Great Kiwi Road Trip: Day 9 - Glenorchy

What!? Raining at this hour! This definitely ruined our plan to have our first Jet Boat experience. We thought the rain will be stopped in afternoon, but the weather forecast showed to us that the Queenstown is going to rain from today to next few days. Usually at this month, Queenstown is dry and thus suitable for outdoor activities. This really gave us an awkward, because with a bad weather like this, almost nothing to do in Queenstown. We wasted a precious morning just to wait for the rain to stop, but our jet boat for today was cancelled due to slippery road condition. 

Beautiful garden

At the end, we made our plan B to visit Glenorchy. I would prefer to visit this town when the sky is blue and clear. This town is 45 min drive from Queenstown and is followed by a road on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Many claimed this drive is one of the scenic drives in the world. The place itself has attracted many tourists recently, because of the LOTR which uses this place to shoot for the scene of Isengard, Lothlórien, and Amon Hen etc. 

Overlooking the Glenorchy township

I believe if the weather is good, the scenery will be more spectacular especially the distinct blue color of the Lake Wakatipu. However, we were still stunned by the views it gives despite the poor weather. 

It is just another small town, but nested and surrounded by the snow-capped mountains. It’s so beautiful. Actually from Glenorchy, there is another 40 min drive to another smaller town named as Paradise. Due to time constraint, we couldn’t make it to visit this place where the name is probably based on its beautiful scenery just like one being in paradise. At first we thought we won’t see much stunning view with this poor weather, we were surprised by how beautiful the place is.

This place is definitely worth to be re-visited again. I think you can put this as one of the must go places in your travel list. Highly recommended to go! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

At night we walked around Queenstown. The town itself is made by 2 to 3 main streets and each can be reached within walking distance. We bumped into one of its casinos. Again, as small as the town itself, totally cannot beat with the Macau, Las Vegas and even Genting’s.