Queenstown, New Zealand (March 2018)

After the impressive tour at Milford Sound, we came through the same road back to Mossburn, a small town that is perfectly located as a comfort stop. In front of a small park with toilets, there is an convenience store. They were selling ice cream and other goods like hot cakes. Its owner is a Korean Kiwi. Ha...! A statue of a deer was welcoming all who pass by Mossburn.

On the way to Queenstown, we watched a video about New Zealand's national parks. But I dozed off.

Queenstown is called the "Adventure Capital of the World." It has everything. Every sport you can think of, they have. Summer or winter. Land or water.

This town started due to gold rush and is still the wealthiest region in New Zealand. The average home price is NZD1 million. Tom Cruise had its Mission Impossible movie filmed in 2017 and John Travolta has a house in Queenstown.

Its permanent residents number only 15,000, but this town is always full of visitors both in the summer and winter. During the winter time, Queenstown attracts skiers and boarders who enjoy the beauty of Remarkables Ski area.

Queenstown is located right by the second largest lake in New Zealand, called Lake Wakatipu. Its deepest part goes deeper (399 meter) than the sea level since the lake sits at the height of 310 meter. Five rivers flow into this lake, but only one river flows out of the lake. So what happens to the remaining water? This lake has a strange phenomenon. The lake water level goes up and down by 12-20 cm every 27 minutes. I suspect that there is a big mouth at the bottom of the lake that gushes the water out to the sea every 27 minutes and for the next 27 minutes the lake receives the water from the five rivers. Sounds plausible...? Believe it or not...

I took a jet boat ride called Shotoverjet. It was riding a jet boat on the Shotover River in the gorges. It was thrilling. The boat was turning 360 degrees several times and we were passing right by the rocks in the gorge without much gap. Wow... A bit scary... But, the company was proud of no incident over its 20 plus years of operations. The jet boat pilot requires 120 hours of commercial jet boating experiences compared to regular motor boating requirements of 60 hours. For a 25 minute ride, we had to pay NZD150. These boats can go with only 10 cm depth of water. That is amazing.

After I took the jet boat ride, I met up with Kristin in the town. She walked down from the hotel. Then, we took a ride on Skyline Gondola to the top of a hill. We walked around on the trail in the woods. The view from the hill top was panoramic.

We walked by the lake to the hotel. The last climb on the uphill was a bit challenging, but we were glad that we walked. The trees by the lake were gigantic.

We took a but to go to the dock and took a steamboat, TSS Earnslow, to cross the lake to the other side. This steamboat was launched in 1912 in Dunedin. We rode the boat for 40 minutes to reach the other side of the lake. We had a BBQ dinner at a farmer's mansion, namely Walter Peak High Country Farm. The BBQ buffet dinner was wonderful. Foods were excellent!

After the dinner, we watched the sheep shearing demonstration and also sheep dogs attending to the sheep.

On the way back, people sang along almost 40 plus songs together on the steamboat. I could not identify many songs, but I also sang along several songs, such as Sweet Caroline, Amazing Grace, Old Lang Syne.

It was a day filled with a lot of activities. - Jeffrey