The lady I am staying with called her friend in Queenstown, saying we were coming to visit. She agreed to drive me up there and show me the sights today because she had a day off work, which was very kind of her indeed. Nothing prepared me for the beauty of the area though. It is simply stunning. The plains of the Invercargill basin seemed to merge into the mountains, you really didn’t feel like you had gone up so high from sea level. The scenery was amazing. How could you ever get bored with a view like this?
Karen’s very lucky friend has this incredibly stunning view of the lake from her lounge window and two balconies. Wow!!
View of Queenstown from Kelvin Heights
Queenstown is a little alpine-ish in character, but the huge rugged mountains flanking a massive blue lake is nothing like I have ever seen before. The tops of the mountains even had snow on them, and it only autumn! Plenty of sports to do here, winter or summer, from water sports, to mountain biking, taking a gondola up the mountain or bungie jumping off various cliff edges, with skiing and snowboarding in winter.
After a short walk around the town, we went on towards Arrowtown where we stopped for a bite to eat. It looked very ‘American Wild West’ in character to me, which I was told isn’t surprising, as it was an old gold mining town! The colours of autumn was clear to see in all the foliage around, which made the place even more beautiful. Here, I also found ANOTHER red post box, just like the one outside the Invercargill museum!
Lake Wakatipu was stunning, whatever angle we viewed it at, as were the beautiful rugged mountains. I still wasn’t bored looking at the scenery during the 2 hour drive back again.
If you get the chance, a trip to Queenstown is a MUST!
Melanie Magowan 