New Zealand - Queenstown

Spring Break began for the Dean family Wednesday, March 16, at 7pm, when we boarded our Singapore Air flight and embarked on our journey to the South Island of New Zealand. While walking towards our gate, Emily spotted a a group of flight attendants and yelled excitedly, "There are my airplane friends!"

I generally group New Zealand with Australia geographically, so I was a little surprised to discover the flight time to Christchurch was 10 hours and the time difference would be +5 hours, substantially longer than our flight to Sydney last year. Given the longer flight, I was grateful to find "Tangled" among the movie selections as Emily watched it at least twice on the flight. We've learned that on longer flights with the girls, they just need their own TV screens and plenty of unhealthy snacks. Thankfully our hometown airline offers both.

Our flight to Christchurch wasn't very full so we were able to spread out and allow the girls to get decent sleep along the way. While economy class isn't conducive for sleeping, I enjoyed a few glasses of wine while catching up on all the latest movies I hadn't seen yet. Side note: have you ever watched an in-flight movie that had not arrived in local theaters yet? "Morning Glory" has been available to watch on the plane for the past couple months while it's "Coming Soon" at theaters here. I doubt that happens in the States.

We landed in Christchurch at 10am local time and we would have spent a day or two in that region but after the devastating earthquake there last month, we opted to purchase additional tickets to fly the same day to Queenstown in the southwest corner of the island. After the 1-hour flight over the mountains, we were delighted to finally arrive at our destination mid-afternoon Thursday.

When we exited the plane, I immediately noticed the fresh, crystal clear air. Since New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, it was nearly autumn and for someone who hasn't experienced fall weather in a couple years, it felt wonderful. Between the cool air and mountain scenery, I was already falling in love with the South Island.

Flying into Queenstown

My mother had flown to New Zealand via Sydney and met us at our condo in Queenstown about an hour later. The girls were thrilled to see Grandma after several months apart. We stayed at Lake Ridge Condos in a 3-bedroom unit and it worked out well because we had a full kitchen, living room and washer/dryer. The condo was our home base for the majority of our trip and allowed us to feel settled in one spot while still making day trips around the region.

Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we decided to head into town in search of dinner and some beer to toast the holiday. Queenstown was a cute tourist town with plenty of shops, restaurants and cafes to keep travelers happy. We ate fish and chips and complemented our tasty meal with some New Zealand brew.  Between our family traveling from Singapore and my mom coming from the US, we were all dealing with jet lag, evidenced by the fact that Emily fell asleep on the table before her dinner arrived. Once the girls were tucked into bed at home, my mom and I went into town to grocery shop where I discovered food prices were nearly as high in New Zealand as Singapore. It made little sense to me since I often buy food grown in New Zealand but it turns out their booming export market has driven up prices locally. The only deals I found were ground beef, beer and wine.

View at Sunset from Our Balcony

Thankfully the girls slept well our first night in Queenstown and the 5-hour difference meant that our family suddenly became late risers each morning. It felt even more like vacation when I was the first one awake at 8am!

On Friday, we explored Queenstown on foot. First we rode the Skyline Gondola to the top of Bob's Peak for breath-taking views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. This was just the first of many gorgeous bodies of water we would witness in New Zealand and I was amazed by the beautiful water.

Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu

The Deans at Bob's Peak

Grandma and the Girls

After a family competition on the mountain luge track, we spent the afternoon walking around town and enjoyed pizza at Bella Cucina. After a full day in town, I felt good about our choice to stay in Queenstown because it was a quaint town just the right size for walking, complete with amazing scenery. We retired to the condo after dinner, anticipating an early wakeup the following morning for our flight to Milford Sound.