Postcards from Queenstown

Ever been for a holiday in a painting? I have, Queenstown in Autumn. One word can sum up my opinion on the place and that's simply - wow.

Beautiful autumn trees jutting out from the mountains waiting for their first dusting of snow, in auburn, gold & crimson, quite possibly the most beautiful trees I've ever seen.

We set off to Auckland on Friday with 'one more sleep' up our sleeve, a very well behaved boy in the back didn't even kick the back of my seat, not even once, ah the power of the bribe.

Saturday morning we headed off to the airplane port as the boy likes to call it, not having to rush or stress too much as my sister in law who works for the airline managed to pre-book seats for us, so all we had to do was check our bags in. All of our bags, and the stroller.

To try and make life easier, in my wisdom I decided to go with the hands free option of putting lil' miss in the front pack, this turned out not to be the best idea, in a combined effort between her domes hidden underneath layers of clothing, and my bracelet that only comes off with the help of a little bit of butter, we managed to set off the security beeper. Needless to say on the return flight, the front pack was checked through with the luggage.

On arrival we were spoilt with a gorgeous crisp midday view of the remarkables. I can see why they call them that. Rental van arranged and determined to only make one trip, the men managed to squeeze 6 adults, 2 kids in car seats, 8 bags, one hired port-a-cot, and one stroller into said van. If we had an accident, even me sitting in the centre middle, unable to reach my seat belt, and a v line to the front windscreen, wouldn't have fallen out, we were packed in like sardines.

Sightseeing was great, picture postcard perfect, the Crown range via Arrowtown offered another fantastic view, and Wanaka, although cold was a wonderful place to have our picnic lunch.

We shopped, tried the local wines, cheeses & fudge, we explored the toy and transport museum, lunched at the wharf, rode the gondolas, the man even took the boy on the luge, thrice, much to my over protective despair (dork).

Queenstown was a hidden treasure for me, I can't believe it has taken 30 years for me to discover it. It won't take another 30 for me to go back that's for sure.

I could write forever about our adventure, but rather than babble on about it, I've just included some photos of the scenery, after all as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.