Jet boating, white-water rafting, bungee jumping, river surfing, sky diving, zip lining and tons of other high adrenaline activities have earned Queenstown the name of Adventure Capital of the World. Tons of young people flock to this destination year round for snowboarding/skiing in the winter and water sports in the summer. It has an extremely touristy feel with tons of shopping and restaurants (I went Starbucks…guilty).
I really enjoyed my 4 nights in Queenstown even though it was still very crowded just after New Year’s. Two of my three days I escaped the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and headed for the hills. I hiked up Queenstown Hill which was surprisingly “tough” for what I was expecting. What I thought would be an easy stroll from town to the top was actually a sweaty tramp. The trail was well kept and did provide some OK views. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours and get a bit of a workout. On day 2, I wanted to climb to the top of Bob’s Peak, which is the hill that the gondola runs on. I started on the One Mile Creek track and eventually merged with the Skyline Gondola track. This was also not an easy hike but provided much better views across Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and The Remarkables.
If you’re looking for nightlife, there will not be a shortage of that. Bar staff come by the hostels each night enticing you with buy one get one deals or even Pub Crawls. With all the young people around, you can be sure you’ll enjoy yourself.
My 3rd day was spent out at the Milford Sound, but i’ll save the next post for that adventure. Happy Waitangi Day from New Zealand!
Wow, I’m so jealous! Did you go on any of the high adventure stuff, or were you sticking to the trails?
By: Corinne on February 8, 2010
at 4:50 am
The high adventure stuff looked so fun but so expensive! I figured I could either do a bungy and a skydive OR go travel the North Island for a week…I decided to go North!
By: adventurenz on February 9, 2010
at 12:33 am