July 27, 2015

During our honeymoon, I fell in love with Queenstown, a beautiful city that sits on Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by mountains. With this backdrop to a city full of restaurants, shops, and the most delicious coffee, how could I not fall in love? I am usually not a city girl, but when you can see mountains, things change.

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Nick and I spent five glorious days in Queenstown during our honeymoon. Queenstown was close to a lot of things we wanted to do on the South Island, like stargazing and Doubtful Sound. So, we used it as a home base to explore the area. In between our excursions, we would wander around and eat food, and then I would drink all of the coffee.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures and stories from Queenstown!

Nick and I would wake up each morning and watch the sunrise.

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Then we would go to Fergbaker for coffee and a breakfast that was really more like dessert than breakfast. But hey, we were on vacation! Totally worth all of the calories.

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The morning was my favorite part of the day in Queenstown. The colors were so vibrant, and the city was so quiet and peaceful. Every single morning was like a painting.

Postcards from Queenstown-20Postcards from Queenstown-18Postcards from Queenstown-19Postcards from Queenstown-32 Postcards from Queenstown-22 Postcards from Queenstown-25Admittedly, I would not have wanted to spend all of our time right in the heart of Queenstown. Maybe it’s just because I’m not a city person. We walked around in the mornings, then left to go do our sightseeing, and then come back at night for dinner and to walk around. It was the perfect distance from some of the outdoor things we wanted to do. And, having this city to come back to each night, with restaurants and ice cream parlors (yes, plural!) open late, was perfect.

Postcards from Queenstown-24Queenstown (4 of 8)Queenstown (3 of 8)

One night, we went to Amisfield Bistro for dinner. It’s a winery with a restaurant – my kind of place. As soon as we sat down, they gave us complimentary champagne to celebrate our honeymoon!

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Then we had a “trust the chef” dinner. You can order entrees and such, but if you order the trust the chef dinner, you get a tasting menu that changes daily. The chef use whatever local ingedients are available, and they pair their dishes with wine, if you want. So the menu changed every day. I was so into the food that I completely forgot to take pictures until we were having dessert! It was such a fun experience to be surprised by all of the dishes that came out.

 

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Nick was very happy! It was one of the best meals we had during our whole trip. I loved that everything was a surprise. They do tell you what the menu is before you decide to order it. But I like surprises, so I didn’t care to know!

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Our other must-do was going to Fergberger. It is one of those super touristy places, but it had to be done. The burgers were so good!

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We went to The Winery to try different wines every night.

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This was the view from our hotel room at The Rees. Heaven.

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At night, Queenstown was like a postcard.

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Nick is a little bit obsessed with Kiwis. We might have bought a kiwi magnet that hangs out on our fridge now.

 

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I did not go to New Zealand to go shopping, and I wasn’t planning on going out of our way to shop. But in Queenstown, we found some unique shops with locally made things as we were walking around, and we bought some quality souvenirs. Queenstown and its neighbor, Arrowtown, ended up being the best places we went for shopping. Of course, there are tons of touristy shops too, which is where we got our Kiwi magnet!

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I’m not super into Lord of the Rings, but I got a kick out of seeing this hanging up in the Queenstown airport.

Postcards from Queenstown-3I’ll be dreaming of Queenstown, until next time.

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7 responses to “Postcards from Queenstown”

  1. Melanie says:

    Wow, this looks so lovely! I would love to visit!
    Melanie @ meandmr.com

  2. Sara says:

    I just love Queenstown, such a beautiful place 🙂

    • Carolann says:

      Oh my gosh, I loved it! It’s so beautiful, and there are so many fun things to do in Queenstown and right by. What part of New Zealand are you from? We spent 3 weeks doing a road trip throughout both islands. I am already dying to go back!

  3. I love the idea of the trust the chef dinner – we have a couple of similar type restaurants here in London but I’ve not tried them yet – love the idea of the mystery that comes with it! The sunrises look gorgeous – I’m hopeless at waking up early so always miss them Ps dessert breakfasts are the best breakfasts!

  4. […] New Zealand series continues! While we were staying in Queenstown, one of the day trips Nick and I took was out to a bunch of wineries in Central Otago. We love […]

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