Living in the moment

Day 11: Queenstown

This morning, we woke up to a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding us (again!) and headed back to Queenstown. Since Milford Sound is at the end of the road, we snaked back through the same rainforests and mountains as on our way in, but it all seemed new again. Every time we see something, it feels as if we are seeing everything for the first time. And though we have seen so many mountains and trees and sheep, it never seems to get old. The awe remains.

And again, the weather was great! Whatever was foggy yesterday was clear today, and vice versa, so we managed to see everything there was to see across the two days of our trip! We got back to Queenstown and spent the evening planning and booking a few things. It is stressful to do things so last-minute, but there is also a sense of just enjoying everything as it is happening and seeing what we feel like doing next. Its kind of zen – living in the moment! 

 Sheep, sheep, everywhere!

Wine in the mountains

Day 9: Queenstown

We took the liberty of waking up a little later than usual today. After so much activity in the past week, a little extra sleep was welcome! We had no plan for the day, so we headed out of our hotel to go to town. Since we had arrived at night last night, we didn’t have a chance to see what Queenstown looked like. We stepped into the lobby of our hotel to see floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Wakatipu and the mountains aptly named The Remarkables! Wow.

We went to town to book our stay for tomorrow night (details to follow), had a nice little homemade sandwich (thanks for the inspiration, Monique!) at a park with a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains and the water lapping up on the shore in front of us, and then decided to do a winery tour in Gibbston, a town just over from Queenstown.

On the way to the wineries, we were very excited when we saw another beautiful rainbow! Then, we gave a ride to two girls whose car broke down and who were backpacking to another town to do some conservation work with birds in the area. First time picking up hitchhikers! Good karma!

The main type of wine in NZ is Pinot Noir. The grape vines were brought over from France in the early 1900s, with the logic that since Queenstown was at the same latitude as France, the Pinots would grow well in the same kind of climate. So we did a few tastings of the Pinots and some Rieslings, had a tour of a wine cave with a cellar, and tasted some yummy cheeses. We visited three wineries and then went back to town to grab dinner and take it back to our hotel.

Unfortunately, the only downside of NZ is the food. We have yet to have a good meal (besides the ones that we prepared and the one Korean meal in Rotorua), and considering that the food is so expensive, it should be much better! (Although it could be that our taste buds are used to much more salt and spices than the Kiwis (a.k.a New Zealanders) are used to.) Sadly, we’ve actually resorted to Subway (three times) and McDonalds (a painful once) because we didn’t have any other options! But we can’t really complain – all that NZ doesn’t have in food, it has in everything else, so we’re still really happy! 

Tomorrow’s a big day! 

View of the Remarkables

Grape vine over the mountains