When we arrived in Queenstown, the drivers were pretty shattered from the very long, very windy and stressful drive. We figured that the only way to resolve this and to calm us all down was to head to the pub. This genius of this plan was further realised when you consider that, in the rarest of luxuries for this trip, we were actually staying at the same campsite for two consecutive nights! This meant that we could treat ourselves to a few extra jars, and stay out a little later than usual without risking invalidating our insurance in the morning.
We all piled on as many warm clothes as we could find, it was bloody freezing here, and headed off on the short walk to the nearest pub. Whilst en-route I mail seemed to be taking a lot of abuse for picking a campsite so far out of town (10 minutes), but luckily most of it was jovial. We wandered around for a little while before setting our sites on our first bar. We all assumed that this bar was brand new as the smell of paint was quite overwhelming but their selection of beers was excellent.
We all ordered our pints and sat down at one of the rather impressive resin filled oak tables. We had also brought cards with us so we decided to have a big, family-wide game of Nimidt Six. The bar tender, and presumably owner of the place, actually came over and asked to take a picture of us for the bars social media sites. We of course obliged but instantly forgot how to ‘act natural’ and so I’m not sure the photos ended up exactly how she wanted them too. After 2 pints it was time to move on so we paid up and headed back out into the cold.
Our next stop was a pretty rowdy “Irish Pub”. We got another round in and finished off the card game whilst trying to drown out the sound of the very drunken table behind us and to ignore the music videos playing on the screens all around the bar (this has always been a pet peeve of mine, i get screens in sports pubs but it adds nothing to the atmosphere and only serves as a distraction to people’s nights, especially if they are deliberately trying to get out of the house and away from the telle). After a swift drink here, we realised that it was actually approaching midnight and that we hadn’t yet had any food.
We headed to a pizza place that we had seen earlier, and that my friend who had lived in Queenstown recommended we try. We were pretty happy to learn that they were open until 4 in the morning, and equally happy that they served what looked like incredible, 22 inch pizzas. We ordered one veggie and one meaty with lamb and gravy, along with another round of drinks and sat to wait. The pizza, sadly, wasn’t quite as good as it looked. By this time, however, we were all pretty tipsy and hungry so we enjoyed it all the same, it was a good accompaniment to our pints. By the time we finished scoffing, we were all pretty beat. It was time to head back to the campsite and get some rest in before the next day.
We woke up to the sound of happy ducks quacking away. We hadn’t been up for long when along came an adorable mamma duck proudly showing off her two ducklings. We realised pretty soon after she arrived that she wasn’t actually there to say hi, they were in fact hanging around our camp exclusively for food. Mamma duck was actively exploiting her babies in order to get a decent breakfast, she wasn’t letting them get away with all the good stuff either, any bit of bread she set her eye on was snatched from the duckling’s beaks if they tried to go anywhere near it. We were so busy luxuriating in the fact that we didn’t have to pack up and move on this morning, that we spent almost the entire first half of the day chilling out at the campsite, having a massive breakfast ourselves, and feeding the ducklings to our heart’s content.
Eventually, we realised that we really should get going. We wandered back into town with the view of booking some sort of boat trip. As mum had missed out on the white water rafting before, we thought we would try one of the super-fast jet boats, and fly over some rapids that way. However, we soon realised that this was a very expensive endeavor. We opted instead for the so-called Million Dollar Cruise which came in at less than half the cost of the speed boat and, most importantly, had a bar on board. We had a quick pint at a pub on the quay and then boarded the mighty vessel.
We headed straight to the top of the boat, and staked our claim on the very few seats there and almost immediately regretted it. It was freezing up top and incredibly windy but we stuck our ground (and had some warming beverages to ease the pain). The cruise took us around the lake of CHECK LAKE NAME, past lots of million-dollar lakeside homes (hence the name of the cruise) and then out towards the shallow channels at the far end of the lake where there was lots of wildlife to see. About 2/3rds of the way through the cruise, the heavens opened. Everybody else abandoned the top deck, but as usual, we were far too stubborn.
After the boat cruise, we realized we needed some sustenance to soak up the fair few beverages we had consumed so far that day. We were keen to show the veggies of the family the all-vegan fast-food chain Lord of the Fries. Jayne had located one a short way away so, much to my dad’s disdain, we set off towards this vegan haven. I think we were all a bit too excited to try everything on the menu (burgers, egg, corn dogs, chicken nuggets, donner) and so we all over-ordered ever so slightly. It took a while for all the food to come due to the fact that actually we had shown up at a food truck, however, when it did it fully lived up to and even surpassed most people’s expectations. We were left to speculate why this marvel hadn’t yet made its way to London (apparently it has, it’s in Tooting if anyone is interested).
We rounded off the afternoon with a round of mini-golf, which I won comfortably. It’s quite difficult to play mini-golf guilt-free when there are 6 of you and everyone else is in pairs and so finishes each hole hours before you. We decided to adopt our best Brits Abroad attitude and not give a toss what anyone else thought. Also, we split into two groups to speed up the process a bit… Dad didn’t fancy the golf so he had gone for a wander around the town.
It wasn’t too long before we were all feeling a bit dry, so we bundled back into town and into my favorite bar of the trip: a wine tasting bar. We got a card that you slot into a machine attached to a couple of bottles of wine, you select your preferred wine and the size; taster, small or large, and it pours you the perfect portion. The entire shop was filled with hundreds of bottles to try and we whiled away a couple of hours here sampling different New Zealand delights. Eventually, conscious that this was actually quite an expensive way to get drunk, we headed back to the campsite where we had wine, rum and a stir fry waiting to be cooked (spoiler alert: it wasn’t).
Back at camp and things were getting pretty chilly, we decided to take advantage of the campsite’s common room to play a few games and get through some of the rum, wine, and beer that had been accumulating in the vans for the last week. The game we decided on was our family’s favorite: Noms (nominations, kind of like hearts and whist with our own twist). Unfortunately, this is actually a very long game and by the time we had finished, there was no time to make the stir fry that had been looming over our heads for the past 3 nights. We did have plenty of artisan bread leftover from breakfast though, so we chowed down on gourmet cheese on toast with chili ketchup and whatever fancy condiments we had leftover from Christmas.
Mum, in classic fashion, tried to start taking care of another young couple who had been waiting a while to use the kitchen, she offered them some of the cheese on toast (we made SO much cheese on toast) and also tried to persuade them to push in and “share” the tiny kitchen. After chatting to them for a bit, we discovered that they were on a very similar route to us, with the exception of Dunedin (which had turned out to be a great little find). Eventually, after we had all eaten our fill and were feeling a tad tipsy, we called it a night and wandered back over to the vans for a well-earned sleep.
We were up and off early again the next day, no time for breakfast, barely time for a premixed cappuccino. This morning we were off for another adventure style activity. Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of New Zealand, this doesn’t necessarily mean that more adventure activities are available here, we didn’t see anything that couldn’t be done elsewhere, but it does mean that all the activities carry a price tag that matches the fact that people will travel for hours specifically to get here. Luckily, we had decided to use our classic trick of “ring them up, explain there’s bloody loads of us and ask for a discount”. As such, Martin had managed to bag us a go on the local zip-line over a gorge for a mere £15 each (as opposed to the £50 quoted on the website).
As usual, it is bloody difficult to get 7 people moving in a short timeframe, especially when 5 of them are in one van that has enough space for 2 people to move around inside of. Martin and I set off first in an attempt to way-lay any fears that we weren’t going to show up and stop them from giving away our spot. The big van wasn’t far behind and our activity for the morning was secure.
We were given several options for the position of sitting whilst on the zip-line. Upon asking what the staff recommendation was, I decided on Superman, in fact, we all did with the exception of Martin and Dad. Martin opted, instead, for the “hanging upside down” option, which I am still gutted that I wasn’t brave enough to try with him. Dad opted for the simple Sitting Down position, understandable given his cautious nature, however, this was enough to stop the staff calling him “The Wimp”.
After our morning adrenaline rush, we drove off the town of Arrowtown in search of brunch. Arrowtown is a legacy of New Zealand’s gold rush and consequently had the feel of a Wild West saloon-style town. It also seemed to be the place to go for brunch and, as such parking was a bloody nightmare. We drove around the town for a while until we thought we had found the perfect spot. It was only upon reversing into it that we discovered the reason it was empty… there a very well (or poorly, depending on how you look at it) placed branch that missed hitting our rear windscreen by mere inches and left a lovely little dent in the boot of the van. As a coincidence, I had earlier been thinking to myself that our purchase of the full-blown insurance had been a waste.
Having inspected the damage and finding it to be very minimal, we consoled ourselves with the excellent decision to purchase the insurance and wandered off to find the others and some food. The restaurant that we chose was a bit naughty, with some very decadent choices on the menu. I was feeling especially greedy and chose a smoothie (with oats, to fill me up) and a plate of waffles, fruit, bacon and maple syrup. It was heaven.
With breakfast done, Martin and I went on a wander around the town. It was, to use a phrase that doesn’t particularly roll off my tongue, ‘as cute as a button’. We found ourselves down by the riverfront, the clear, cold water feeling lovely on our feet after a heavy breakfast. This also gave us a great opportunity to use the drone and capture some lovely shots of the area.
Mount Walsh!
It was time for us to part ways. Martin was off on a horseriding adventure and I was going to spend the afternoon in luxury. Mum, Dad and I drove off in our van to a fancy hotel where we had hired a private hot tub with a mountain view for the afternoon. We were shown to our little booth, given a bottle of fizz and lots of water and left alone. The next two hours were pretty blissful as we sipped our fizz, relaxed and righted all the wrongs of the world. Of course, there was also time for a little photoshoot. In such an Insta-worthy location, it would have been rude not to.
When we were fully cooked, we jumped out of the tub, took a quick dip in the freezing cold hotel pool and then headed to the lounge for a coffee and further admiring of the view. We were due to meet the other group in a pub en-route to Wanaka so there was no rush to get moving.