Onward ho

We arrived in Auckland for our connecting layover to Queenstown. It was a short two hour layover which I think is arguably the perfect amount of time for a layover. Not too short where you’re rushing around the airport but not too long that you’re required to explore every nook and cranny of an airport to stay occupied. Saul and I managed a 39 minute layover in Panama when we were in transit to Costa Rica. While possible, those are not ideal.

Moral of the story is that we made our connecting flight to Queenstown. We were on a New Zealand “All Blacks,” the national rugby team, themed plane. It was pretty neat. The flight from Auckland to Queenstown is just breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to have clear skies. Auckland is at the northern tip of NZ and Queenstown is at the southern tip so you get to see NZ in its entirety. There are far too many lakes, rivers, snow-capped mountains, beaches, and rolling hillsides to count.

We arrived in Queenstown and immediately felt the chill even though New Zealand is technically entering their summer. It had been so long since we had been in weather that was anything less than 75 degrees that it came as a bit of a shock to be in weather that was probably lingering somewhere around 50 degrees.

We hopped a cab over to the five-star Hilton Lake Wakatipu. We got in around 9am and check-in wasn’t until 3:00pm.  We were told our room wasn’t ready. Sad day. We had been travelling through the night, hanging out at airports and we were both so very exhausted. I schlepped off to the lobby bathroom to freshen up so that we could go into town to pass some time. I came out to find Saul with room keys!  Ten points for the Hilton moving some things around and letting us check in 6 hours early. Great service!

We went up to our room and were just blown away. This hotel was luxury at its finest. Just beautiful. There was a sitting area with fire place, an uber plush California King Size bed with beautiful white linen (my fav), a shower with a huge rain shower head that came straight from the ceiling, separate soaking bath tub, his and hers sinks, and a floor that heated so that if you got it wet it would dry on its own (say whaaaaaat!).

We relaxed for a while and then jumped on the complimentary shuttle to town. We were on one mission, to find food. We had read about Ferburger on tripadvisor prior to our trip. They have every kind of burger you could want (NZ beef, chicken, fish, venision, tofu, falafel cleverly names Osama Bun Laden). and hadn’t had a burger other than McDonalds and ones we made at home since we left from the mainland in July. We arrived to find the place packed! It’s super trendy and well known in Queenstown. We waited our turn and ordered two of the Original with cheese and spent something like $24 NZD. These things are friggin’ massive. While they           were tasty, they didn’t quite live up to the hype.  There wasn’t enough cheese or meat considering the size of the buns.

With full bellies, we headed back to our hotel for some R&R figuring we had an entire week to explore Queenstown.

We were only at the hotel for a night before moving on so we wanted to take full advantage of all the amenities. There was an Olympic length heated indoor swimming pool and spa that were pretty glorious.

After working up an appetite swimming it was time to find dinner. We didn’t want to go back into downtown so we walked along the river/lake and ended up in Frankton at the most delicious fast-food chain I think I’ve ever had, Nando’s.  Holy crap. It’s chicken with this special sauce called Peri Peri sauce and it is seriously so nom worthy. Matter of fact we ended up going here quite a few more times during our stay in New Zealand but you’ll her more about that later. Delish. We got some red wine and kicked back in our room the rest of the night.

The bed was seriously to die for. I slept like a baby. We woke up and went to our included buffet breakfast. I’m a buffet feign and this buffet fully lived up to and exceeded every expectation I had from a 5-star buffet breakfast. They had live stations and even a juicer with fresh fruits and veggies.  I was in heaven.

View at Breakfast

Kiwi Fruit in Kiwi-land

Cappucinos to die for.

Before you know it the Castanedas arrived to pick us up and we were saying goodbye to the Hilton. I don’t think it would have been possible to have a better first night away from AmSam.

He was not happy about leaving.

I know this might be a bit “review[y]” but I was seriously just blown away by every aspect of this hotel. I think the Encore in Las Vegas and Le Meridien in San Fran might be bumped off my favorite hotel list. J 

-C

Pretty Christmas tree in the lobby.