND ENTRIES 🇦🇺 Australia: Bridge Climb * Canberra * Hunter Valley * Melbourne * Sydney 🇳🇿 New Zealand: Glenorchy * Hobbiton * Milford Sound * Queenstown See all: Australia & New Zealand Tours
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