Queenstown

Queenstown is kind of like the Aspen of New Zealand - a small, isolated resort town that is really expensive.  It's about the same latitude in the southern hemisphere as Minnesota is here in the north.  September is supposed to be springtime, but we got about a foot of snow last night.

I took the Skyline gondola up to the top of Queenstown Hill.  The views, of course, are absolutely stunning.  The city sits on Lake Wakatipu, which covers an area of 112 square miles, and is the 3rd largest lake in the country.  It's 1,200 to 1,400 feet deep, and has an interesting feature in that it raises and falls by about 8 inches every 30 minutes.  The locals say that it has a heartbeat.

Also on top of Queenstown Hill is the Ben Lomond Reserve - a huge wilderness area full of hiking trails. I took a trail for a couple of miles, but it ultimately became impassable because of snow and ice, and the steep slope.  I saw only one other group of 4 people over the several hours that I was up here, and now I know why people die in the wilderness.  Without proper equipment, like crampons in these conditions, someone falls and gets hurts, but doesn't found for a week.

Arrival in Queenstown

After a 17-hour flight from LAX to Auckland, I cleared customs, then caught another 2-hour flight to the South Island and Queenstown.  The pilots warned us that the airport has a pretty crazy approach.  The city is surrounded by mountains, so for the last half hour, we were flying through pretty narrow canyons and generally had to look up to see the mountain tops. 

This cool, old church was across the street from my hotel.  Queenstown is know as the center for outdoor adventure activities in New Zealand - bungee jumping and jet-boating were both invented here.  It has a summertime population of less than 30 k, but it doubles in the winter for snow skiing.

Looking towards dowtown, you can see the path that the Skyline gondola takes up to the Ben Lomond Nature Reserve.