Day 49 – 50 : Queenstown – “Back for more, eh?”By Lee

Leaving the beautiful serenity of Wanaka, I’m almost dreading the built-up city of Queenstown.

Surprisingly, the southern city follows more the Wanaka model than it does the likes of Wellington and is nearly as scenic as the lakeside town we’d just left, albeit with a few more streets and people.

Queenstown is the end of our New Zealand road, and we’ll fly out of here on day #54. Before then we’ll spend a few days here with Te Anau and Milford Sound sandwiched in between.

The mountaintops and lake are on the left this time (unlike front and centre in Wanaka like a daring invitation to just keep going and explore) and we take in the natural environs as we walk from the bus station down by the water’s side to our hostel – another YHA. This one features loopy desk-people and a labyrinthine layout. The room is a twin, again, though we spend little time there.

Queenstown appears to have materialised right out of the wilderness, managing to marry the wilds of New Zealand back-country with a fairly sizable and thriving small city. We walk the streets and enjoy Japanese food (with real Japanese waitresses. No, I don’t speak (much) Japanese to them this time) while developing a fleeting love-affair with a Mexican restaurant called Sombreros. On our second night (in a row), the waiter welcomes us with open arms and giant pink sombreros. “Back for more, eh?” he asks. It’s hearty fare and I drink huge bottles of Mexican beer; a fitting sign-off to a New Zealand trip that featured kayaking, sky-diving, bungy jumping, road trips and nearly getting assaulted by a toilet in Wellington.

We check-in with the car rental people just to make sure that we’ve got the right place and we don’t have to do anything funky to get our hands on our rental car to Milford Sound the next day. No, just turn up and it will be outside for us to drive ourselves westward. The following morning we check-out of the YHA (for now) and do just that.

Tags: Queenstown, Trip