New Zealand: Queenstown

New Zealand was an incredibly beautiful and picturesque land! If you missed the first half of our trip in Taupo, you can read about it here. After we visited Taupo in the North Island, we went to the South Island to visit Queenstown. Queenstown is nestled on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and has some of THE most beautiful scenery I have ever experienced! The views are literally breathtaking!

When we first checked into our Hilton Queenstown Hotel, we were so excited to see they had left us a note to wish us Happy 5 Year Anniversary and created towel swans on the bed. But, the most incredible thing about our room was the balcony and view out over the lakes and the mountains. Prepare to be amazed!

One of my favorite things we did while we were in New Zealand was horse back riding. We did a Lord of the Rings trail so we got to see lots of the areas where the movie was filmed and some of the horses that belonged to our tour company were actually in the movie! Not to mention the drive out along the HUMONGOUS lake was breathtaking with the snow-capped mountains, rolling green hills, and beautiful water! It looks like we are photoshopped into the beautiful scenery around us below.

Below are pictures from our horseback riding adventure. I rode Court who was a little ornery and wanted to be the in the lead the whole time and Eric rode Scar who was much more docile and easy to work with. It was funny watching the horses interact and you’ll see in the video below how Court was not so much into listening to me…

Unfortunately, we learned on this trip that Eric is super allergic to horses. If you know Eric, you’re probably not surprised. 😉 He’s allergic to cats, dogs, and many other things! He literally had red welts all over his back, neck and was itchy all over….Eeek! He was a trooper though. He knows how much I love animals and had been wanting to go horseback riding forever!

We spent a few of our days just lazing around the city and trying to take it in like the locals do. We ate a Fergburger which is one of their most famous burger joints in town, lazed around in the park, strolled through a street fair, ate way too much food, and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

If you go to Atlas on the harbor, you must get the steak! It’s so affordable and delicious! Obviously the beers are a must too!

Making friends with the “locals”…

The infamous Fergburger! So big!

 Here I am luging down from the top of a tall mountain and below are the pictures from the top! I felt like I was going so fast but watching the video I am being so slow compared to others, ha!

The Kiwi is the national bird and is very rare. New Zealanders also call themselves kiwis–so cute!

I thought I could wrap up our trip to New Zealand in two posts but clearly that is not the case…stay tuned for part 3!