New Zealand - Queenstown & Cromwell

It was a long long road from Milford back to Queenstown, a whopping drive time of 5 hours! And I certainly wouldn't recommend speeding along this road. We crossed 3 hiding patrol cars. No wonder, it's been advised that if you can't stay a night in Te Anau , you're better off joining a day tour from Queenstown to Milford and back.

Again, back on Highway 95 & Highway 94 and it was only when we approached Queenstown at the Remarkables area that we finally saw sunshine & a rainbow. I call Queenstown the Rainbow town, because in my 3 days stay there, I saw a total of 5 rainbows!

It was with good foresight that I decided to splurge on my stay in Queenstown. Our apartment at Mantra Marina was HUGE and came with a great view of Lake Wakatipu. The ducks on the lake will come up right to our doorstep, obviously a sign that previous guests have been spoiling them with food. We did have some bread and JD was extremely excited with their surprise appearance and so we left her to entertain the ducks (or perhaps it's the other way round) whilst we lazed around.

The night we arrived, the weatherman had forecast flooding along the main tourist strips of Queenstown. When I learnt that this is rare occurence from the dude at the check in counter, (the last one was in 1999), I was like.. wow, we sure "are" lucky aren't we.

Fortunately enough, it was sunshine the next morning and off we went on the TSS Earnslaw to the Walter Peak farm. I've never been a fan of farms. I hate walking on animals' poo and most of the time, the stench at farms is unbearable. Fortunately, Walter Peak was clean, the Colonial house where we had tea in was beautiful and the air was cool & crisp. The only poo I had to skip about was the sheep's tiny droppings. Not exactly my cup of tea but still acceptable.




On on our way out of Queenstown, we went by Kawarau Gorge where I stood and stare the AJ Hackett's Bungy site for a long time. Eventually my fear got the better of me so I decided to give this heart dropping adventure a miss.


Further up was Cromwell and whoever comes by this road must stop by Jones Fruit Orchard. They have a huge range of fresh fruits for sale, tourist edible souvenirs like honey, chocolate & jams at good prices and best of all they have FRESH ice-cream, blended with fruits of your choice right in front of your eyes. I had the cookies & cream with raspberries, strawberries & blueberries.

1 word - HEAVENLY!