click on map view detail

Queenstown

Located in the middle of Central Otago, Queenstown is situated on the shores of beautiful Lake Wakatipu in what has been described as one of the most scenic settings in the world. Starting off as a mining town during the gold rush days when gold was discovered along the banks of the Shotover river in 1862 it enjoyed growing prosperity.

Day 1, Saturday: we flew from Auckland to Queenstown which was a beautiful flight even though we were exhausted from the long flight from Los Angeles (13 hours). We checked into the Queenstown Heritage Hotel and set out on a hike that overlooked the town and Lake Wakatipu.

This first hike took us up the hill where the skyline gondola takes tourists (too lazy to walk!) to the summit where there's a restaurant, luge ride (not as cool as it sounds) and great views of the Remarkables mountain range (for Lord of the Rings fans, these are the Misty Mountains) and Lake Wakatipu.

After all the traveling and the hike, we were worn out and made it an early night.