Mike Chowla
New Zealand - South Island:

Queenstown

Queenstown was starting point, ending point and hub for my journey around New Zealand. It's the natural nexus for southern portions of the South Island. Queenstown is located on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. The lake is surrounded by mountains which gives the entire area of a very scenic feel.

Queenstown bills itself as the adventure sports capital of the world with many opportunities to bungee jump and parachute. I didn't avail myself of any of those opportunities. I do some wine tasting in the Central Otago wine region which starts just about 10 miles outside of Queenstown. Before visiting, the only New Zealand I was familiar was the Marlborough wine region and its Sauvignon Blancs. Central Otago specializes in Pinot Noir and I quite enjoyed the ones I tried.

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