Migratory Musings: What We Saw In Queenstown including Doubtful Sound Tour

A Trip Down Under 2019
Qantas 747 Business Class San Francisco - Sydney
Qantas Business Class Lounge, Sydney Airport
Qantas A330 Business Class Sydney - Auckland
Holiday Inn Auckland Airport - Review
The Pavilions Hotel, Christchurch - Review
What We Saw In Christchurch
Hilton Queenstown Resort and Spa - Review
What We Saw In Queenstown including Doubtful Sound Tour
Avani Metropolis Hotel, Auckland - Review
What We Saw In Auckland
Oceans Mooloolaba - Review
What We Saw On The Sunshine Coast
Brisbane Marriott - Review
Qantas 787 Business Class Brisbane - Los Angeles

This was my second visit to Queenstown as I'd visited with our ski council back in 2006. Back then we'd stayed in town and taken day trips out to a couple of resorts. We had better accommodation this time around but the weather just didn't want to cooperate. It was cool during our stay and downright chilly at night. We really only spent any time in Queenstown proper on the afternoon we arrived. We enjoyed walking around the little town, seeing the sights and souvenir hunting. As the next day was expected to be rainy, we arranged a tour of Doubtful Sound for the day after that. When I'd visited previously there was a giant kiwi statue near the wharf but it appears to be gone. However I found a couple of other fun things in town:

At left, in the US we cross the street at a crosswalk but elsewhere in the world it's known as a zebra crossing, though not usually so literally! At right, the kiwi is gone but this is a Moa which could grow to 3 meters tall and grow to over 550 pounds. Talk about the real Big Bird!

Skyline Queenstown

This was a fun place I remembered from my prior visit. To reach the base of Skyline you must walk up a very steep road. If mobility is an issue you'll want to catch a ride up there. Once at the base you buy tickets and then take a gondola up the mountain. This is an enclosed sky bucket to whisk you to the top, much like one you'd see at a ski resort or an amusement park. Once at the top there are a couple of restaurants: one is a casual, coffee shop and deli type of place and then there's the Stratsofare Restaurant which is not only open during the day but for dinner as well. It's got a great view of the lights of the city at night.

In addition to the great views you can buy tickets for the mountain bike park, an alpine luge, bungee jumping and, at night, stargazing. We bought a 2-ride ticket on the luge and had a lot of fun. There are two tracks and everyone does the beginner track first. For the second ride you can choose to run that track again or move to the more advanced track which has a significant drop at one point to keep you on your toes. It was fun to race each other without trying to bump into one another. I wished we could have done it a few more times!

View of the alpine luge track and Lake Wakatipu

We stopped for a beverage afterwards and you could really appreciate the view of town.

Fortunately, walking around town we didn't need our umbrellas and we chose to stop for dinner as a small shower blew through. Luckily it was done by the time were were finished and we took the water taxi back to the hotel.

The weathercasters actually got it right for the following day and it was indeed rainy and cool. We enjoyed a day just vegging out in our condo. Even traveling for fun can get tiring at times!

Doubtful Sound Tour

On my prior trip to Queenstown I'd taken a tour to Milford Sound and thoroughly enjoyed it. This time, based on a recommendation from a Kiwi living in the US, we took the Doubtful Sound tour and it was every bit as lovely, even though the weather was gloomy. It turned out to be a good thing that we weren't planning to go to Milford as the prior day's rain turned to snow at some elevations and the Milford trip ended up getting canceled.

The tour had a taxi take us down to a specific bus stop where the motorcoach picked us up for the journey. It's about a 2.5-3 hour trip to reach the first boat. We did have a stop along the way and grabbed some hot chocolate.

Map from Google Maps

We got off the bus at Lake Manapouri and took a boat across. Then we boarded a second set of buses to reach Doubtful Sound. As you may can tell from the map, there are no roads leading to Doubtful Sound. There are two tour companies licensed to lead tours here and they had to load up boats/barges/something that floats to get these motorcoaches to this piece of land between the lake and the sound. The buses take you up over the Wilmot Pass and down to edge of the sound. It was originally named 'Doubtful Harbour' by Captain Cook because he wasn't sure it could be navigated under sail. Local sailors renamed it Doubtful Sound though it's actually a fjord and is in the Fiordlands National Park.

It's truly lovely territory, lots of greenery in springtime and the waterfalls were flowing with melting snow. After we'd been out quite awhile, they cut the engines and told us all to just be quiet. It's amazing how quiet things can be in isolation.

Here are photos of our bus journey and from the cruise of the sound. I think they speak for themselves.