Queenstown

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were celebrating 10 years wedding anniversary!
Time is running fast and it is unbelievable that it is 10 years since our perfect wedding day + the perfect and very cosy weeks with family and friends visiting us.

The day before the big day, my husband called from work telling me to pack my bag for a trip next day. I knew he had planned something but had no clue where and what to pack. A bit of everything was put in the bag and next day we were off.

I had been promised Bella (our cat) would be taken care off so could totally relax.
The trip went towards the airport and when we checked in, I finally figured out where we would go.
Queenstown on the South Island! None of us have ever been to the south island before so this was very exciting. Queenstown is known for Alpine and snow, bungy jump and jet-boats so this could be more excitement that I had hoped for....

View from TSS Earnslaw

What an awesome place! We arrived to awesome weather and amazing scenery.
We lived at Hilton Hotel a few km outside the centre of Queenstown. What a great place, architecture and views. Oh and the food. Yum.

Below is the view from the restaurant at the hotel. The first day we had both lunch and dinner here as it was such a calm place to be. Isn't it beautiful?

Calming views from the hotel's restaurant

We went to Queenstown centre the next day and this town is really beautiful. This is a typical tourist place both winter- and summer time. In the winter the alpine centre's are busy, there are snow in the streets and I have even heard about a Winter Festival here. Yes, we do want to see this as well....
The houses are kept in mostly the same style. Most of the houses are built of wood and slate and fitted really well in with the surrounding mountains.

No bungy jumps for us time around. I am not that into heights so hopefully next time if we have more people with us (that love heights!) my better half can jump if he wants to.

Centre of Queenstown

Instead we had a trip on the 100 year old steamship TSS Earnslaw.
Popular among tourists as you can see the machinery at work, piano music in the back ground (Yepp...Waltzing Matilda was there) and very good picture opportunities.

Afterwards it was time for lunch in town and later dinner after a quick trip back to the hotel and later water taxi back to town.

...and next day it was back to reality. And first week of work for me. It was a really lovely trip and we would like to repeat it during the autumn and winter.

View from TSS Earnslaw

Hilton hotel

TSS Earnslaw