Queenstown

Overview

This was the highlight of our trip, not that everything else wasn’t great. We just found Queenstown a perfect blend of beauty, things to do, and just “feel” / “vibe”. It’s certainly not undiscovered, and the traffic in and out of town can get tough on the weekends if you’re there in high season (as we were, January). But to us the bit of traffic hassle was far outweighed by how beautiful a spot it is.

We stayed in the Rosewood Matauri which was/is far from cheap, but was the nicest single property we stay in NZ — high level of service, great staff, but very small (a few dozen rooms?). Maybe 12–15 mins from downtown Queenstown which you may find a hassle, but also a glorious lake view from the rooms and restaurant.

We flew on a day trip to Milford Sound, and can’t recommend it enough. You can drive to Milford Sound, but it’s 4? hours as there is no direct route (d*mn mountains); the flight was only 40 minutes, but even more so you’re flying just hundreds of feet above the Southern Alps, the flight both directions was just incredible. The boat trip up Milford Sound is I suspect weather-dependent — we had just a glorious day, the water was glass, blue sky … note the Sound is one of the rainiest spots in NZ, so … not everyone gets that experience.

Per above, there’s a great wine country (Central Otago) a very short distance away, the beginnings are I think 20–30 minutes from downtown. Some videos recommend biking part of the wine country, we hired a driver.

Queenstown bills itself as the Adventure Capital of the World — we did neither the Shotover Jet (jetboat going 70 MPH millimeters from canyon walls) nor bungee jumping (which was invented in Queenstown) — but we did watch the bungee jumping for awhile, we were happy to watch from solid ground while others do the jump .