Author: iscottharrison

On Wednesday we went out to the Amisfield Winery for lunch which is only a few minutes drive out of Queenstown.

Amisfield is really the entire reason for this trip. Back in Feb 2024 we had just returned from Spain and were half watching a travel show on TV one Saturday afternoon whilst doing other things and they had this amazing looking winery with its stone buildings, snow capped mountains in the background and what looked like an amazing lunch. I had expected this was somewhere in Austria or Switzerland, maybe Northern Italy / South Eastern France.

I was stunned when they mentioned it was just out of Queenstown in NZ, essentially a short 2 hour flight from home in Sydney.

We booked flights to NZ that week and then started planning a holiday around a visit to Queenstown.

The winery did not disappoint, we started with a wine tasting before lunch, and the RKV Reserve Pinot Noir was superb. The Lake Hayes Noble Sauvignon Blanc was also amazing, so we are brining a bottle of that one home.

The lunch was a tasting menu, and involved quite a bit of theatre in its execution, Sharon’ s smoked eel came in a glass cloche filled with smoke, the other item shaped like a small ice cream cone came served in a fish heads mouth (which they take back to the kitchen once you take the cone), you thankfully don’t have to eat the fish heads.

I don’t eat seafood, so my menu was slightly different, and mine was served on a small tree branch.

For me the standout dish was the BBQ Venison, with an amazing glaze jus that was almost mirror like. The taste was sensational. I also had a great duck and orange dish, Sharon had a layered cod dish.

Sharon had her dishes upgraded with additional truffle (I don’t mind a little of it, but find it overpowering so I skipped that option).

The truffle brioche was amazing though, as was the truffle butter which was served on a bed of river rocks, which you had to tap to check which was butter and which was a rock. The FB site “we want plates” would have a field day here……

The daikon (Japanese radish) was a small master piece the way they layered three different cooked versions of it together and presented it so that it looked like a flower on the plate.

The last item on the menu “Kawakawa” is a local plant which had been used to make an ice cream and topped with a fried Kawakawa leaf, quite a nice intense flavour.

If you are looking for a great foodie experience in NZ, put this on your list.

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.

I knew well before travelling here that the coffee scene in NZ was good, so I had absolutely no doubt I was in for some good brew whilst here.

Before leaving home I had a look around Google searching for the best coffee in Queenstown and I started to stress that I may not have enough time here to sample them all, or if I did I’d be bouncing off the mountains on a caffeine high.

The coffee gods are smiling on me today, and since I’m in Aotearoa, I believe the correct God would be Rongo-mā-Tāne (God of cultivated food)

Almost as soon as I arrived here an NZ Herald article appeared in my news feed that suggested Queenstown has the best coffee in all of New Zealand. You could even say this was a Remarkable coincidence…..

Not only have the coffee gods been good to me, but so far the weather gods have been pretty happy as well, this morning was a glorious day for a jog/walk and coffee recon mission. On my way back to the apartment I settled on a coffee van just a few minutes walk from where our apartment is (Life’s a Grind Espresso). It was a great coffee and a spectacular start to my coffee journey here.

As soon as I ordered I thought it would be good, all the other people around me at 7am were local workers gabbing their brew before starting work.

The only hard decision now is, what cafe do I try tomorrow ?