A few weeks ago, we finally went on our holiday to Queenstown. We booked this trip last year but due to lockdowns, we had to postpone it. We had such an amazing trip and took so many photos. This is my second time in Queenstown and it was even better this time around.
This blog post will mostly focus on what we did while we were in town which was the first half of our trip. We initially planned to stay in QT for 7 days but as I’ll explain later, we got to stay an extra day which was quite nice in the end.
QT Hotel
We stayed at QT Queenstown and I booked the Lake King Room. This room was amazing. Modern, clean and spacious. The bed was so comfy, it was hard to get up in the morning.
The bathroom was also beautiful. Double sinks, waterfall shower and that bath tub is amazing. We had many relaxing baths in it especially after a day of adventuring. We also got given a nice welcome note with The Remarkables Sweet Shop fudge which was a lovely touch.
QT hotel is up the hill past the main town centre. I initially thought we’d have to walk up and down a steep street to get to town BUT we had a great surprise when we checked in that QT is actually connected to the Rydges hotel down below (building on the right photo) so all you have to do is take the lifts down to the Rydges reception and it will take you straight to Lake Esplanade road! It’s a flat walk to town from there which was awesome and it took around 10mins. It was a game changer at how even more accessible it is to town.
The star of our hotel room though is our view. We had a balcony but the floor to ceiling windows also gave this amazing view of the mountains, especially Cecil Peak. I tried to take a photo every morning of our stay and our view changed over the course of the week! From a sunny snow-less mountain view to a barely visible mountain as it was actually snowing. You have no idea how excited we were every morning checking how much the mountains have changed.
Overall, I’d love to stay at QT again. I managed to book our stay when they were having a sale so I got it at a very good rate. When our flight got cancelled and had to stay another night, we tried to stay but the Lake King rooms were fully booked and the only room available was the mountain view room so less view than ours and it was $440 a night (so much more than when I booked our Lake King Room). Currently, if you’re going to book this room in July (peak QT time though), it is around $799 per night. It’s ridiculous but it is a great hotel!
Now onto the main QT town which we explored on our first few days. The town is so small and so walkable.
Queenstown is beautiful wherever you look! I love walking along the wharf as there’s usually a lot of activity. People feeding the ducks, going on the jet boats or the shark and people enjoying the awesome view.
We also walked around the Queenstown Gardens which was lovely and bigger than I remembered it from the last time I was there. Lake Wakatipu is massive, it doesn’t even feel like a lake.
The above is one of my favourite photos Max took of me during our trip. At the start of our trip, it was sunny and the autumn colours were quite vibrant and beautiful.
Skyline Gondola & Luge
A nice way to spend a few hours in QT is up at Skyline. We took the gondola up the mountain and did a few rounds of the luge which was fun.
Onsen Hot Pools
Another popular spot is Onsen hot pools. Since Max hasn’t properly been to QT before, we had to come and experience it together.
For an hour, you privately get this room with the hot tub. You also get a choice of drink and snack. I chose cider and chips and Max got a beer and ice cream. We initially tried to book massages here too as they’ve now opened a spa but unfortunately they were all booked out.
We also didn’t have the car yet when we went and what’s good about Onsen is they have a free shuttle service that picks you up in town and drops you back off afterwards. It’s pretty handy! I highly recommend booking Onsen early!
Kingpin QT
Towards the middle of the week, the weather turned so it was cloudy and rainy. Sadly our Fly-Cruise-Fly plan to Milford Sound was cancelled and we had to find another activity for the day. The mini golf place was also closed due to the weather so we ended up at Kingpin.
It wasn’t what we planned but we ended up spending a few hours playing and had a great time! We didn’t have great luck with the weather but we got lucky at Kingpin. When I bought a card and topped it up with $35, there was another card with the same amount so we ended up getting one for free which was great.
We won a lot of tickets and choosing what to get in the store was a bit of a mission. In the end, we didn’t want to take home unnecessary toys so we got so much lollies and chocolates. I got to try a Buzz bar for the first time too!
Spas in QT
When we had a free day and we’ve roamed around town already, we ended up booking ourselves to get massages.
I actually ended up going to 2 places. Max and I went to Forme spa for massages. I got the 60min hot stone massage and he got the 90mins relaxing one.
Then I had an even better idea that while Max was still having his massage, I’d go over to Harmony spa (photo on the right) and get the Indian head massage for 30mins. It was a great decision and I didn’t want it to end. Highly recommend these two places if you want some pampering!
SNOW!
I’ve saved the best for last for this blog post and it is the snowfall that we got while we were there. As I mentioned at the start, it was nice and sunny when we got to QT but as the week went on, the weather turned and on our last day we woke up to snow falling. It was magical.
It was hard to take a photo of snow fall but I have a few videos on my IG story highlights. This was after the snow fall and the mountain behind was covered in snow. The snow up on the trees made it look like a postcard.
This day was my first time experiencing snow falling from the sky. It was absolutely beautiful and magical and I’m so glad we got to experience it. It was a bit early for QT to snow in town too so it felt even more special that it happened at the end of our trip.
The downside to the beautiful snowfall was that all flights to and from QT that day got cancelled. Therefore, we couldn’t fly home but we made the most of our situation and we were still quite lucky as Queenstown is the best place to be stuck at for another day.
I’ll end this blog post here as this was basically what we got up to while we were in town. I will post all about Queenstown food in my next blog post (we tried so many good food places they need to be in a separate post) so stay tuned for that. Not only did we have an amazing time exploring town and basking on the beautiful scenery, we also ate a lot of good food!
Then after the QT food post, I’ll talk about the other half of our holiday when we had a rental car and explored beyond Queenstown town centre. The second half of our holiday was probably my favourite part with the best scenery, activities and overall amazing times.
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