Lakeside is nice. and other Queenstown, New Zealand General Tips

Favorite Thing: Many people don't get down to the lakeside of Wakatipu. But I found it to be very beautiful, just a little different to the town beauty.
You just need to drive or walk towards the lake from the main road, right in town, or in the leadin to town, and you find scenes such as these.
This is something you can do walking, and it doesn't cost a cent!!


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Favorite Thing: Queenstown is a small town, easily accessible and you can just walk around. Even just hanging around the city mall, which is a street mall not bigcity mall, is a fun thing to do. Lots of people from all over the world, mostly out to have a fun time, and the atmosphere is vibrant and happy.

Fondest Memory: As you can see the town is nestled amongst the Southern Alps and beside the lake. Just being in town and soaking up the ambience is well worth doing for a few hours, especially if the sun is shining!
This part of town continues to be vibrant after dark as well, with the pubs and restaurants and lots of people.

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Favorite Thing: Queenstown is relatively small, especially the main downtown area. In fact there isn't much room there for a big town. But it's friendly, cosey and quite easy to walk around.
On the edge of the lake and nestled under the mountains, it must start expanding up the valleys and away from the town. This means Queenstown as it is probably won't change much with progress.
The Lake has been known to flood and encompass the town, causing big problems and massive damage, but it always bounces back and seems to live on. This doesn't happen often, I might add!

Fondest Memory: Kiwis often say it's crowded (with tourists, LOL) and too busy, but really by international standards, Queenstown is small and compact.

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Favorite Thing: If you visit during summer, and have a vehicle available to you, consider the drive over the Crown Range to Wanaka.
You must be a competant driver, and the weather must not be icey.
On the road out of Queenstown, Hwy 6, towards Cromwell, take the turning to the Crown Range, on the left side of the road. Or it may be signposted Cardrona Road.
The initial part of the road is a steep windy climb up to the plateau, and the rest is much easier going.
You can view more photos of this road here.

Fondest Memory: When you get to the top of the windy part, there is a fine lookout where I suggest you stop to take in the view looking back to Arrowtown.
Before you reach Wanaka, you pass the well known Cardrona Hotel, well worth a stop for coffee or lunch, or even beer. The old pioneers hotel has been renovated and has accommodation out the back. The hotel is found on the road, beneath Mt Cardrona and the Cardrona skifield.
NZ has a very young history but this is one of the older places.
Just a little further along you come to the airfield and it's fence of brassieres. An "interesting" occurance of ladies discarding their bra's to add to the collection swinging in the wind.

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Favorite Thing: If you do manage to drive up the Crown Range, to Cardrona, take a look at the lovely store and petrol bowser, situated next to the Cardrona Hotel.
It is the General murchant, Post and Telegraph centre.


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Favorite Thing: Some of the best photos are taken early morn or late evening. I thoroughly recommend that you get up and out early with your camera and capture this amazing area on 'film' or memory stick.

Fondest Memory: I particularly love the range known as The Remarkables. I love the skyline so rugged and interesting. I love the way the mountains change colour at this time of day, as you can see here in the photo with the gentle pink hues and the fog and cloud to give a soft effect.

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Favorite Thing: Parking in Queenstown can sometimes be a problem although they are building more carparks. When I visit I often find parking in the area of Camp St, Earl St. This is roadside Park 'n Pay. You must walk to the machine nearest your carpark and pay for a ticket. The limit is 2 hours and this cost me $4. Not really a lot for downtown parking. You can pay by credit card or cash, and you receive a ticket which must be displayed visible on the dash board in the front of the car.

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Wilson Parking have an underground park in Church St and are building more , where you can pay $4 per hour to the maximun of $10. And if you are there before 10am, an all day fee of $5 .
There are also carparks in Memorial Street, Gorge Road, Athol Street and Stanley Street.



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