Queenstown NZ: Comfort in magnificence

The view from the top of Bob's Hill puts Queenstown, New Zealand into perspective.

View of Queenstown from the upper Gondola Station

The bustling self-importance of the South Island tourist hub, its high-end shops, pricey gourmet burgers and hyped up adventure tourism, fade into a string of  bright lights, almost lost among the vast alpine scenery.


The linear parades of tour groups are merely dashes on the boardwalk of the turquoise bay below.







The amplified buskers and bungie jumper screams are lost in the brisk breezes that sweep off the surrounding ranges and rustle the invasive Douglas Firs behind the clearing.

The Remarkables catch the setting sun

Like its northern hemisphere cousin, Banff, the true wonder of Queenstown is its location - nestled by the crystalline waters of  Lake Wakatipu and enclosed by the barren rock faces of endless mountainscapes.


It is important, although not easy, to look beyond the town.

The setting sun over Lake Wakatipu

Some visitors recognize this, and brave the stiff breezes, perching on the boardwalk wall to watch the setting sun cast dramatic shadows on the lake's undeveloped shoreline.

A cone of exceptional Patagonia ice cream or a glass of local draft from the Atlas Beer Cafe buys you a sheltered front row seat

Rhododendron and Roses in Queenstown Gardens

Not that the town lacks its own attractions.  Well over 100 years ago, forward thinking settlers planted a botanical garden that today boasts towering specimens of Giant Sequoia, Red Beech, English Oak, Horizontal Elm and Pin Oak.

During our spring visit at the end of November, the Peonies had peaked, the Rhododendron were bursting with colour and hundreds of rose bushes were just beginning to bloom.

Churchill's Runabout in Queenstown harbour

Sitting on the shore of one of the deepest and clearest lakes in the world, Queenstown offers plenty of opportunities to get out on the water, from scenic cruises to private  boats.  We even saw a few brave backpackers shed their outer layers and jump in for a glacial, early spring swim.

The landscape may be Queenstown's original raison d'etre, but the comforts of a well developed tourist town undoubtedly help ratchet up the "happy factor", particularly on the eve of our challenging Milford Track expedition.


(PS. Apparently Taylor Swift agrees ... she dropped in for two visits while we were in the area)

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Livable Auckland

New Zealand's largest city is consistently ranked as one of the world's most livable cities.  With a sub-tropical maritime climate, close proximity to the ocean, acres of beautiful parkland, a vibrant downtown university, a lively theatre and arts scene and a tolerant, multi-cultural population, it sounds like paradise. 

But then there's the small issue of the dozens of volcanic cones that punctuate it's topography.  In the photo to the right, at least half a dozen are easy to spot.  

No worries, residents tell us.  There have only been 19 eruptions in the past ten thousand years (or something to that effect). 

It's actually easy to forget the volcanic activity bubbling below the surface of the city.  The city connects to the Tasman Sea on the west and to the South Pacific on the east through two different harbours each scattered with beautiful islands that are an easy get-away from the central business district.  

The parks offer verdant stretches of cricket fields, lined with magnificent 100-year old trees.  The plane trees in Victoria Park pictured here, offer cool dappled shade from the hot afternoon sun. 

New Zealand's distance from other land masses means that the island nation has developed unique flora and fauna.  The lack of land mammals (until the Maori arrived with pigs, chickens and rats 800 years ago) meant that birds evolved into niches occupied by mammals in other parts of the world.  

In the absence of deer or bison, flightless Moa - taller and heavier than ostriches - grazed the grasslands.  Kiwi birds still snuffle through the ground cover looking for bugs just like rodents would in other parts of the world.  Flightless parrots fit in where squirrels might live elsewhere. 

The country's fascinating geological, biological and human history is revealed in the War Memorial Museum atop an extinct volcanic cone in the Auckland Domain.

When we visited there was also a charming temporary exhibit on the 75 history of Air New Zealand - including a virtual reality simulator of the cabins of the not too distant future (hint - see-through walls and floors). 

But the city itself is embellished with it's very present living history.  For example, picturesque Victorian cottages abound in inner city neighbourhoods like Ponsonby and Parnell.   

Auckland is a comfortable landing spot when arriving from overseas and is often dismissed as 'just a big city' you pass through on your way to bigger adventures, but it offers a useful orientation to New Zealand's colourful history and current psyche.

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