Managed to fit two coffees in this morning. First was from Drop Cafe, trendy little coffee nook hidden at the back of clothing store. This one was mentioned in the NZ Herald article on great Queenstown coffee locations as well.
It looks like the coffee is severed in an enamel cup, which would have been interesting, however it’s just a ceramic mug that’s been shaped and painted how we expect enamel cups to be.
Drop Cafe
Second coffee was around 11am from the Bathhouse cafe right on the lake at the front of town. The weather today is 100% perfect, clear sunny day, about 21c with a very very slight breeze. We sat here for a while just basking in the glorious sunshine sipping the coffee. Pretty good coffee too.
Last night we did a cruise and dinner package on the TSS Earnslaw. You board the boat at 7pm and it takes you across the lake to Walter Peak Restaurant for a buffet BBQ dinner.
TSS Earnslaw
The TSS Earnslaw is a “Twin Screw Steamer” built in 1912 and is still powered by the coal fired steam engine, one of the few remaining coal powered ships in the world.
As Sharon pointed out, 1912 was not a great year for ships, however this one managed to not sink on our journey and we made it back to QT in one piece.
The heat coming from the engine room was quite intense, I certainly wouldn’t want to be tending the furnace for any significant amount of time.
The dinner is quite good, but treat it as an entire experience package, don’t consider it a gourmet dinner.
Yesterday I’d planned to spend a bit of time at Arrowtown, which once was a gold mining town back in the 1860s. Now it’s a quaint little town with lots of original historic buildings the have been converted into cafes, bars, museums and touristy Knickknack shops. The Australian equivalent would be some cross between Tilba on the south coast of NSW and Leura in the Blue Mountains. And if you have been to either of those places, yes the traffic and parking here at Arrowtown is just as much a nightmare as it is at home.
We were there on a weekday and it was super crowded, I can only imagine it’s significantly worse on weekends. It’s a lovely spot though, we spent some time looking through the museum on the history of the town then settled into a great little wine shop for a drink and some Tapas style food.
I had a really nice local Rhubarb infused Gin.
We parked near the Arrow river running next to the town. The water was crystal clear, I wandered down too it and put my hand in the water to check the temperature, and it was as icy cold as I was expecting.
As Queenstown is surrounded by mountains, I was keen to see if there was one somewhere that was easy access with the car so we could get some pics from the peak. I asked the onsite manager here which one he recommend, and he suggested Coronet Peak, which is one of the main Ski Fields in winter and Mountain Biking locations in Summer. There are also a fair share of Hang-gliders there too.
We drove there, when you park you can pay a feee and take the chairlift / gondola to the peak. From here I was able to get the pics I was after, and it was breathtakingly stunning. It would be even more amazing with a little bit of snow cover. It’s an easy drive from Queenstown and only a small diversion on the way to Arrowtown, The Gondola cost $40pp, which seems expensive but its really geared for the people spending the whole day there and using the chairlift for mountain biking.
View from the PeakOther Pics from Coronet PeakArround Arrowtown
It's all about the coffee 