Queenstown is awesome

After the past few weekends I think Queenstown might be my new favorite town. Its a town nestled between huge snowy peaks, an amazing lake right next to it, and it is a very lively ski town. There is so much to do there too. This past weekend I went to Queenstown and stayed with one of my friends who was at Otago last semester and is now living in Queenstown. On the way up, we took an alternate scenic route on a curvy and bumpy dirt road. There were some cows blocking the road in some parts it was pretty funny.




We also stopped on the side of a river for a little while and just relaxed for a little bit. It was a really cool area.




We got to Queenstown around 5 oclock Friday afternoon and there was a rail jam right in the middle of town. It was awesome because I had never actually been to a live pro rail jam. It was an invitiational of tons of different kiwi, Japanese, and American snowboarders and skiers. Here are some pictures of the setup. I couldn't get very good shots though just because I was pretty far back.


Here are some cool long exposure shots of Queenstown from later that night.




The next day I went snowboarding at Snow Park. This was really exciting for me because Snow Park is a place I have been wanting to go to for a long time. It is a pretty well known place because many film crews go and film snowboard videos there when it is summer in the U.S. My expectations were pretty high, and I have to say, I don't think they were completely met. Overall, it was a really fun day (besides the low visibility) and the park is really, really fun, but I've come to the conclusion that the videos make it look a lot cooler than it really is.





Sunday I went for the best hike I've done so far in New Zealand. It was a massive loop up in the forest and mountains in Queenstown. It took about 3.5 hours to do the entire loop with multiple scenic stops on the way. The hike switchbacked up the side of the hillside through the forrest until there was an incredible view of the lake and peaks at the top, above the treeline. After that, the loop went back down into the valley on awesome trails full of creeks and rivers.

Here is a picture of the top of the hike once we got above the treeline.


And here are a few really cool long-exposure water creek shots that Pete took.