Queenstown

December 2006

December 2: Flight to QT. Spectacular views from the plane (sorry: no pictures). Drive to Oaks Shores Hotel. Spectacular views over the lake. Excellent room, brand new.

A short drive to QT. The town is arranged all around the lake. Great views of the mountains in the background everywhere.

But first lunch...

Then an hour of another favorite activity...

A cruel souvenir: "mixed grill".

Much of the downtown is crammed with shops and restaurants. Very touristy.

The harbor is small. Available for charter is a real America's Cup boat.

Real estate is surprisingly expensive, given that hardly anyone lives here. There is lots of unused land, but apartments, even in Arrowtown, go for over $1m.

A gondola ride provides spectacular views of the town and lake Wakatipu.

QTown's specialty: bungy jumping.

Glenorchy:

Driving to Glenorchy along lake Wakatipu.

The Glenorchy Cafe

A local residence.

Taking a 3 hour jetboat ride on the Dart River. Hint: It's very windy and occasionally wet. Temperatures hover aroudn 10 degress celsius. For the long rides, use the boats with the glass roofs or be prepared for your ears to freeze off.

Views of Isengard.

A shorts stroll to recover from the freezing ride.

Then driving back to QT.

Another jet boat ride on day 3: Shotover jet. More of a thrill ride. The boat zooms at 50mph through the Shotover river canyons. Quite an excitement. A 360 turn:

The jet boats glide over the water, going sideways when needed. They only need 2-3 inches of water.

Kingston Flyer:

In a tiny town of a couple of hundred near QT, an historic railroad: the Kingston Flyer.

The interior of the 2nd class cabin.

Next to it: an old tractor (?) left to rot. This should be in a museum instead.

Dec. 7-8: Back in QT after our trip to Milford Sound. Staying in the Heritage Hotel. Not bad, but not the Oaks Shores either. "Dinner" for our first night: chocolate fondue at the QT wharf.

A brief visit to Arrowtown. It's supposedly a well preserved mining town. In reality, a smaller version of QT with a number of older buildings from the mining period. Not all buildings are that well preserved.

Dec 8: Deer Park Heights. Visited a hill overlooking QT which also features a bunch of deer and other animals. This was used to shoot some of the Lord of Rings scenes. Interesting: the LOR was shot from locations that overlook QT airport.

The Rohans made this path when fleeing from the Orcs.

Aragorn dropped off this cliff into the river, which in reality is a couple of miles away.

Pet me...

Unfortunately, it's about freezing with a 40 mph wind. This is called summer around here.

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