A trip to a beautiful place alone
I just came back from my solo trip to Queenstown, New Zealand, two days ago, and I'm pretty excited to share my experience here. Actually, I'm pretty excited to blog when I have a topic most of the time, although I realise that I haven't done my mandatory ORD post yet.

Let's begin by a confession that I regret only going to Queenstown for the entire duration of six days, because it got boring. A quick Google about Christchurch, which is I think a seven hours train ride away, fuels that regret because it looks like such a nice place as well. But what's done is done. I've made a lot of mistakes during (and before) this trip, but I guess that's just a part of solo travelling.

I'll leave the reflections to another post. For now, let's just talk about the trip itself. It's going to be a really long post, so I decided to use a Facebook photo album to complement the blog entry in places where I skip.

Day 1 - Arrival Day
Starting on a positive note, after arriving at Sydney International Airport (where I waited four hours to transit to another plane to get to Queenstown), I got to watch the sun rise from the beautiful windows, half-asleep. It must have party been the super long flights, but by the time I reached Queenstown Airport, I was worn out and wished that I was with company - anyone would do.

I'm glad that the taxi driver I met was really friendly. He chose routes that let me see nice sceneries (and possibly costed more) so I'm glad that he offered a taxi tour because that tour gave me the most exposure to Queenstown as a whole.

After arriving at my accommodation in the evening, rested a while before spending the next few hours getting acquainted with the surroundings, realising that there's no one else at all who was alone, and doubting myself and the idea of a solo trip.

Day 2 - Exploration Day
This is one of my favourite days. I scheduled air balloon on this day but it got cancelled because of wind. Instead, I slept in and then went exploring for real for the first part of the day.

For the second part of the day, Brent, the taxi driver, came and gave me the taxi tour as planned. He is a pretty sincere guy who tried to ensure that I got the most out of the tour as possible. Knowing that I've never touched snow before, he brought me up to Coronet Peak, where there's still snow, to let me touch it (although I kind of expected it to just feel like ice). He also brought me to a number of other places.


The Shotover River
^ This is where there was a really fun tourist attraction where a group sits on a boat and the driver speeds up and down the river.


Arrow Town (I should've taken a pretentious photo here)
^ This is a nice, quaint town that was a lot more peaceful than Queenstown central. Apparently, there is a movie theatre here whose environment was more of a couch setting rather than the typical movie seating.

The photo at the top of this post is Windy Peak, where you get to see the entire Lake Wakatipu, which spans along and, I would say, defines Queenstown. Unfortunately, the picture hardly shows anything because everything was so micro.

By the time the tour ended, I've learned quite a bit about Queenstown geography, lifestyle, history, and its tourist culture.

Day 3 - Animal Day


These sheeps are the main attraction of Walter Peak Farm
Started the day on the steamboat, which brought us to the Walter Peak Farm to watch a sheep sheering demonstration, have breakfast, and feed animals. Although shepherd dogs and wild ducks are not farm animals, I like them the most.

For the second part of the day, I did a lot of window shopping and then took a walk in Queenstown Garden. I've got to say, Frisbee is a really big thing there.

My favourite part of the day was having this very popular burger called Ferg Burger by the shore. A duck wanted to eat my burger and kept pestering me. Then, a man came and played fetch with his dog in the cold water, and it was really impressive. The dog was smart enough to gauge whether it should enter the water or not when the owner threw the stick too far.

Day 4 - Mountain Day
This is the highlight of the trip - taking an unprepared trek in the Ben Lomond Track. It was really nice because I was surrounded by so many mountains, all alone and so high up. I just kept walking and never stopped being impressed and the weather was perfect and I could tell myself, "This is why I came to New Zealand."


The early parts of the trek
I didn't really want to get down but the weather app said that it was going to rain (it didn't in the end) and I didn't want to be stuck up there, freezing and alone. So, I had to. En route down, I had a genius idea to meditate in the middle of the mountain. Knowing that it was about to rain, I kept it short and I will say it wasn't a stupid decision. It kind of opened my heart up, if you care.

I guess the other good thing of the day was watching a Maori performance. Maori is the tribe that used to live in New Zealand, until the government bought the land over from them.

Day 5 - Balloon Day


Rising into the air in an air balloon
To be honest, I had mixed feelings about finally taking an air balloon, which I was so looking forward to. Maybe it's the cost of the flight or maybe it's the fact that I overhyped myself, I felt empty throughout the flight. It was not particularly exciting or peaceful (though it would've been more more peaceful had two particular tourists not kept squeezing about trying to take photos and sending videos to their friends). Though the view was spectacular, I went more of like "nice" than "OMG" inside.

This leads me to believe that by this time, I was starting to take Queenstown sceneries for granted. I'll talk about that next time.

I had a lot of things planned to fill up the rest of the day so that I would not get too bored; as I had mentioned, I shouldn't have spent the whole trip in Queenstown.

They say good and bad things come in clusters - in this case, disappointments. Apart from the air balloon, the "underwater observatory" was a joke and I didn't get to see any kiwi for real in the Kiwi Bird Park.

But let me just defend the bird park because I just went at the wrong time. There are kiwi feedings, but I couldn't get myself to be patient enough to wait so long just to feed some kiwis. The bird park by itself was quite impressive, especially their conservation show. It was educational and entertaining and I'll recommend it to whoever visits Queenstown, especially if you're alone.

Day 6 - Walking Day
This being the last day, I was honestly pretty worn out and missed home and friends and family. Still, I was looking forward to this day because I planned to get out of the central area. So, I took a bus to Remarkable Town Park Center, where the internet told me I could find "cheap shopping". Turns out, "cheap shopping" means "cheap grocery shopping". The place was nice, though. Actually, being away from the main touristy area after so long was nice.

For some reason, when planning the trip, I had wanted to go swimming. So, I did.

After that, it was just a loooooooong walk back to Queenstown central, then my accommodation.

Day 7 - Homeward Day
I sat in the plane the whole day.


Just a picture of ducks to end off, because I like ducks
You can click here to have a look at the Facebook photo album... if you want... Please? :(

Labels: overseas, solidarity, things that happened