Tourists in Queenstown
Everyone and their grandmas go to Queenstown at some point, so there’s no good itinerary suggestion. In fact, I didn’t love my itinerary — I mostly went on this trip for the company. If I had more time to spend near Queenstown, I would have tried to do long backpacking trips but alas — we only had a week! So we went and knocked out all the touristy things that I didn’t get to do many years back when I was here.
Queenstown:
This town — named so because they thought it was apt for a Queen — is the center of all touristy adventures and hikes. It is one of the biggest cities you will encounter, unless you head to Christchurch, and thus has the best accomodation and food options amongst the other littler towns. Wouldn’t spend more than a day or two here though — and just as a stopover between other adventures seems best.
To get from the airport, uber is not too expensive, but the bus is quite convenient since there is really only one road in this whole town. You can buy a card on the bus, and use the same card for multiple people!
Despite its relatively larger size, Queenstown is still a tiny, tiny town. In 30 minutes, we had visited the storefront of almost every store and restaurant on foot. There are some nice brunch options (Vudu cafe was a fav) and plenty of local beers to try — food options close pretty early though so don’t dilly dally. Fergberger always seems to have a massive line during peak food hours, but go anytime outside that range and you’ll be treated to a massive and delicious burger that I would not say is worth the wait but definitely worth every penny and calorie. Another fun place was the Cookie Bar that had cookies EVERYTHING. The cookies were definitely great, but also definitely not anywhere close to the best I’ve ever had.
There’s plenty of shopping and plenty people watching to do — especially along the pier/beach. Backpackers, street performers, and street artisan vendors line the streets with exotic looking things. There is a floating bar — it’s BYO food! We didn’t stop by because I don’t do well with boats, but it looked like a good time! There’s also indoor skydiving, but like, why.
There is a nice little hike that you can do up the mountain where the cable car and viewpoint are constructed. The estimated hike is about 1–1.5 hours, but easily doable under one hour. I only recommend this if you want to hike down too! One way ticket down is $29, and roundtrip is $44.
At the top, there are cafes, go-karting (luge), mountain biking, and adrenaline adventures like bungy jumping and paragliding.
All the accommodations here and everywhere else were meh, but if you are willing to shell some more money out, check out Sherwood. It’s located a bit far out of town, but the hotel makes you feel like you came to an adult summer camp with a bunch of San Franciscans who eat vegan and do yoga and all are young, rich, and beautiful.
Queenstown — Bungy Jumping ($205 NZD):
8/10. I had my first bungy experience in Lake Taupo, which was a lot less crowded, smaller, and taller. But being near Queenstown, Kawarau bungy (AJ Hackkett) had a very long line despite having a reserved timeslot. The gorge/valley is beautiful though, and the system is very professional. It is a bit of a drive out from Queenstown though. You get a free shirt. Photo and video packages are pretty nice and actually not too pricey, but there is a platform from which you can watch and record your friends.
Queenstown — Gforce Paragliding: ($220 NZD):
5/10. I didn’t think paragliding was exciting, and I was right. I did opt for a smoother ride down rather than one full of twists and turns, because I didn’t think it would bring any more thrill — just nausea. The whole ride, the flyer is asking you to look this way and that for the go pro footage. The whole thing is professional enough, but we were pretty annoyed that the $220 paraglide experience — only available at the top of the cable car location — does not include the gondola ride or offer any discounts on it.
Glenorchy — nice little town:
4/10. We made a day trip from Queenstown to a little town called Glenorchy, which has some wineries, Mrs. Woolly’s General Store, some trailheads — but the best part was the drive over since it provides amazing views of Lake Wakatipu. Seems like a good place to visit with kids or with family, but not much to do.
Te Anau — Glow worm cave:
6/10. We stopped by this town for no other reason than it is as close as you can go to the Milford sound dock for accommodation. Here we found some subpar food options and got on a cheesy little glow worm cave tour which ended up being a lot more value than expected. Wouldn’t have made it a stop on purpose though.
Milford sound:
5/10. A fjord is an underwater valley formed by a glacier. A sound is an already existing valley filled with seawater. Hence, the Milford sound is a fjord.
Moving on though, this experience for me was similar to that of the Halong bay. Supposed to be this amazing beautiful majestic thing.. But I wasn’t impressed. Maybe it was that we were on a cheesy dinky boat filled with tourists and maybe it was the bad weather (which is common), but I was mostly glad when the short boat ride was over.
There are a bunch of different operators with roughly the same duration, stops, and prices. We went with the cheapest and best rated — jucy.
Wanaka:
5/10. Someone told my friend that this is pronounced FA-na-ka. This is a lie.
This town has a decent collection of restaurants, one of which will not even let you sit at their patio for food if you don’t have valid id (passport) proving that you are 21+ (boooo). We were here mainly for the Waterfall climb, which I could not partake due to my flu (or covid??? Who knows??) — but this town also has another hotspot — the Lone Tree. I have no idea why it’s famous.
Franz Joseph Glacier:
8/10. Despite this being very much guided and touristy, I still enjoyed it! And how often do you get to walk on a glacier, albeit with a cheesy tour group? You get a short little helicopter ride that shows you just the crazy scale of this glacier. Then you go on a short little single file totter that is really not exciting at all but is kind of cool because it’s a lot of ice… Then this company gives you a pass for the very much man made thermal pools to warm up after the ice walk!
Key Summit (misc. hikes & stops):
9/10. All along the drive back from Milford sound to Te Anau, there are a number of recommended stops — there are official brochure stops and a bunch of blog stops as well. Pick up a brochure from the milford sound pier. One of the stops we made was the Key summit. After a short and rather uneventful hike, you get to the peak that has a mystical little lake! I wish I had had time to do longer hikes just like this one to really get to see the beauty of NZ.
Another stop is the blue pools. This isn’t really a hike and more of a nice walk, but the water here is a crystal striking blue — we went on a rainy day but it would have been marvelous to jump in on a hot day.
