Queenstown - January 20 to 24, 2007
Queenstown is a really neat place. It's a lot more upscale than Te Anau and it probably has the most expensive real estate on the South Island. (This is the area of New Zealand where Shania Twain bought her place.) We stayed in Lomond Lodge, which unfortunately was right across from a parking garage that was under construction! (I guess that's why it seemed well priced when I booked it.)
Unlike Te Anau, there is lots going on in downtown Queenstown. There are shops, an active waterfront, lots of restaurants and bars, and wall-to-wall tourists. There's also a lot to see within a short drive of the town.
We only stayed in Queenstown for 4 days--in retrospect we might have spent a little less time in Te Anau and more in Queenstown. The pictures below include the Queenstown Golf Course (also known as Kelvin Heights), Arrowtown, a local historic town, and some coastal pictures around the immediate area and up Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy.
Next stop: The West Coast