Queenstown is a place where the adventure junkies met from all over the world. People said that this is the capital of adventurer in New Zealand. You can expect more than 200 outdoor activities from bungee jumping to skydiving, trekking to hiking and skiing to paragliding. If you want to know that your are brave enough, you should come here.
Every time i came here it, it was always afternoon. I stayed 3 days and 2 nights there but i only spent the time in town in the afternoon. However the afternoon time in Queenstown was so romantic. i called this town "my afternoon town".
The trips
It is my 16 days backpacking through New Zealand and Australia on late November to mid December 2015. follow the full adventure by clicking each link :
- Introduction of 16 days backpacking through New Zealand and Australia
- Day 1 - 2 : Sydney - Exploring the remarkable city of Australia within 2 days
- Day 3 : Tekapo Lake - The most beautiful lake ever seen
- Day 4 : Mount Cook - The highest point of New Zealand
- Day 5 : Twizel - A town beside the secret river
- Day 6 : Queenstown - The Capital of adventure Junkies
- Day 6 : Milford Sound - Welcome to the home of waterfalls
- Day 7 : Wanaka - 6 hours trekking to Roys peak
- Day 8-9 : Franz Josef - The second best drop zone for skydiving in the world
- Day 10 : Nelson - The middle of New Zealand
- Day 11 : Interislander - it's not a ferry but a cruise!
- Day 11 : Wellington - The capital city of New Zealand
- Day 12 : Tongariro Crossing - One-day Trekking to Mordor
- Day 13-14 : Auckland - Metropolitan city with its volcanic mount
- Day 15 : Melbourne - 3 hours in the most livable city in the world
Itinerary
Day 1
- 15:00 - 19:00 : Travelling from Twizel to Queenstown
- 19:00 - 21:00 : Looking for the accommodation and having a good dinner
Day 2
- 07:00 - 17:00 : Milford Sound trip with Intercity
- 17:00 - 21:00 : Trekking to Queentown hill
- 21:00 - 23:00 : Night city tour
Day 3
- 06:00 - 07:00 : Cooking for my own breakfast
- 07:00 - 10:00 : Early morning city tour
- 10:00 - 11:50 : Travelling from Queenstown to Wanaka
Welcome to the capital of adventure
Welcome to the capital where everyone gather to enjoy their life and challenge their adrenaline. Over 200 activities offered in this town but i wouldn't do one of those. I needed to save my money for skydiving later on. Although Queenstown was one of biggest town in South Island, the tallest building was only until 4 storey. it made the atmosphere just nice
I Arrived Queenstown at 8 PM. I thought it was already dark but it was still afternoon. It was summer, the best season of the year! The bus stopped at the middle of Athol Street and i needed to walk until my accommodation. I believed that most people around the town is tourist. why did i know that they are tourist? because they were looked so happy like today and tomorrow were holiday..just like me. I heard that Taylor swift was coming today for holiday but most probably she would not stay in the same hostel like me.
Getting here and around
Getting here
Queenstown is a main town so a lot of choices for the transportation to get here. I still prefer to recommend Intercity and Nakedbus since it most probably the cheapest option. Sometime they give promotion for only 1 dollar per trip.
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Getting around
Queenstown has a small local bus service called connectabus. There are three routes but 10/11 is the most useful for tourist which run every 30 minutes. The city centre is relatively small so walking is also a good choice to enjoy the town. There is a water taxi service in Lake Pukaki.
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Accommodation
I stayed for 2 nights in Absoloot backpacker hostel, Queenstown. I would recommend you with this hostel because of its location. The location is just beside Pukaki Lake. You can expect your breakfast accompanied by the view of the lake. I spent 58 NZD for two night. The cons of this hostel is only little bit noisy in the middle of the night since the location nearby from the crowd.
Enjoying Wakatipu Lake in early morning
Wakatipu lake was another meter from my hostel. The lake is the longest lake in New Zealand with N shaped. For me, the best time to visit was early in the morning. Why? Because no one there so the scenery was mine.Most of the tourist usually slept at midnight then woke up late. I woke up around 7 am. Then, cooked my own breakfast while the morning scenery greeting me. Without in a hurry, i went out and walked around the town and lake. The town was more enjoyable in the morning.
Visiting Milford Sound
My Second day is used to visit Milford Sound. Milford sound was the first image appeared when i searched NZ in the Internet. It was like surreal place for me. A thousand waterfall just fell from the gap between mountains. A lot of coach to Milford Sound is started from Queenstown or Te Anau. Usually, they were departed at 6 - 9 AM. I took the coach from queenstown since the town was bigger than Te anau so i got a lot of choices for the coach. I recommend Intercity coach because the driver, bus, ferry, price and everything was good. It might be every coach or operator had a good services also but i only experienced with Intercity. The bus was departed at 7 AM and the trip would be finished around 5 PM.
Queenstown Hill, where i ended my afternoon
I was looking for cheap Activity after finished my Milford Sound trip. It was 5 PM so i still had 4 hours before sunset. I heard about a hill where i can see the lake from above. It was called Queenstown hill. It was 2- 3 hour walk and little bit difficult to get there because for me the sign board was not to clear. Alternatively, there was another hill that cable car was provided to go up but i preferred to not take it because it was to costly for me. I walked for 2 hours until arrived to the summit called Te Tapu-nui. I was alone during my walk. maybe no one interested to go up there because the sky was getting dark. It was already 8 PM actually. I stopped the trekking when i saw a Private land sign. The scenery was beautiful up there.
I met a girl on the summit. What was she doing there at this time? not make sense for me. I thought she was a ghost. Luckily, she was stepped on the ground not flying. She was from UK and had a holiday in New Zealand. She said that she liked to see sunset. That's why she stayed there at this time.. I felt that i disturbed her when i tried to chat with her. Maybe, she thought i was a ghost also. The sunset is almost finished. Time for me to go down and i left her because she wanted to wait until sun gone. The sky was darker already. It felt so spooky when i passed a forest. I still thought about her actually "Is she a human or....."
this was my last afternoon in Queenstown because tomorrow need to move to other town, Wanaka. Goodbye my afternoon town, hope could visit you again!
I met a girl on the summit. What was she doing there at this time? not make sense for me. I thought she was a ghost. Luckily, she was stepped on the ground not flying. She was from UK and had a holiday in New Zealand. She said that she liked to see sunset. That's why she stayed there at this time.. I felt that i disturbed her when i tried to chat with her. Maybe, she thought i was a ghost also. The sunset is almost finished. Time for me to go down and i left her because she wanted to wait until sun gone. The sky was darker already. It felt so spooky when i passed a forest. I still thought about her actually "Is she a human or....."
this was my last afternoon in Queenstown because tomorrow need to move to other town, Wanaka. Goodbye my afternoon town, hope could visit you again!
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