When it comes to picture postcard towns, Queenstown may be the Mona Lisa.
Nestled in the mountains and perched along the shore of Lake Wakatipu, the adventure capital of New Zealand is a scenic masterpiece. Looking down from the town’s gondola, you see a quaint, low-rise town sprinkled with greenery, caressed by a sparkling turquoise lake and dwarfed by majestic mountains that still have ice caps late in the summer. The permanent population is only 15,000, though the constant swarm of tourists makes it seem larger.
Shotover Street, the town’s business hub, is lined with so many adventure outfits, sporting good stores and travel agencies that it’s known as “adrenaline alley.’’ Advertised activities include skydiving, bungee jumping, jet boating, paragliding, parasailing, kayaking, rafting, glacier hiking, river surfing, dirt biking, zip lining, hang gliding and flyboarding. In Queenstown, everyone looks like they’re auditioning for the next “Survivor’’ series.
Sometimes, the escapades have tragic endings. Last month, a 27-year-old California tennis coach drowned in Lake Wakatipu following a skydiving accident. His body still hasn’t been found.
Pat and I survived our big adventure, a jet boat ride on the Dart River. The trip almost got canceled because of heavy rain and gusty winds, but we got a last-minute reprieve and started the day with a picturesque 45-minute bus ride from Queenstown to Glenorchy, a small town at the top of Lake Wakatipu.
From there, it was a short ride to an ancient beech forest where scenes were filmed for the “Lord of the Rings’’ movie trilogy. One of the giant wooden chairs used in the films to make normal-size actors look like tiny Hobbits remains in the forest and is a popular prop for tourist photos. Last year the area was also used as a stand-in for Iraq in scenes shot for the latest “Mission: Impossible’’ movie starring Tom Cruise. Maybe it’s just me, but New Zealand and Iraq don’t seem to belong in the same sentence.
After walking out of the forest, we were outfitted with life preservers and loaded into a 14-seat jet boat for our Dart River journey. It was cold and pouring, but the mountain views were breathtaking and the high-speed ride was exhilarating. Racing up to 55 miles per hour, our driver steered us inches from rocks that protruded from the shallow river and did 360-degree donut spins that left us drenched. Pat, who is prone to motion sickness, endured with the help of a healthy dose of Bonine.
We also took a scenic cruise around Milford Sound, once described by Rudyard Kipling as “the eighth wonder of the world.’’ It’s part of a UNESCO World Heritage site that encompasses four national parks in the southwest corner of New Zealand’s South Island. Though it’s called a sound, Milford is actually a fjord – a long, narrow inlet bordered by steep cliffs that was created by glacial movement.
We got from Queenstown to Milford Sound via a winding 5½-hour bus ride through the Southern Alps that our driver described as “lumpy, bumpy.’’ There’s no direct road from Queenstown but if there were, the ride would only take about an hour.
Milford Sound is flanked by a couple of impressive mountain peaks named after animals whose shapes they resemble — The Elephant and The Lion. It also has many magnificent waterfalls. The tallest — and only permanent ones — are Lady Bowen (531 feet) and Stirling (495 feet), both of which are three times higher than Niagara Falls. (Stirling was featured in the 2009 movie “X Men Origins: Wolverine.’’)
Stirling and Lady Bowen flow year-round, but other waterfalls in the area dry up a few days after the rain stops, which isn’t that often because it’s one of the wettest spots in the world with more than 200 rainy days a year. It’s said that if you’re sprayed by the mist of Stirling Falls, you’ll wake up feeling 10 years younger. I’m not sure if that’s true, though the following day I had a sudden urge to skateboard and call everyone “dude.’’
Back in Queenstown, we stopped at one of its most popular destinations – Fergburger. It’s a takeout joint that’s become such a legend that customers wait in long lines, sometimes for more than an hour, to order one of their gigantic burgers, which come with a variety of toppings. (We came late in the morning when the lines aren’t as long and only had to wait 25 minutes to get our food.)
The burger was tasty and filling, but I’ve had better. Plus, is it really fast food when you could read an entire novella while waiting to get served?
Next stop: Fox Glacier.
