As you first catch sight of Lake Wakatipu, framed by the Remarkables, you can go a little wobbly in the knees. Yes, Queenstown is that sort of beautiful. The mountains – the bare, the tree-coated and the craggy - spill down into the greenstone of the water. They live up to their name.
The town has come a long way from its 1860s gold mining camp days. The landscaping is pristine, the houses modern and the store names wouldn’t be out of place in London, New York or Hong Kong. It has the sort of upscale feel of elegance of an Aspen or a Carmel, the sort of place where a dog turd on the sidewalk would spark an emergency session of the City Council and editorials in the local newspaper bemoaning the decline of civilization. (I, personally, was outraged!)
Sitting at 1,000 feet above sea level and, in a lovely way, in the middle of nowhere, Queenstown has a buzz about it. There are 120 restaurants and bars and they are all immaculate and filled with young, hip backpackers and the new Asian high-flyers. And me. The place is happening.
But none of that really matters. It is all about the world around Queenstown. It takes your breath away on a good day and makes you appreciate the raw power of nature on a stormy one. The lake itself is deep – deeper than we are high – and mysterious. On a cloudy day it is dark and you understand that it is 1,200 feet deep in places. On a sunny day it tempts you with its crystal-clear purity and its palette of many colors – the great mood ring of Queenstown.
“The Adventure Capital of the World,” is how Queenstown bills itself. But that cheapens her a bit, putting herself in the same leagues as a Cozumel. The adventure stuff is here – there’s an imposing cable car hovering above the downtown, bungee, helicopters, jet boats and much etc. – but, really, a hike up the mountain or sitting in a kayak on Wakatipu brings the kind of highs that don’t need adrenaline.
The TSS Earnslaw, the only coal-fired steamship left in action, will have been plying her trade for a century next year. Yes, she was built the same year as the Titanic and graces the waters of the lake with a fan of smoke that made me nostalgic for days I never knew.
We are heading out and about today, so more of all of the above later.
2 comments:
Was lucky enough to live there for three years in the nineties - beautiful and educational!
My mother is Scottish, Pitlochry, and she felt very at home in the mountains when they visited.
wow nice pictures
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