The first thing we did when we arrived was thank the heavens it wasn’t raining. We were staying under 1km from the airport and had decided not to get a car immediately, so needed to walk Mr4, Marks skis, and a weeks worth of other gear for three of us to our accommodation. We “borrowed” a couple of trolleys from the airport to do it, then had a great adventure walking them back again.
We thought we were saving money by not renting a car until we needed it to get out of town, but the bus to and from Frankton was expensive. Thankfully, by not using the airport bus stop, we saved $5/adult, but confirming what the price per person was before we got on the bus was impossible – the website didn’t have a clear pricing table, and the call centre wasn’t answering their phone on a Saturday morning. It wound up costing us nearly as much for a return on the bus as we paid per day for our car. But at least we didn’t have to worry about parking time limits.
We splurged on a trip up the gondola and a package of luge rides, and it was worth every cent. Mr4 had an amazing time, although he’s definitely getting too big to ride pillion – good thing he’ll be old enough to solo by the time we go back in a couple of years. I was in agony by the end of it, the shaking and effort required of your wrists aggravated a wrist injury I’m still in physio for. Thankfully we took heat and cold packs on holiday with us!
On our way back to Queenstown, we stopped at the Kawerau Bungy centre, to walk across the bridge, and to watch people throw themselves off it. Probably some of the best free fun we had in 10 days outside of various playgrounds we found. Mr4 loved rambling up and down between the various viewing decks, and watching the jumpers. Personally, I’m keen to try the zipline ride there next time we’re in town. Not anywhere near as adventurous as a bungy jump, but also significantly cheaper!
We went off the tourist track and hit up Alpine Aqualand on our last morning, after returning our rental car and checking in our bags. As always, the pool was lovely. Interestingly, the pool tastes salty, as if it uses salt-water chlorination or similar rather than traditional chlorine. Its not a cheap treat to visit the pool, but we got a solid nearly 2 hours of play to fill in our day, so it was worth it.
The hardest part of our time in Queenstown was probably that it was so short – two nights on our way to Wanaka, one night on the way home.
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