Queenstown is a small town with a very big reputation and the Hotel St Moritz is one of the premium places to stay in Queenstown. Both are extremely well known and highly recommended. This is no accident. Neither of them let us down. Queenstown is an all year round destination. Quite frankly, with almost no off-season, it is a credit to the town that everyone we met in their tourist industry was constantly cheery and keen to help make our stay a wonderful experience.
Let me say at the outset, that there is so much to do in Queenstown, that you wont get it all done in a week. But one of the features that I really liked, and I’m sure anyone with young children will also, is that the travel time to many of the activities or places to visit were all in very close proximity to the town centre. The driving time was kept to a minimum. Let me give you a quick synopsis of one of our days in Queenstown. Snapshot Day #1 – We had a delightful buffet breakfast in Hotel St Moritz. Great food and a terrific view over Lake Wakatipu from the cozy breakfast room. A short walk from the hotel to the Skyline gondola took us up to Queenstown Hill. Its almost a kilometre ride up to the viewing area and luge track. This is a must do for kids. Three different luge tracks to choose from and very safety conscious luge-mobiles. Parents got a coffee and admired the awesome view over the lake and surrounding alps-style mountains.
That done, it was a 10 minute drive to the Shotover River for a spot of thrilling, 360 degree spinning, precision piloting of V8 powered jet boats through the narrow canyons. Decked out in provided ponchos for the anticipated drenching, the wonderfully manic adrenalin rush of a speeding red rocket boat navigating between almost impossibly narrow openings between the sheer cliffs rising out of the exquisitely turquoise coloured mineral loaded super-shallow waters of the Shotover River. Gasp! Catching our breath, we toddled off to quaint Arrowtown, another 10 minutes away, the historic gold mining town from the 1860’s. It is now a laid back centre for beautiful locally made fine quality handcrafted clothing, art galleries, cafes, restaurants and traditional pubs. It is a cool place to catch that breath and have lunch. Hunger sated, a further 10 minute drive got us to Stone Ridge Estate, a small boutique winery/gallery with breathtaking views across Lake Hayes to Coronet Peak. The estate has spectacular picturesque gardens and vineyards with the cutest little stone church. My teenage daughter stated emphatically that that was where she is going to get married, it had that strong an impact on her.
Completing our round trip, we headed back to the St Moritz for a rest and refresh in preparation for our evening meander down to the town and delightful little harbour. A five minute stroll down to town, along the harbour boardwalk past boutique pubs and very attractive restaurants, we dropped in unannounced to the Fishbone Grill, a quirky, humourous establishment with great food in the very heart of town. With still several hours before sunset and all stores open til 10pm, we had a leisurely stroll amongst the cobblestone lanes as my wife assisted the New Zealand economy. We stumbled on the Patagonia handmade chocolate shop, and indulged in a rich dark hot chocolate for supper.
Well, it was 9:30pm on day one, the sun was just going down, and after ambling back up the hill to the warm and welcoming Hotel St Moritz, we fell exhausted into bed. I haven’t even begun to describe horse riding on the set of a “middle earth” movie deep in the hinterland of the Dart River, the well maintained passenger steamer “Earnslaw” on the lake, the hot fresh scones on the Walter Peake High Country Farm tour, or the trip to see the amazing glowworms at Te Anau, and all the other fantastic activities we did over the course of our visit to Queenstown and the luxurious Hotel St Moritz. I guess I should leave something for you to explore yourself and to find the gems of this wonderful place that’s so very close to Australia. My only regret is I didn’t come here sooner!
