Queenstown, a Beautiful, Active City

K & V: We love Queenstown, NZ. It just may be the most beautiful city in the world and could be a place to definitely live, at least for most of the year's months. What a beautiful place, the setting reminds us much of the seven hills of Bergen, Norway, but with the much more majestic Remarkable Mountains surrounding Queenstown. The large Lake Wakatipu at the city's edge makes for a stunning setting.

There is so much to do in the Queenstown area--mountain biking, parasailing, bungy jumping, kayaking, sailing, boating, jetboating, golfing, and skiing in the wintry hills. There is a great vibe with everyone seeming very active and fit. Underneath the aerial tram/gondola is a concrete downhill luge run that looks like good fun. It has a very nice downtown pedestrian shopping area, an active nightlife, fine dining venues, and an international 'feel'.

We enjoyed a great bike ride around one arm of the lake, around a peninsula-point golf course, through some deep, dark woodlands, and through the community rose garden park. It would have been a pretty awesome golf course to play... next time.

The rose garden park was absolutely stunning with such a broad variety of roses, showing many colors. And the air was scented wonderfully!

Regarding the picture of the plaque posted above, Viggo was very surprised to find a monument in the park dedicated to Robert Falcon Scott and his four comrades, the British Antarctic explorers who perished on their return journey after their trek to the South Pole in 1912. (They arrived at the Pole to find that Norwegian Roald Amundsen's men had beaten them there.)

A highlight of Queenstown was riding the aerial tramway to the top of Bob's Peak, and attending a Maori Kiwi Haka Culture Show. The performance was very informative, amusing, and entertaining. The Maori songs and dances were very nice to hear, as Maori is truly a beautiful, lilting language. The performance began with the women singing a few songs, and doing a few dances, including an audience-participation dance, but, alas, Karen was not selected to go onstage and give it a try.

Then the Maori men came on, demonstrating fighting techniques traditionally used with their short knife and the stabbing spear, quite a formidable weapon. The Haka is the traditional Maori war dance, recognized worldwide nowadays as the New Zealand National Rugby Team, the All Blacks, perform it prior to each international rugby match. The men do it with loud voices, grunts, thigh slaps, yells, and wide eyes and tongues out, putting on a fierce expression to intimidate their enemies.

Though it may be a decision regretted later, Viggo opted to not get a Maori face tattoo.

Bites and a fine Sip: Fish and Chips at a sidewalk stand and dinner at the Bunker. The Bunker is one of the best restaurants in Queenstown and perfect for our last night in New Zealand. It serves local product and typical NZ cuisine. After an "entree" (which is a starter) of duck pate, it was tough to choose between local venison, lamb, grass-fed beef and duck. We settled on venison and beef with an Amisfeld Pinot Noir, one of the best vineyards in the Otago Valley. All was delicious and a perfect end to our three weeks in NZ.