It’s really weird watching your facebook timeline, when you are the first ones in the world to see in the New Year! For example, Los Angeles were celebrating their New Year when it was 9pm here on New Year’s day!
We went on a wee road trip to Queenstown on New Year’s eve. We hadn’t booked and had not at all realised how popular Queenstown was for New Year’s celebrations. It was very multicultural lets say, with may languages other than English! This all meant that our tent had to stay in the car, because we had not pre booked, so we spent the day there then went home again. No bother, but we will plan better next year!
It was Mark’s first time in Queenstown, and the first time I had spent any time at all there myself, so it was a beautiful place to spend the day, and gave us lots of ideas for things we want to do when we visit again and stay over.
We stopped in Lumsden on the way there, for a coffee and a snack. The man that came in behind me (who I think lived there) sounded like he was from Northern England, like me. How weird! The building next to the coffee shop was the old railway station, no rail is there any more and the place is a craft shop, well, except for this little bridge to nowhere!
Lake Wakatipu is really really long, and the route goes up the side of the lake to Queenstown, up what is called the ‘Devil’s staircase.
It seems the little village at the southern tip (Kingston) is mostly holiday cottages. I wish I could afford a second home up here!
The Gondola was a bargain at under $30 each, including a Luge ride at the top. If you ever go up, pay for more than one luge ride, because they will only let you on the nursery slope ‘scenic route’ for your first luge ride! Stunning views from the top though.
A friend of ours from England gave us some money inside a good luck card when we left England, and told us to spend it on a Fergburger in Queenstown. It took us a little while to get round to it, but here is the burger! They are immense, but well worth the wait (45 mins for ours!) because they are delicious!
We went for a walk around the town, beautiful lakeside area including bars and restaurants, which is also where they were setting up their open air gig’s for the evening, and I assume it would also be where the fireworks display was.
Not every town in New Zealand celebrates new year, which is a little strange to me, so we will need to make proper plans for next year!
