Queenstown and Glenorchy (the gateway to Isengard)

Driving the three or so hours from Te Anau, we found ourselves midday in Queenstown, adventure capital of the world. Using the guidebook I’ve previously mentioned, the first action of business was to drive the Remarkables drive for some amazing scenery. The road is little traveled and often advertised as needing four-wheel drive but this was not so. Where there’s a will, there’s a way! We traversed through the switchbacks, climbing hundreds of meters before getting our first good aerial view of the town below. Queenstown sits on Lake Wakatipu, and it’s absolutely massive. I’m not sure how many kilometers it stretches but where we could see, the lake snaked into a Harry Potter-esque lightning bolt before disappearing behind the mountains once more.

Driving into town (going to skip all the boring grocery shopping type things), we made a straight shot to our campground since it was First Come First Serve (FCFS) at 12 Mile Delta). It was only a few miles out of town so she pitched our tent and set back in for Qtown. Initially, our plans were to do a massive hike the next day (we’ll get to that), so we decided to take an easy day and do what? Breweries and eating of course. First course of business/beer? Searchlight Brewery. We split a flight of four – my favorite was a raspberry fruit beer they had on tap. The beertender happened to be from NYC so we chatted a bit – New Zealand is definitely a hub for young Americans to come and stay for a year on a working holiday visa. After Searchlight, we headed down to the marina for Altitude Brewing. Definitely some great beer. Jared had his perhaps best ever brown ale and I tried a stout and a good Un-hopped lavender beer. While we were sitting, some Queenstownians came over and asked if we should share our table. No more than a few minutes in, we started talking about New Zealand, good ole President Drumph and the US of A. They taught us a card game called Last Card – pretty similar to Uno but with a deck of cards. We love going to places and meeting the locals (and foreigners). I don’t know what it is about this country, but people are so open to conversation and meeting new people; it’s amazing. We probably spent an hour or two with them before parting ways. After finishing our beers and feeling rather tipsy, we headed into downtown for the hype of our stop here – not any adventure, adrenaline-seeking activity or thrillist activity. No my friend, we were here for a burger, but not just any burger, the Fergburger. Just writing it sends chills up my spine. The burger joint is world-famous. Even CNN wrote an article debating whether this was the best burger in New Zealand, or going further, in the world. Waiting the 45 minutes or so in line, we had a big decision ahead of us. Jared ending up going with a lamb 🐑 burger and I ended up going with the classic Ferg Deluxe. Finally putting our order in, we had some time to venture around the town. Queenstown sits right on Lake Wakatipu and at night, it’s pretty bumping. There’s a public beach right in the middle of town, and the paragliders we’re putting on a good show. After grabbing our burgers, we sat on the pier watching the gliders fall out of the sky and land with their parachutes perfectly intact inches from the lake. Good bang for the buck – dinner and a show! Wrapping up our burgers, we headed back to our tent for the night. The burgers DEFINITELY lived up to the hype.<<<<
ext day, we set off for Glenorchy. The 48 kilometer drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy is listed as one of the most beautiful in the world, as it hugs the coast of Lake Wakatipu the whole drive. We were finally staying in a holiday park (no Department of Conservation campground) meaning showers!! It had only been four days!! The town of Glenorchy is really small, less than 1,000 people, and we happened to stumble upon a farmer's market at Ms. Woolly's General Store. We got some treats then went to the activities hut to inquire about the Mt. Alfred hike we wanted to do. Unfortunately, the trailhead sits on private property and the owner decided to be a meany and not let people hike the mountain. Dismayed, we grabbed a map and turned to plan B – driving to Paradise (yes a literal place called Paradise) and follow the LOTR trail. On the map we got, it listed the mythical locations of the Misty Mountains, Isengard, and the forests of middle earth. We didn't really have much of a plan but just enjoyed the scenery around us consisting of braided rivers, free range sheep and mountains. We were able to find (we think) the middle earth forests and the site where they filmed Isengard. Next time if we come back, I think I'd like to do a Lord of the Rings Tour! We spent the majority of the day exploring Glenorchy and it was a good low key day. The next morning, we headed back through the Queenstown-Glenorchy drive on our way to Wanaka.