Queenstown and the South : breath-taking landscapes !

We are now in New Zealand on the South Island. It’s end of autumn, beginning of winter…. But luckily we have good warm equipment…and it’s not raining!

Let’s discover Queenstown, the city on the lake. After a tour in the city center (quite small actually), we climbed at the top of the gondola (on foot). The vie over the lake, the mountains and Queenstown is beautiful…and eating a lemon tart in front of it is just the little missing detail for a perfect day!

Then we headed to a cool place (not that it is really hot outside but still): having a drink in an ice bar! Everything in there from walls to roof is made of ice! Nice but too touristic!

After these few days in Queenstown, we moved to the East coast, to Oamaru and Dunedin. There we met seals and yellow eyed penguins.

In Dunedin we also climbed the steepest street in the World! Our legs suffered a little but our car was fine!!! And after the effort, we went to Cadbury, you know the chocolate maker?? Hmmm it was delicious and we saw a one ton chocolate fountain… Just a pity that we did not have any strawberries…

Back to Queenstown we visited a wine cave (and not only to visit it if you know what I mean). The wine was good (because they are kept in French oak barrel) and the Gibston Valley is the third producer of pinot noir in the world!

Each ride in New Zealand takes time…because the landscapes are so beautiful that you “have to” stop every 10 minutes to take pictures!

Before going to the glaciers, we went back to Queenstown to do some luge… not on the snow but on a nice sealed road! That was really fun (but a little scary) and after 4 descents, the winner was Romain with 2 victories!

The next two days were dedicated to cruising in fjords. First we visited Milford Sound under a sunny day (but only few degrees) and we were impressed by the work of Mother Nature: cliffs falling straight in the sea, waterfalls running fast, turquoise water… and a party of playing dolphins! During this beautiful day we also see a mirror lake and one kea, the only alpine parrot!

For the second cruise in the Doubtful Sound, we were with Manu (we met him in Australia) who will be our travel mate for the next 4 weeks! Once again, it was a beautiful day, with a big sun, a beautiful landscapes, seals and dolphins….

Now we are heading to the West coast for new adventures!