Queenstown

The last part of this New Zealand adventure was a few days in Queenstown. We spent twoish days there as a group and then I spent another 4 days solo adventuring! We had mostly free time here, and we went shopping and walking mostly since this place isn't actually all that large. We had a really nice end of course dinner at Walter Peak High Country Farm which we got to by steamship, the TSS Earnslaw.

The weather was cooperating and this farm was SO adorable. Just looking at pictures now gives me such fond memories.

The DELICIOUS dinner, 100% the best meal we have all eaten in the last month. It was a buffet with so many fresh veggie options, I ate three kinds of salad and then went back for seconds. Peep the dessert plate! I tried one of everything lol. There was also a sheep shearing demonstration after dinner, and we saw super cute mini cows.

After everyone left to go back to school, I had to figure out what to do with my time here. We had already done a lot of the top attractions, so I was left with some hikes and adventure-y activities. The first of which was canyoning! I was excited to go canyoning because I had neglected to go in Switzerland two years ago and have been thinking about it ever since. I originally booked a full day, 8 hour adventure at a really stunning location, but it had been raining recently and the water level was too high to safely travel through the canyon. So I was rebooked on a smaller half-day tour at a not quite so picturesque location. But it was still fun nonetheless.

They took some funny pictures in the canyon with an ancient digital camera, so the quality isn't great. The water was frigid though and this wetsuit was very important.

Flying squirrel!

Also while I was here I walked around Queenstown Gardens, they have some crazy-looking trees, this one had to be supported by a carved tree.

They had so many pretty flowers blooming, these multicolor ones kept drawing my attention, but there were whole rose gardens as well.

The next day was a bit rainy, but I wanted to get out of the hostel, so I did a nearby hike called the Queenstown Hill Hike. While this sounds like a calm walk up a hill, it's a full-on trek. About half of the hike is exposed so when the sun decided to shine through the clouds, it was hot, but if it rained, I was getting rained on. Luckily the weather seemed to hold out for the most part.

On the way up there is a place on the map called fairy house, and if you zoom into this picture you can see that someone has built a whole village of fairy homes!

The view was super worth it though, I think the hike was about 1 to 1.5 hours to go up, and you can see the mountains that surround queenstown.

Next, I went on the Ben Lomond hike, which starts at the top of the cable cars that they have, but the tickets were so expensive and I had just went up the other day with the UMD group, so I opted to hike up, and it was a hike indeed. All the hikes outside the US tend to just be straight up, no meandering, which is efficient, but really difficult. This one was an hour straight up this steep mountain. This whole affair is a much more strenuous one than the Queenstown Hill. The entirety of the hike is exposed, and the day I hiked it was super sunny. I brought 3L of water and a snack which was enough, but I could have used more. This same mountain is used for mountain biking, and there were people mountain biking down from the very top, which meant they had to hike the bikes up because you aren't able to bike past a certain elevation. And all that work for like 5 minutes going down??

The views were amazing though, I could see a glacier in the distance, and layers upon layers of mountains.

That peak is where I am going, fully exposed, and straight up. Seeing the little figures of people on that ridge made it look so daunting! But also it looks so short and like just a quick little walk.

The viewsss!! I stayed up here for about an hour, it felt good with the sun and the breeze. And I mean the views. There were SO many layers and I felt like I could see all the way to Milford Sound.

A funny sign I saw on the way down

And the classic fergburger, it was pricey but honestly I had purchased some pricier food that was less good. They had a few vegetarian options and I got a falafel one! Super delicious and to me it lived up to the hype. Also a nice hack, they are open super late, like 2am, so if you're able to stay up and eat dinner at like 10-12pm, there will likely be no line. Maybe if you fly into Queenstown and are super jet-lagged? Overall it was a great trip and I really enjoyed solo travelling for a brief time, but having that group together for 3 weeks was also an amazing experience. 

Getting home was a sweaty affair though, I flew Queenstown to Auckland to San Francisco to Dulles, and my first flight was delayed, the Auckland airport has separate domestic and international terminals that are separated by a good distance and the shuttle came too infrequently that I had to walk, and it was humid, and then when I was about 20 ft from the door to the international terminal it started pouring and I had no rain jacket on because I just got off a plane, and then my gate was the FARTHEST one from security, and when I got through security the announced that my flight was ready to depart and to go to the gate if you weren't on it yet, so I SPRINTED with my heavy backpack. The silver lining was that the flight was so empty that I switched seats and got a whole row to myself and I was able to sleep lying down! Then at SFO, customs was so long that I downloaded the Mobile Passport Control App and went through that line which luckily was much shorter, and then I had to go to the domestic terminal and through security AGAIN and my flight was once again already boarded when I got to the gate. But I made it home with no missed connections. For anyone keeping count I went through security 3 times for 3 legs of 1 flight. And my bag was flagged 0 times!