Lake Matheson

The drive from Doubtful Sound to Lake Matheson was a long one. We listened to The Hobbit on audiobook from my ipod in the car, and had to make multiple stops en route for cake and coffee.

The views from the car have been incredible throughout our journey and make the long trips much more pleasant.

We'd booked supper at Lake Matheson Cafe, on the edge of Lake Matheson, at 7.30pm. It was quite tight making it in time. I am so glad we did though, the food was great!

I had lamb neck fillet with pea puree, roast beetroots and new potatoes. Although I don't often choose lamb, I really wanted to have some whilst I was in New Zealand. Everyone had great mains and were pleased with their respective choices. We shared a couple of puddings afterwards, my favourite was the pecan pie below. Something I wouldn't really make at home, but so good!

After dinner we went for a quick walk around Lake Matheson to take some photos of the stunning view. The evening light was gorgeous.

 

 

The beauty of the lake is the reflection of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, New Zealand's highest peaks, in the water. 

 

Lake Matheson is located close to the Fox Glacier, which is where Fox's glacier mints come from, we thought these retro tins were really cool!

Doubtful Sound

 I'd read about Milford Sound on Lonely Planet and decided it was somewhere that I would really like to visit. After speaking to some Kiwi friends, however, they recommended visiting the less touristy Doubtful Sound. Doubtful Sound is on the West coast of the South Island, NZ, and is one of the wettest places in New Zealand. So what exactly is the attraction?

Well, as with most of New Zealand, the scenery of course.

We had booked a night on a boat that cruised around Doubtful Sound, taking in the most picturesque areas and allowed us to kayak, see the seals as well as learn about the nature of the area.

We set off on a one hour ferry from Manapouri, to the Hydro-electro powerstation, and from there we took a 45min coach ride over Wilmot Pass to the boat. The road was the most expensive in New Zealand to build, and was constructed to build the powerstation and keep it running.

Once onboard the boat we found our 4 berth cabin; quite cosy!

We then got kitted up for our kayak trip, it was quite cold onboard so we put on a number of layers, only for the sun to come out once we were in our kayaks. The sunshine combined with the kayaking meant we were soon boiling! There were also a lot of sandflies out and about- not pleasant. The kayaking was really enjoyable though, and we travelled quite far. We were so lucky that it wasn't raining, I can imagine it would have been fairly miserable if it had been!

After kayaking, we showered (they were lovely and hot). I chose the shower with the port hole, something I quickly regretted when the boatload of people on the nature trip went past peering in!

We left the Sound briefly to see the seals. We were surprised at how choppy the water became once we left the Sound, and were very pleased we would be spending the night on the calmer water!

After seal spotting, we enjoyed a huge buffet dinner. I chatted to the chef briefly during our kayaking trip and was excited by the range of dishes on offer; a couple of different salads, roast and steamed veg, roast beef, hot smoked salmon, roast lamb, mussels and a huge selection of puddings!

After supper we had a talk about the wildlife and settlers in Fiordland, the area which Doubtful Sound is in. It is a natural park, and our guide says that park ends pretty much where the sandflies end, which is useful because no-one would want to live there anyway.

We all slept pretty well and were up early for breakfast and some more views of Fiordland. It was quite misty in the morning, and was drizzling and very windy. Not quite as pleasant to be at the front of the boat. Char and I donned some rather attractive waterproofs onboard.

Our guide told us that the water is pure enough to drink as it runs off the moss/lichen as it has been filtered so much. It had a rather unpleasant orange colour, and a slightly weird taste - yes we all obviously had to try it.

It felt a bit eerie on board, with large rock forms coming out of the mist, especially after we had 'the sound of silence', they turned the boat engine off and we all had to be completely still and silent for 5mins. No cameras, no talking, no walking. It was so still.

Once our trip had finished, we had the same coach and ferry journey back to the pick up point. Unfortunately, I had about an inch gap between my jeans and socks that didn't have any insect repellant on, and I got eaten alive in about 5 minutes while waiting for the ferry!

The overnight trip was amazing, although very pricey. You can do day tours that I am sure are not so expensive, however I don't think you would get the same feeling for the place as I would imagine the water would be a little busier.

Amisfield Winery

For lunch on Char's birthday, we stopped off in Arrowtown, a picturesque little town that built up in the 1800's after they discovered gold in the nearby rivers.

We explored the museum which my Mum really enjoyed, but that Char and I thought was a little bit of an 'everything we've ever found out about Arrowtown' is in the museum. It was a little confusing as there didn't seem to be a specific direction to walk around the exhibitions, and there was too much information to take in. That said, we did learn a fair amount about gold mining in the 1800's.

We had lunch at a really cute restaurant called 'The Postmasters Residence' across the road from the museum. Well worth a visit if you're passing through Arrowtown, or even stopping there.

That evening, we had a special restaurant planned for Char's birthday supper.

We had booked a 'Trust the Chef' menu at Amisfield Winery, just outside Queenstown. The idea was that we would try 4 courses, accompanied by 4 different wines from the vineyard. We started with a very welcome glass of fizz.

Our waitress overheard that it was Char's birthday, and brought over another course; fried whitebait served with lemon and sourdough. They were so fresh, and the lemon really brought out the flavour. I think, however, that they were served to everyone as a h'ors d'ouevres course.

Our next course was duck rilletes pate with plum chutney served with sourdough. The presentation was really cute, however it was a shame that they didn't give us new plates after our fish course. Nor did they explain that our fizz was supposed to go with this course too.

Next up was a gazpacho soup. I love gazpacho so really enjoyed this course, however the others found it a little heavy on the garlic. We had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc 2012 with this course. Loving the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs!

Our fourth sharing platter was hot smoked salmon from the local area, served with fried capers, sauerkraut and salad. 

Our final savoury dish was roast beef served with a lovely new potato salad- unphotographed because we devoured it too quickly! This was served with a Pinot Noir, that although I loved the taste, I only drank half my glass as red wine tends to give me a headache.

To round off our meal, we shared a trio of puddings; cinnamon donuts with rhubarb and icecream, chocolate and almond torte and a pannecotta with summer berries. These were served with a sweet dessert wine, which although delicious, was very strong!

All the courses used fresh, local ingredients and were incredibly tasty. Smallish portion sizes meant that we could enjoy a bit of everything without feeling too full at the end of the meal. The outside seating area was gorgeous in the late afternoon sun and we thoroughly enjoyed the view.

Our only complaint about Amisfield was the service- we were left waiting by the maitre de for quite some time before being acknowledged, we seemed to have a different waiter for every order, and our dishes and wine came without much explanation. However, our biggest peeve was that our plates weren't cleared- it wasn't until we stacked them ourselves after they had sat on our table for 3 courses that they were eventually taken away. I think they may have been understaffed, but our service really let down an otherwise enjoyable meal, and with quite a hefty price tag, we expected more.

If your food and drink were amazing, but the service was sub-par, would you complain? We didn't because we could see that they were busy, but usually I would make a comment!

5 Things to do in Queenstown

With only a short time in Queenstown, we wanted to ensure that we crossed everything off our list of must do's. This list was compiled through a combination of friend's recommendations, guide books and trip advisor. So in no particular order;

1. Bungy Jump

I had thought about doing a bungy jump, then decided it was not something I was going to do. I had been skydiving so I didn't need to. I also was really put off by the idea of having something tied to your ankles meaning you would have to jump off the platform or bridge headfirst.We watched some people do it off a bridge just outside Queenstown and I thought I would be far too scared to even attempt it. 

Then, we saw that the Ledge Bungy had a harness that went around your waist. And I started seriously considering it. 

So I decided to go and investigate it. I was planning on having a look, having a coffee and probably chickening out. 

Then somehow, this happened....

Char reminded me that I would be annoyed with myself if I didn't do it, plus the guys at the bungy station were pretty persuasive. After weighing me, fitting me with a harness and giving me a safety briefing, I was told to lean out off the side for a photo, however I was convinced that one of the safety guys was going to push me off the edge (I had previously told them that I thought it might take a push to actually get me off the ledge!!) 

I then pysched up to run and jump off, only I didn't actually jump. I stalled, grabbed the safety guy and luckily didn't fall off! He told me that I couldn't hold onto him (fair enough, he was wearing a harness too for safety, probably not the first time someone has grabbed onto him). I gave myself a bit of a talking to....

ran....

and jumped off head first. 

It was actually incredible. The adrenaline rush was amazing, and the views weren't bad!! I liked that after the initial headfirst jump, whilst bobbing/swinging up and down, I was the right way up! 

One for the Bucket list, sort of. 

2. Eat at Ferg Burger

I am not exactly sure why Ferg Burger is such a Queenstown institution, but I was instructed by a number of friends to visit it, and there was always a long line outside- no matter what time of day. 

Only one member of our group (my Mum!) actually managed to finish their burger, they were so huge. 

I can highly recommend a Cock-a-doodle-oink (breaded chicken with bacon and avocado). 

3. Go up Skyline Cable Car and come down the luge

This is another 'must do' that topped trip advisor and lonely planet's 'things to do in Queenstown' lists. 

The skyline is a cable car that takes you from town up to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Queenstown. You can buy a pass for a return trip on the skyline, or to include the luge or mountain biking. Our group were really keen to go mountain biking, but we hadn't booked in advance (it's busy season) so the only bikes left were super expensive. 

The views from the skyline are breathtaking over the town, lake and mountains beyond. 

You can then grab an incredibly attractive helmet and take a further chair lift up to the start of the luge. 

A luge is basically a cross between a toboggan and a scooter, and you navigate your way down the track, either the easy, scenic one, or the advanced track. 

We obviously tried out both. It was really good fun, and there were kids and adults of all ages enjoying it. Whilst this didn't add much to our view over the lake, we all had a good time. 

4. Be an Adrenaline Junkie

Queenstown is THE place for adrenaline sports. You can ski and snowboard in winter, plus go jet skiing, paragliding, bungy jumping, skydiving, and go jet boating most of the year round. Infact, the Shotover River in Queenstown, where you go jet boating, is how shotover boating got it's name! 

My Mum had got it into her head that she really wanted to go jet boating, and since the weather was so beautiful, we were all keen to join her. 

Jet boating is basically riding a very fast boat along a river in a canyon, speeding dangerously close to the edge, and performing 360 degree spins. Needless to say it was a little scary, and we got soaked. We all screamed and laughed our way through it and really enjoyed it. 

5. Go to World Bar (and any other bar you fancy...)

Queenstown is known as being a young, party town, with lots of people working seasonal jobs there. I was told by the guys at the Bungy Jump that we had to go to World Bar for a drink or two, then check out some other bars/clubs. 

After a really nice meal at FishBone and a couple of glasses of wine, we did just that. 

We enjoyed cocktails out of teapots and shot glasses at World Bar, before heading to a club to dance- couldn't tell you the name of the club I'm afraid. I can tell you that we lost a dance off, drank jaeger bombs and that I did a forward roll on the dance floor. 

Do you follow guide books when you visit a new place, or just do you what you want when you arrive? I always like to look in a guide book and speak to friends before travelling to ensure I don't miss anything!