Pretty Towns

After the splendour of Milford Sound we visited Queenstown. To be honest we weren’t too sure what to expect as this is the adventure capital of NZ (and probably the world) – it’s known as Adrenalin Central – and the locals had all said it’s very commercial. Well, we were pleasantly surprised. I guess coming in the off season helped but Queenstown was a really pretty place and seemed very liveable. There’s enough going on to keep you sane if you lived here, nice shops, food & scenery and it’s totally understandable why every backpacker to NZ visits here to go bungee jumping, paragliding, jet boating, skydiving, high wire gondolas, etc. We fancied paragliding but time restraints and the fact a family of 8 were in the queue ahead of us means we’ll have to save this for the UK. We also went to watch the bungee jumpers at AJ Hackett’s (this was the Dutch guy who started the craze worldwide by leaping off the Eiffel Tower) and Tash is thinking about having a go in Auckland. Whilst it didn’t look as scary as I expected I’m still not sure about leaping off a bridge with a giant elastic band round my ankles.

We moved on to Wanaka (stop sniggering!) This was a lazy stop really, just taking in the scenery as the majestic Lake Wanaka is framed by the Alpine peaks. We visited Puzzling World, which is a cool little museum of optical illusions, mainly inspired by the fantastic MC Escher (whom you’ve probably all heard me bang on about before). We were also quite smug upon completing the hour long maze in 30 mins exactly – check our bad, invincible asses. Finally the afternoon was spent just wandering round the town, dreaming of buying a house there (well, Tash was already at the point of moving in!) whilst eating the biggest ice-creams you’ve ever seen, with the most delicious flavours – we settled on banana choc chip, maple delight, hokey pokey and caramel fudge.