Queenstown from Above
Flying into Queenstown, New Zealand on Christmas Eve,we decided to do something with our afternoon. We choose the gondola ride up for the view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding area. The Skyline Gondola goes to the top of Bob’s Peak. (It really is called this. Isn’t that cool?) The views of the area are fantastic and you can watch the storms come in. Play in the gift shop and watch others defy death for an afternoon.
Skyline Gondola to Bob’s Peak
At 25NZD round trip for each of us, it was a decent price for a good couple of hours. The gondola leaves from a base station near the kiwi bird park only a few minutes walk from the center of town. Even the ride up gave some great views of town and lake. Although the warning sign that the thing can stop randomly did not settle a stomach still a bit of from the flight.
I did love the idea that someone named the mountain “Bob’s Peak“. I understand that there are those named Bob that are perhaps grand explorers and namers of things, but still it does sound a bit unusual.
Things We Could Have Done.. but Didn’t
The top of the peak is also an area of activities. The New Zealand classic original of bungy jumping was on offer. We saw them from the gondola. There were also a number of luge tracks. Ok, I think of luge from the olympics where some poor sod rides a tiny sled down an icy track face first. These were far more tourist friendly. Steerable 4 wheel carts on concrete tracks. Even still on the list of stuff we did NOT do.
Really, this will become one of the themes of our trip. Look at all the high adrenaline and adventure travel activities that we have no interest in.
Storms and the Giftshop
The building at the top of the Gondola has a restaurant and great wrap around balcony. Although we had a beautiful sunny flight down into Queenstown, by this point in the afternoon the rainstorms were coming in. The cool part was seeing the storms slowly roll in from the Remarkables. The bad part was getting wet. The views were spectacular between the droplets though.
So once it started pouring we did what any self respecting travel blogger would do. We sat in chairs and tried to see if we could get the free wi-fi of the place to work on our phones. After I got fed up of this, I started looking through the gift shop. Ok, it was the first day of my trip, but maybe I could get my souvenir buying over with.
Here are some of the hilarious things we saw in the gift shop.
Queenstown from Above
So the real reason we went up the gondola was to see Queenstown from above. Although the landing path of the plane is pretty impressive, this was cool too. And I have pictures of this view from the top of a mountain, while I was holding onto my seat while landing.
Aren’t we cute?
Top Of the Bottom :: InspiringTravellers.com - Travel the World
November 9, 2012 @ 11:30 am
[…] beautiful. When we first got up top we could see a storm coming in. We saw rain from high up in Queenstown. The worry that the storm would get to us before the sun set was […]
Seeing Kiwis in New Zealand » Grounded Traveler
March 28, 2012 @ 12:10 am
[…] there are actually a number of kiwi sanctuaries around New Zealand, including one in Queenstown that we walked by, I picked Rainbow Springs to go see my first kiwi bird. It was near the end of the […]
Fiordland Park : Forests, Mountains and Waterfalls » Grounded Traveler - Expat Adventures in Germany
February 11, 2012 @ 7:13 pm
[…] Sound is one of the most well known sights in New Zealand and close to the tourist haven of Queenstown, so there are a lot of options to get out there. We decided against a day trip and did an overnight […]
February 8, 2012 @ 12:48 am
Gotta be honest here: the views are nice and all, but I’m really here for the fur nipple covers.
That has to take the cake as best giftshop gift of all time. Hilarious! 😀
February 9, 2012 @ 8:45 pm
I don’t know how many people buy them, but it was very cool to see.
February 6, 2012 @ 5:54 pm
Great photos! The view from up there looks amazing. The gonodla looks kind of scary-steep. Love the random little gift shop “art” too 🙂 They must be cold with all the body-part warmers 🙂 I’m such a coward. Would never do bungy jumping! The carts look kind of ok though. or were the streets very steep?
February 7, 2012 @ 8:24 pm
It was not the steepest I have been in. It didn’t really wobble much either.
It is hard to tell how steep the streets were, but enough that you could get moving easily. Not so steep that I looked at it and was afraid. It just wasn’t one of my things. I have no interest in jumping from anything.
February 5, 2012 @ 3:08 pm
Oooh, luge tracks?? I don’t think I’d try it, but it reminds me of Cool Running (only the BEST movie of the 90s, obviously… and one I’ve seen like 80 times). Also, those gondola views are gorgeous!
February 5, 2012 @ 3:46 pm
It does not look as scary as the word ‘luge’ makes it seem. I think I might have tried it, but I am perfectly ok not as well. Cool Runnings is indeed very cool. I don’t know if I thought of it at the time, but I can’t not now.
February 4, 2012 @ 9:49 am
New Zealand is awesome, isn’t it? Queenstown is one of the coolest hippie-hip places I know. The chess-set says it all.
February 4, 2012 @ 5:32 pm
It was not a talking chess set. Although that would be interesting. 😉 I definitely liked the country and the city, though not necessarily my thing for more than a few days.
February 4, 2012 @ 6:41 am
Very cute! We actually didn’t go up high to see the view from above but we absolutely adored Queenstown
February 4, 2012 @ 5:31 pm
I think I would have liked Queenstown better not around Christmas time. The original plan was to be there for New Years, but it didn’t work out as there was no housing to be had. I can well imagine how crazy it is on NYE.
February 4, 2012 @ 6:37 am
Love the photos and the views. The last photo is the best one! 🙂
February 4, 2012 @ 5:30 pm
Thanks. 🙂
February 7, 2012 @ 7:19 am
Thanks Jeremy!