Queenstown is known as one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand known as the adrenaline capital of the world and where the bungy jump was invented. Tennis greats Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi were also spotted here recently with the their kids on vacation. We arrived first day in Queenstown after an early 1 hour flight that left at 8:30am and saved us driving 6.5 hours over 483 km for a cool $108 CDN. Another smooth flight from jet star. We arrived at our swanky hotel, Novatel, by the lake. I got a great deal $43 NZ a day for 3 days and two double beds. Our room wasn't ready until lunch so we walked around and upon recommendation by our concierge and Lonely planet we tried our a cafe called Halo and had one of the best breakfast burritos I've had paired with Glen Valley Sauvignon Blanc.
We then lined up our first adventure the Jet Boat River Ride by Shotover for $100. The ride on the quarter million dollar 540 hp speed boat went up to 70km/h and was a lot of fun. Didn't get the same type of adrenaline rush as the zipline during the olympics, but it had to be the most thrilling water based boat ride I've done. We did 360's and just missed crashing into sharp edged rocks and hopped over ferocious water currents. It was definately our driver, Mike that provided the thrills during the ride. We didn't get the pictures and video they took of us for another $60NZ.
We then lined up our first adventure the Jet Boat River Ride by Shotover for $100. The ride on the quarter million dollar 540 hp speed boat went up to 70km/h and was a lot of fun. Didn't get the same type of adrenaline rush as the zipline during the olympics, but it had to be the most thrilling water based boat ride I've done. We did 360's and just missed crashing into sharp edged rocks and hopped over ferocious water currents. It was definately our driver, Mike that provided the thrills during the ride. We didn't get the pictures and video they took of us for another $60NZ.
I booked hang gliding coming up this Saturday morning as my next adventure activity and I'm looking forward to it. Dinner at @ Thai. Coconut prawns, coconut rice, red curry beef, and yellow curry chicken was amazing and an authentic Thai experience.
Updated: Hang Gliding was a great experience finally got to experience flight. I capped the day by hunting around for a free wifi connection without a download limit so I could download the VCL player to play my hang gliding video.
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Tip: Patagonia is a chocolate cafe near the Warf with unlimited internet. Halo is another awesome cafe for breakfast that offers free wifi. I was fortunate that we went to Halo for our first meal in Queenstown so had a hotspot to update my mailbox when we walked by.
It was hard to top off hang gliding, but Candice and I topped off the last night in Qtown with 30 minutes at -5 a club made of ice and a free vodka cocktail , delicious burgers at Ferg Burger (Veras of Qtown), and inspired by Iron Man one Sky movies the previous night saw Iron Man 2 (highly recommended).
Greg's Queenstown tips:
- @Thai is an excellent authentic Thai experience
- Book your adrenaline adventure as soon as possible to get the time you want and check the weather beforehand. Hanggliding with Skytrek was highly recommended
- Gondola - recommended. You can do the luge or Paragliding while you are up there
- Skip -5 club. It is a Novelty you can do without
- Winnies Pizzeria
- Halos for the Breakfast Burrito. They have free Wifi and there is no time limit. I'm not promoting anything here but free unlimited Wifi is hard to come by.
- Ferg Berger
- Go to the foodcourt for cheap eats for $10 or less.
This morning we are off to for a 2.5 hour drive to Te Anau in a Hertz rented Ford Focus before moving on to Milford Sound.
Here is a link to the hang gliding experience
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