Next stop: Queenstown.
Queenstown, also known as the "adventure capital of New Zealand", is a vibrant destination on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, set against the spectacular Remarkables mountain range.
The town is known for its wealth of exciting activities, including bungee jumping, jet boating, canyoning, skydiving and even snowboarding and skiing. So for adrenaline junkies, Queenstown is a real paradise. Only the hefty prices of the individual activities dampen the motivation a little.
But Queenstown also has plenty to offer those who prefer to take things a bit easier. The town is known for its first-class restaurants, lively bars, high-quality wineries and boutiques. If you're lucky like us, you'll also come across great musicians at a free street concert, such as Luke Gajdus, who was likewise inspired by the magnificent surroundings.
A boat trip on Lake Wakatipu or a walk along the lakefront promenade offer the chance to enjoy the wonderful nature of the area.
Chris and I decided to try the exciting adventure of the Shotover Jet. It's a high-speed boat equipped with a special jet drive that races across the glittering water of the Shotover River at extremely high speed.
We snatched seats in the second row to feel the thrill even more intensely.
Our driver, a young man with lots of know-how, was simply great. With his enthusiasm and entertaining manner, he made sure we had a great time throughout the ride while professionally showing us everything the boat could do. He used the river's natural features to give us the ultimate adventure. We raced through narrow gorges, slid past rock walls by a hair's breadth and performed breathtaking 360-degree spins. The tight manoeuvres were really fun. It turned out to feel a bit like an exciting ride on a wild horse. The speed scared us less than the manoeuvres; after all, we were used to quite a bit by now.
During the ride we even caught a glimpse of someone panning for gold in the river. Our driver told us that Queenstown used to be an important gold-panning region, so we combined the ride with a bit of a history lesson too.
All in all, Chris and I had an incredible time and loads of fun on our Shotover Jet tour. We would definitely recommend the ride – if it weren't so expensive. In any case, the combination of adrenaline, fun and a touch of history made this experience something special.
After about half a year of travelling without being able to do our usual sports, we were happy to stop in Queenstown and soon also in Wanaka. These were the only 2 places on the South Island – in New Zealand – with a high-quality trampoline centre with large trampoline beds, similar to the Olympic trampolines we're used to in Vienna. Here, however, they were rectangular (site trampolines).
So we used our remaining time in Queenstown to brush up our jumping skills a bit. We had the beautiful modern hall almost entirely to ourselves. The supervisor, like all the New Zealanders we got to meet, was super warm and happy that some experienced jumpers were visiting.
Back "home" at our Top 10 pitch, the so-called "hot tub" was already waiting for us, included free of charge. Here we could relax our muscles in the hot water again. We thought the Queenstown Top 10 campsite was one of the best anyway. Since there was an airport here and lots of people arrived and departed, we kept being given food, drinks and camping utensils. There was a great free-items box and a "help yourself" fridge, since many travellers no longer needed their things for the flight home and quite a lot of camping stuff isn't allowed on planes (gas canisters, cutlery, plates...). So many more and better items ended up in the box here than at other campsites. So you see, we had become real vagabond pros :).
Since our little legs aren't only good for jumping, we also picked out a great hiking route here in Queenstown.
So Chris, my hiking pole and I set off on the exciting adventure of exploring the Lower Wye Creek Track. This advanced hiking trail takes about four hours there and back at a moderate pace.
Right at the start of the hike we came across fascinating boulders and climbing rocks that had been marked by local climbing clubs. So it was clearly a popular climbing area, as you kept finding routes chiselled into the rocks.
We started our hike on a steep gravel path that led us upwards under the blazing sun. Then we crossed a section of forest leading to a river with a small waterfall. This time the forest resembled a typical European deciduous forest rather than the fairy-tale landscapes of moss we were already used to. But then again, we were no longer in Southland but in the island's interior, whose landscape is somewhat different.
A large part of the path led us along the pipes of a water main. After a while we reached a clearing that bordered the slope with a perfectly flat rock. That gave us a great natural viewing platform, where we took a well-deserved break and enjoyed our snacks. From there we had an amazing view of the beautiful blue lake and the surrounding mountains. It was simply incredible to see how smooth and perfect a lake can look.
Finally we reached the end of the day route and had a view of the rocky valley with a river running through it. Out of curiosity and a love of discovery, our hiking time stretched to about five hours, as we now went beyond the actual track and tried to climb along the steep slopes of the narrow valley now in front of us up to some slate towers behind the actual valley checkpoint. On our cross-country route, unfortunately, we found that the bushes between the rocks were extremely prickly and also very densely grown. On top of that, the loose and crumbly rocks you had to step on, along with the steep nature of the terrain, soon made it impossible for us to make further progress without possibly hurting ourselves. So we decided to abandon the climbing attempts so as not to put ourselves in danger. Signs of rain were also starting to show in the sky, and a long descent still lay ahead. Nevertheless, we could enjoy the impressive view of the valley from the height we had climbed to and delighted in the yellowish and ochre tones in which the grass on the slopes shimmered.
The way back became a bit of a rush, as rain was on the way and we wanted to avoid the steep descent on wet ground. We enjoyed the challenge of hurrying a little to get back to the starting point in time.
Our adventure on the Lower Wye Creek Track was once again an unforgettable experience that gave us deep insights into New Zealand's fascinating landscape. And slightly sore muscles and somewhat offended knees from the hurried descent made sure we wouldn't forget this day too quickly either.
Since you can also really enjoy strolling and eating out in Queenstown, we usually wandered through the town centre in the evenings, treated ourselves to a few delicacies or visited the town park. We even found a few of our rather rare world-trip souvenirs here. We only had very limited space in our bags, so it had been clear to us from the start that with this way of travelling there could be no or very few souvenirs for ourselves or friends. Since the region is known for merino wool products and we were cold very often at the moment anyway, we got ourselves some cool merino wool functional clothing "Made in New Zealand". Something else you often find here are possum fur textiles, which supposedly keep you even warmer than merino wool. These introduced predators, hated in many places, are found every day as roadkill on the roads. Kiwis are generally (understandably) extremely cold-hearted towards possums.
Possum traps were set up along all the hiking routes we knew, and poison baits are laid on a large scale, using helicopters, which we were able to watch. Once we even saw a flyer advertising a children's camp where possums were hunted in an organised way with firearms. This is part of the government programme that aims to make New Zealand predator-free (again) by 2050. Curious but true. Even the first sign at the arrival airport had already hinted that predators aren't very welcome here:
We moved on to the smaller town of Wanaka. Already on the way there the sky clouded over, and it was clear to us that we could no longer outrun the rainy days by a day at a time in our Mazda camper van.
But we also had the perfect bad-weather programme for exactly this region up our sleeve. Once again, huge praise to Chris and his strategically forward-looking IT mindset, who had already adapted the route to the upcoming weather more than a week in advance. So during the cool rainy days we happily got stranded in the second little town with an ultimately cool trampoline centre and probably the sweetest small-town cinema on this side of the world.
Wanaka lies on the shore of Lake Wanaka and, like practically every place on the South Island, is known for its impressive scenery and outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing and snowboarding (which also explains the trampoline centre, which can be used for dry training of stunts and jumps).
The tourist attraction par excellence is the Wanaka Tree, which stands just off the shore of the lake, already in the water, rising out of the cool water. With resting cormorants or herons on it, it's of course one of the most photographed motifs in the area. Here, by New Zealand standards, we found quite a lot of other tourists who had also come to the lake to see the famous tree.
A great insider tip is the cinema mentioned earlier, called "Cinema Paradiso". Funnily enough, it's even one of two (!) cinemas you can visit in this rather small town.
Paradiso is a very popular cinema that offers a unique atmosphere. It's located in a converted church and scores with comfortable sofas and car seats for its visitors. Blankets and cushions are provided, so the two of you can get really cosy on one of the couches. A special attraction are the homemade cookies, which you pre-order before the film and which are served in the interval, with or without ice cream, as you choose. The cinema shows a mix of current films and classics and offers viewers an exceptional cinema experience. So we could finally catch up on the freediving-inspired blockbuster "Avatar: The Way of Water" we had long been waiting for.
Besides a walk by the lake and a visit to the tree, we proudly admit to having spent some time at the trampoline centre on each of the remaining 3 days.
Like his colleague in Queenstown before him, the manager was also happy about our presence. He let us train as long as we wanted at no extra charge and also taught me a few cool new exercises. He swapped tricks with Chris and said we were an inspiration to all the other old people in the area who thought they had already aged too much for trampolining. You can imagine we found that very amusing.
A little wistfully, since working up a sweat had done us so much good, we set off from here in better weather on our onward journey, which you can follow in the next blog post.
Have fun looking through the pictures and the video.