Queenstown – A Town Fit for a Queen!
It was windy, rainy and cold as we stepped
on to the tarmac at Queenstown airport – quite a dampener, literally and
figuratively! Queenstown is positioned as the adventure sports capital of New
Zealand, but at that moment, going by the weather, all the carefully
orchestrated plans of paragliding, river rafting, bungy jumping and sky diving seemed
to be getting blown away. We were a bunch of Sad Sacks, but only till we
entered the airport. The airport was bustling with skiers and sports
enthusiasts and cheerful tourists! Maybe all was not lost! It was not.
Queenstown, we discovered offers much more
than adventure sports.
To begin with, Queenstown is, quite simply,
very beautiful. It stands serenely, on the banks of Lake Wakatipu, the third
largest lake in New Zealand, with snow capped mountains in the background. Lake
Wakatipu, nestled in a single, glacier-carved trench, is unique in that, it
actually has a tide of sorts. This tide is attributed to its peculiar Z-shape
which causes the water in it to rise and fall by 10 centimetres, every 25
minutes. Maori legend has it that this is due to the heartbeat of a huge
monster named Matau, who is in deep slumber in the depths of the lake!
Incidentally, the Maoris are credited with the distinction of being the
discoverers and first settlers of New Zealand and retain their distinct
identity to this day. Towns and streets in New Zealand still bear Maori names
which are very quaint and often unpronounceable! Names in Queenstown themselves
are unusual and interesting. One of the mountains where much of the skiing action
takes place is called The Remarkables, one of the two rivers that feed the lake
is called Shotover River and the arterial street is called Shotover Street! Quite
remarkable!
Queenstown has a very interesting history. Way
back in the 1862, deposits of gold were discovered in the Arrow and Shotover
Rivers and this led to a great influx of miners who descended on the town which
used to be called “Canvas Town”. Civilisation followed, the town developed rapidly and subsequent European
settlers came to Canvas Town to graze and breed their cattle after the miners
had left. The deposits of gold and the rapid prosperity of the region prompted
some of the miners to pronounce the region “Fit for the Queen (Victoria)” and
since then Canvas Town is known as Queenstown.
Tourism seems to be the prime source of
income. While its population stands at a mere 22,000, Queenstown receives more
than 100 times the figure as visitors! Ergo, a great deal of thought seems to
have gone into the tourist infrastructure in Queenstown. When we stepped into
the gondola that was to take us to the top of Bob’s Peak, it was with a ho-hum,
been-there-done-it-air. After all a gondola is just a gondola, whether it is
Singapore or Queenstown. However, as the gondola began its gradual ascent
amidst beautiful flora, fauna and ferns (the national symbol of New Zealand), it
unfurled before us a breathtaking panorama of the lake, the snow capped mountains
and the entire town of Queenstown. The ropeway, we realized, had been constructed
on that side of the peak that would give the best view of all three. Very
clever! It is also in Queenstown that AJ Hackett created the first bungee
jumping facility in the world. The jet boat facility at Kawarau River is the
first commercial jet boat business in the world. Queenstown has four mountain
ranges which attract skiers and snow boarders from all over, during winter. Skydiving
and paragliding, jet boating and river rafting in Queenstown are said to be
among the best in the world , a fact that was borne by the extreme caution that
was repeatedly stressed upon, during the briefings preceding these activities.
Another unique attraction of Queenstown was
the Puzzling World of Stuart Landsborough. While the initial response was to
liken it to the Mystery Spot in California, Puzzling World was all that and
more. It burst upon us suddenly, as we were busy admiring the beautiful drive
up the Crown Range of mountains, with a tower that seemed to be teetering on
the edge of itself - the Leaning Tower of Puzzling World. This, we discovered,
was just the beginning of a mind boggling array of illusions and perceptual
oddities, right from a downward sloping billiards table where the ball climbed
upwards to the people using the Roman toilet (I would be giving away the secret
if I said anymore!) and the world’s largest two – storied maze with both. We marvelled at
the 3 dimensional holograms, racked our brains over impossible puzzles kept at
each table in the cafeteria and goggled at the Ames Room, into which we entered
as dwarfs and crossed over as giants. Finally we emptied our pockets on the
most unusual memorabilia like a rope that holds a full bottle of wine in just a
simple knot, pens that levitates and the most unusual Backwards Clock in which,
even the seconds hand, the minutes hand and the hour hand move in the anti-clockwise
direction marking the time on numbers that are also written in the anti
clockwise direction! People call Stuart Landsborough an eccentric, but his
Puzzling World would seem most sane, to the intellectually inclined as well as
to the whacky! For some unknown reason, the Puzzling World does not figure on
tourist packages offered in New Zealand, but the verdict is unanimous that it must
be a non-negotiable part of any trip to Queenstown.
Time constraints compelled us to prioritize
our activities. Sadly, we could not visit Milford Sound, which is said to be so
beautiful that Rudyard Kipling described as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’;
we could not visit Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand and we could not
visit the orchards and wineries, all of which are within a stone’s throw from
Queenstown. However, we did spot the locations where the Lord of the Rings
movies were shot and yes, the weather did clear and we did go river-rafting and
paragliding!
However, the fact remains that Queenstown
offers a great deal more than just adventure sports!
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