Queenstown 2020

We were up at sparrow fart to get on a plane down to Queenstown at 9:10. Thanks to our trip to Costa Rica earlier this year (was it really this year? It seems like a lifetime ago!), we’ve got plenty of airpoints and dollars, so our silver status entitled us to Koru Lounge entry. This includes breakfast, so we got there early to be able to take our time.

The flight down was a little bumpy, but we landed without fuss and took a cab to our hotel before heading out into town. We’re centrally located so walking is not a problem. We picked up a couple of things we wanted for our expedition in two days’ time on the Milford Track. We’ve got a couple of days in Queenstown before we set out on Christmas Eve.

The obvious spot for lunch in Queenstown is Fergburger. This has become an institution and usually entails a queue down the street and an hour-long wait for your food as they run a non-stop burger production from their kitchen. Nowadays, however, without the thousands of overseas tourists who usually throng the streets of Queenstown, we were able to march smartly up, order our burgers, and wait barely 10 minutes (roughly the time it takes to cook them) before they were ready. Queenstown is still busy, but not quite as manic as is usual at this time of year (and in fact the whole of the summer). We have taken the precaution of making sure we have bookings for dinner for all our nights here.

Look...no queues!

After lunch we took a walk through Queenstown Gardens, along the lake front and then through the forest and gardens, where people were playing frisbee golf on the specially-designed course.

In the evening, we went out to Botswana Butchery on the lake front. This is one of Queenstown’s top dining experiences, complete with waiters with poncy French accents. Fortunately they didn’t have French waiter attitude, but were very polite and efficient. We had cocktails followed by a steak (me) and hāpuku (Nicola). As their speciality is their meat, they have a regular menu, and a “little black book” updated daily with various cuts that they have only available on that day. I went for the Wakanui eye fillet, with green peppercorn sauce. The puddings were also up to scratch, I had chocolate and Nicola had a tarte tatin.

That about wrapped up Day 1. Tomorrow, I jump off a mountain.