The Cube

I walked in to a tourist info/booking centre and heard someone telling the person behind the counter that he wanted to do sky diving, speedboat and bungee jumping. :|

The only one (of the three) that I could see myself doing is probably just the speedboat, I could be persuaded (if one tried very very very very (x many, many times) hard for skydiving. I really can't imagine jumping off a cliff by my own will.

So, for scaredy-cat like me, I did the boring stuff, in the city of adventure.

Walkabout:

Lake Esplanade, Earnslaw Park and City

TSS Earnslow Cruise departs from here...

St Peter's Church

Skyline Gondola

Riding up the Skyline Queenstown Gondola and enjoy the view of Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Walter Peak, Cecil Peak and of course, over Queenstown.



Onsen Hot Pools

Private indoor onsen pools, overlooking Shotover River canyon. It has a retractable roof that is controlled with a push button.

Can fit four people in one tub

View from onsen room

Control buttons

Eat!

Fishbone Bar & Grill

Stumbled upon this restaurant from my friend's itinerary and she had done some research on places to eat.. so we went with it. This is the most expensive meal we had but I would have to say I wish it was better, not that it wasn't good but it didn't wow...:|


Fergburger

There is always a queue all the way to the outside, thought I think most are tourists, but the burgers I tried were good. The wait staff would bring out some fries for people in the queue, food while waiting wins points. :)



Paua Patty

My colleagues from New Zealand introduced me to this food, and being the glutton foodie that I am, I make sure I know how to pronounce this word and the spelling of it, in case I need to ask around on where to find them :P

Paua is a Maori name to abalone, however one does not need to pay through their nose to eat this as they are made into patties. I love the paua patties we got from this stall at Marine Parade in Queenstown. :)



Patagonia Ice-Cream

How lucky can one be? The paua patties and this yummy chocolate ice-cream are not far from each other ;)

The ice-cream that had my little niece's eyes lighten up

Other snacks





Side note: I could do with an onsen dip and a yummy paua patty now.. *dreamy*

As mentioned in the previous post, we took a day tour to Milford Sound from Te Anau. It would appear that tours option by Real Journeys are the more popular ones if you look them up online. However, we opted for a tour by another company - AwesomeNZ. The company name is a little on the tacky side but the lower cost won us over. Despite both include pick up from hotel option, AwesomeNZ is cheaper and even include free snackbox lunch. If you want other lunch options, you could pay a little more for that. However, the snackbox lunch provided is filling and not bad. :)

The tour departs from Queenstown, so by the time it reaches Te Anau to pick us up, the bus was almost full. We have very little option of seats and ended up not sitting together but that was only the bus ride bits.

It's Middle Earth views all the way, and the bus that we were in was a glass roff coach.. mm.. but of course, it also means the it could be warm when the sun shone through.



View from the bus side window.. not glass roof #1

View from the bus side window.. not glass roof #2

This bus tour included a stop at Mirror Lakes and Eglinton Valley before reaching Milfound Sound.

Mirror Lakes

In reality, it was not as serene, there were a few tour buses at that time and many, many tourists flocking to these Mirror Lakes, did the little walk on the boardwalk and boarded respectively buses again.




Edlington Valley



More Russell Lupine

Edlington Valley was the last stop, but of course superb view all along the road till we reached Milford Sound. Our driver let us know where to find him and the bus, and we went on our way, with two cards - one to get us onboard, the other to exchange for lunch.

Comes with complimentary coffee and tea too

Milfound Sound was beautiful, and to top it off, there were a couple of points during the cruise that made it even more worthwhile.




New Zealand Fur Seals sun baking on Seal Rock

This should be Stirling Falls

Side note: In Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Sights books - the one waterfall in NZ filed under Most Impressive Waterfalls is Sutherland Falls. It is near Milford Sound, but only accessible by hiking the 4 day, 53.5 km Milford Track.

I was waiting for Little P in Chinatown for dinner before catching a movie. I looked up and thought, "Hey, I didn't realise this before" and took a shot. Right after that, I saw a man next to me, aiming his phone at the same thing and took a shot too ;)


Side note: Please make my weekend longer!

Despite Te Anau sits on the edge of the beautiful Lake Te Anau and to the boder of Fiordland National Park, I believe most who visitors who flocked to this township make this as their base before proceeding to the famous Milford Sound, or Doubtful Sound or some hiking track.

Prior Te Anau, we have only had a night to spare at each stop, this is the only township where we spend an additional night, for the same reason - Milford Sound. We signed up for a day tour for Milford Sound, following review of tricky drive route. So this township is where we had our holiday of holidays (mostly sis and BIL) - I play no part in driving, I don't own a full Australian driving license yet... need to fix this soon too.




Our two nights were booked with Aden Motel - a no fuss, homely, residential looking kind of motel. In fact, the whole area looked like a big residential housing area, of course with an added bonus of walking distance to Lake Te Anau.

We missed the timing to check out the Te Anau Glowworm Cave on both days, so spent both evenings walking around the lake. 



 




Side note: *yawn*

Love or Hate?

Wanaka is a town in the Otago region.  We reached Wanaka at night, after pressed on from Mount Cook. The next morning, after preparing lunch box for ourselves, we made our first stop - the popular family fun activity at Puzzling World.



Puzzling World is set divided into two parts - The Great Maze (Labyrinth) and Illusion Rooms. Entry fees for both cost NZ$17.50 for adult. Otherwise it is charged at NZ$14 respectively individually.

Our strategy was to go to tackle the labyrinth first in the morning before it gets too hot.


As we are such a noob at this, grin - we only did the Standard Challenge.

Promise I didn't zoom in from the other corner of the labyrinth.

At the Puzzle Centre and Cafe, one get to enjoy some food (from memory, only food bought from cafe can be consumed at this cafe) and play with the puzzles provided on the table. There's a separate eating area if you bring your own food.


The Puzzling World is built thoughtfully - as even the public toilet is made Roman-Style. Fun and entertaining.



Inside the Illusion Rooms, it was again divided into a few smaller sections. One of them is this Hall of Following Faces.

Raised or Concave? ;)

After spending slightly over 3 hours at this fun-filled giant puzzle place, we were on our way again. The other two places sis has listed down as activity was Beerworks and a Toy Museum. Both place are actually located side by side.


 I poked my head inside Beerworks, there was an explanation session runnning at the time and we didn't really want to wait, so we walked over the the Toy Museum next door. According to it's own website, it is said to be the biggest private, open to public collection in the Southern Hemisphere.



These are the shops bits, therefore no entrance fee required.

Say Hi to Papa Smurf

Entrance fee applied from here onwards, as these are the museum bits - Adults NZ$15 pp, school age child NZ$5 pp, and Family NZ$35. Under 5 years Free. We were being cheapskate and skipped this bits though we made a coffee stop. Mmm..I'll say get your coffee elsewhere, unfortunately.

...for tomorrow.

My maiden trial of making dumpling.. lol - so no dumpling hunting this year.


Side note: This self painting Rakuyaki in Karuizawa looks fun!