After arriving in town, the first thing you notice is the Mountains! It reminded us alot of the Rockies back home! We spent the first afternoon wandering around town, and took a gondola ride to the top of a nearest mountain. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking!
Day two involved sunshine and more mountains! Can I just say that the weather reports predicted rain for the entire visit we were there, but it was amazing weather! (I guess the weather forcasters are equally as accurate in New Zealand as they are in Canada!) That morning we took a cruise around the lake that Queenstown is situated on. It had a great view of the surrounding area (and the mountains), and the captain even let the octopus drive the boat for a while! We then took a bus to Arrowtown, which is a small village 30 minutes outside of Queenstown. I was established during New Zealands gold rush, so Arrowtown is a very historical area.
Day three involved and early morning. We got on a charter bus and began a 4 hour trip to Milford Sound, on the West Coast of New Zealand. This invovled driving through the mountains (quite literally, we had to go through a tunnel and everything). On the way, we got to see some wildlife, including the worlds only Alpine Parrot: the KEA! The boat ride around Milford was amazing. Tall mountains with huge waterfalls cascading down them. It was very picturesque. We even made some new friends on the boat! We also saw a penguin, and some seals! The boat took us right up to the base of one of the falls! It was close enough to touch it!
The next day we boarded a jet boat which raced up and down the lakes and rivers of Queenstown. It went extremely fast (hence being called a jetboat), and wizzed around rocks and logs! The boat only needs about 3 inches of water to drive, so it can go reeeaally close to the shore!
On our final day, we went up to the ski slopes. I'm not much of a skier, but the Octopus really wanted to make a snowman. Instead we went snowtubing, which is totally alot more fun than skiing. After a long day of snow, we had a quite flight home!
I had a great time in Queenstown, and wasn't able to do everything that it had to offer, I guess that means I'll have to go for another visit! :)
