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New Zealand Road Trip 2019 - Te Anau to Wanaka - Including Kingston and Queenstown

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

We woke to a perfect morning in Te Anau, it-s hard to leave such a beautiful place, to make it easier we were heading to Kingston, Queenstown and Wanaka via some of the most awesome scenery imaginable, deep blue lakes, turquoise rivers, towering mountains and some typical New Zealand adrenaline junkie activities. We witness New Zealanders moving house -literally- followed by a look at the legendary -Kingston Flyer-, sadly out of action at the time of our visit. In days gone by, visitors to Queenstown arrived in Kingston by train to complete the last leg of their journey by steam ship on the stunning blue waters of Lake Wakatipu. We gave up after spending half an hour looking for somewhere to park in Queenstown, a place sadly disfigured by cranes and building sites, it-s lost some of its magic, developers make it possible for thousands to move to the place of their dreams, in doing so they often kill the very reason people fell in love with the place. We departed Queenstown much earlier than intended, on the way out we crossed high above the Shotover River, looking down we couldn-t help noticing the bright red jet boats, as we unexpectedly had time to spare, we dropped in for a closer look, there was space on the next boat, I looked towards my sister, the look on her face said we weren-t leaving without first taking a ride through the gorges carved by the turquoise river on one of those futuristic looking boats. With my heart in my mouth and a camera on my head we roared our way through narrow rock sided canyons, over shallow rapids, with 360 degree spins, this was pure Kiwi magic and we loved every mad moment. Not long after leaving the Shotover jet boats, we pass another of Queenstown-s most notable claims to fame, the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, in 1988 thanks to AJ Hackett it became the site of the world's first commercial public bungy jump and thrill seekers can still make the same death defying leap today. We were banned from taking our camper van over the direct route to Wanaka via the -Crown Range Road- also New Zealand-s highest main road reaching an altitude of 1121 metres, instead we follow the equally spectacular -Route 6- along the scenic gorge carved by the Kawarau River, to arrive at the pretty lake side town of Wanaka with its sandy beaches and wonderful views over the lake. Map at
Date: 2022-11-28

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New Zealand Road Trip 2019 - Wanaka, Haast, & Fox Glacier →

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Comments and reviews: 8

Peter
Tim,
Re -The Kingston Flyer-, comparing the earlier -in action- visit with the more recent overgrown tracks and sad stillness of the later film, underscores the risk and investment needed to sustain -heritage- tourist facilities. No matter how we may -value- such industrial or transport -relics-; that is what they will become if abandoned or ignored. That part of the film was tinged with pathos.
Yet the lasting mammoth splendour of the natural contours, rivers and lakes was magnificent; putting human scale in its puny place. Not even exceeded by heart stopping bungy jumping and frenetic jet boating.
As always, your unhurried, calm recordings ooze the best travel information. Regards Peter
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Tom
I basically did this trip in reverse on a motorcycle back in 2001. I was able to ride the train then. I drove by where the train was, stopped in and found out that the train left in ten minutes! So I took it and it was a ball, one of the highlights of my trip. I am glad to hear it may run again, it really was amazing. I also rode the jet boats then as well, also great fun. I circled the South Island in a week on the rented motorcycle. Great video, fun to retrace sections of that trip on videos.
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Roger
Wonderful video of some absolutely beautiful scenery. However I heartily dislike the jetboats. Extremely environmentally unfriendly. The best way to enjoy a gorge is surely by paddling your own canoe or on a raft or something similar. The presence of the jetboats makes enjoying the gorge by slow self-propulsion impossible.
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chris
NZ will pick itself up again, thank god for the welfare state, I am in Dunedin but we have biz in Qtn, Wanaka, Alex, Cromwell and travel frequently. The only campervans are Kiwis mostly.
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Robert
Hi tim, Another wonderful nz road trip, I looked up wiki and it said the kingston flyer will be up and running by the end of this year? Cheer, s bob. ps nice driving tim take care.
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davernon
I really enjoyed the NZ series of videos. I noticed the constant reminders (The arrows) to drive on the left, there must be a lot of tourism there.
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Neil
26: 00 Riding those jetboats, I'd imagine, would be best done on an empty stomach, if you catch my drift! LOL
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Tim
Excellent. Thank you for sharing. Brought back fond memories of 3 years ago! Best wishes for 2021 from Spain.
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