We had booked three nights in Queenstown at the wonderful Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel, the kind of place that is certainly not our typical spot. Lovely room, individually prepared gourmet breakfasts with locally sourced ingredients, attentive staff and local wine and canapés from 6-7. Wowzers.
The hotel is located alongside the world’s most picturesque rugby pitch and a five minute walk to the downtown area, ten to the waterfront.
Queenstown is a small town with roughly 30 000 full time inhabitants and the same number of visitors at any given time. It is reminiscent of Banff: a young person’s town. Extreme sports (jet boating, bungee jumping, downhill mountain biking and skiing and snowboarding in the winter months) are the draw along with more sedate pursuits (wine tasting, hiking, mountain and e-biking the network of trails).
Our first night led us downtown where we wandered around, grabbed some drinks and tapas at the trendy Ferg Bar and got oriented to the place.
Day two featured a wine and food tour of Gibbston Valley and Cromwell, two of the main wine areas here. At 45 degrees south, Queenstown is the most southerly wine area in the world and is most suitable to Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. It is a relatively new area with the older vines planted in the early 90’s but is growing rapidly. We stopped at four spots while fitting in a short visit to both Old Cromwell and the quaint Arrowtown.
We popped by the social hour back at the hotel and ran into a couple from Thornbury, Ont. who were heading to Milford Sound on Sunday to do a four day through hike which sounded amazing (adding it to the list for next time). In the “It’s a small world” category of coincidences, they are, of course, good friends with Ian and Linda McKee!
An early evening walk downtown and along the waterfront- the scenery just doesn’t get old.
Saturday morning was a little drizzly but we worked in a visit to the market and a walk through the lovely Queenstown gardens and waterfront trail.
In the afternoon we had booked a trip on the TSS Earnslaw, a 1912 vintage coal fired steamer that is still in operation.
We combined the trip with a visit and bbq lunch at the Walter Peak High Country Farm, a 60,000 acre sheep station that has long-standing ties to the Earnslaw and to Queenstown tourism. Apparently the adjacent station is even larger.
Lunch was terrific as was the border collie herding exhibition and sheep shearing demonstration. This is still very much a working farm with thousands of Merino sheep grazing in the high country. The wool from Merino sheep is still highly valued (upwards of $25 per kg) unlike the crossbred sheep where it is almost more expensive to pay a shearer to shear the sheep than the wool is worth.
It was very pleasant to have a bit of a wander around the farm. The Hairy Coos are purely decorative: the beef cattle are grazed elsewhere.
Early start tomorrow as we make the drive to Milford Sound and our 12:30 booking. Fingers crossed for good weather!
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