Merry Christmas everyone!
Holiday season is definitely upon us in New Zealand. Queenstown has been bustling with tourists in Santa hats since we arrived, it’s summer holidays for most of the hemisphere.
We had a while in Queenstown so spent the first day taking our time to get our bearings, it was nice to have a more relaxed day after alot of quickfire travel. We wandered around the waterfront and the botanical gardens, Fortunately the various Fergburger establishments made easy landmarks.
After that we picked up our rental car ready for the next days adventure, Roy’s Peak.
Roy’s Peak is a mountain just outside the lakeside settlement of Wanaka, which is about a 90 minute drive from Queenstown. The long drive meant another early morning start (04:30!) – but the epic scenery during the journey makes up for it. We’d read conflicting reports about what the morning weather was going to be like, but fortunately for us the ones with a positive spin were the most accurate.
We have done a fair few hikes and hills by now in New Zealand, some of which have been pretty steep at times. Roy’s Peak is video-game boss-level steep though. It’s an endless 3 hour uphill slog to a spectacular viewpoint. We made some friends along the way, including a (clearly insane) trail runner.
After the obligatory viewpoint photos we turned around to start the climb to the very summit, only to discover our trail-running friend running back down the mountain, away from a very large cloud that appeared when our back was turned. He stopped to tell us it was a snowstorm and he’d had to abandon his attempt to finish the track. He gave us some very solid advice to follow his lead, which we took gratefully (to be honest we couldn’t face anymore uphill).
The one plus side of a 3 hour hike up a hill, is that after you’ve got to the top it is literally all down hill from there. As a bonus you also get plenty of schadenfreude passing the people coming up the other way.
We took the car for a spin to Wanaka on the way home, and stopped by to see “thatwanakatree”. Which is a tree that seems to be surviving despite emersion in a lake.
After a quick coffee stop (Andrew had a “bullet” coffee, which was odd) we made our way to Arrowtown, a goldrush town outside Queenstown, for a brief visit before heading home.
Back in Queenstown we rewarded ourselves with a Fergburger. Our obscene morning start meant we were ravenous early enough to beat the usual evening queue. We followed it up with a drink at happy hour, and had a well deserved early night.
The next day we made our way over to the Queenstown gondola to go up the mountain. Queenstown is a town famous for various extreme activities, including inventing the bungee jump and the luge. We opted for the less extreme of the two – the luge, which is kind of like go-karting down the side of a mountain. We bought the maximum amount of rides and felt ourselves professional by the end.
We had a post-luge Fergbaker and Mrs Ferg ice cream (to complete then set) and once again headed to happy hour (any excuse).
The following day we caught up on some travel admin over coffee. That evening was spent at Harry’s pool bar; a fine establishment dedicated to the game. Frances’ previously non existent pool skills improved dramatically.
The next morning was an early start for the journey to Milford sound for an overnight cruise.
On arrival we said goodbye to the bus crew and set about exploring the surrounding bush walks before our cruise departure. The Milford ‘sound’ is actually a Fiord as It was carved by a glacier, not a river, but again New Zealand opted for the more marketable name.
Once on board the vessel we checked into our cabin and were served the first course of our evening meal; a delicious leek & potato soup. This set a good precedent for the rest of the evening. We were unsure whether our limited travel diet and our possible deprivation of certain vitamins was distorting our view of the culinary delights but we didn’t care, it tasted bloody good.
Between courses, we hopped into a smaller boat to explore the Fiordland up close. We disembarked at Sandfly Point (named very appropriately as we were about to find out) to start a short walk on the Milford Track, one of New Zealand’s great walks. Our guide pointed out various flora and fauna on the way.
Back on the boat, the delicious food continued as we cruised along the Milford Sound. Our guide was amused to find out Frances’ dad’s birthplace was Milford Haven in West Wales and continually checked if we thought it was similar.
After dinner, we were given the opportunity to swim in the glacial waters. Andrew rose to the challenge and was first to jump, fearlessly defending his Welsh roots. “It’s really warm!” he shouted through chattering teeth.
The next morning we set sail out to the Tasman Sea. On the way back we met a colony of fur seals, and then stopped off at the Milford underwater observatory to see some black coral and the marine life it attracts.
That night, after we’d made the long journey back to Queenstown, we headed back onto the gondola up to Bob’s Peak to another observatory. The plan was to spend Christmas Eve stargazing the southern hemisphere night sky, but unfortunately the cloud we’d escaped at Roy’s Peak had managed to find us again. The guides had to abandon the outside viewing and instead took us on a virtual tour of the sky in their indoor observatory, and by way of apology plied us with free wine and snacks – which made it all the more interesting.
We’ve now woken up on Christmas day, eaten the breakfast of champions (Waffles, chocolate spread and Bucks Fizz) and exchanged some token presents (mainly chocolate from the supermarket).
The rest of our Christmas is going to be spent having Christmas Dinner and watching movies (we’ve already watched Elf). Tomorrow we then head off on the first leg of our tour up the East coast of the South Island.
There & Back Again 