Queenstown, Wanaka. New Zealand South Island

We flew from Auckland to Queenstown.  There we rented a car for our road trip around the South Island.  

Garden beach walk: pleasant, view of water and town (not a must do)

Skyline luge: gondola and then 2 luge rides for $56. Totally worth it and super fun with great views!  Also possible to hike up, but 1hr and then $15/luge ride. 

After Queenstown, we drove to Wanaka.  We ate Big Fig for dinner: healthy food.

Beach walk around Lake Wanaka was very nice with beautiful blooming yellow and purple lupin flowers during late Nov. Actually not native to NZ.

The solo Wanaka tree in the water is the most photographed tree in NZ.

One day, we did a very challenging hike: Roy's peak, a 7min drive from Wanaka.  We started at  9:20am.  At 10:50, we were halfway up.  

At 12:10p, we reached the best viewpoint. There was a long line (1 hr+) to take picture at viewpoint so we proceeded to the top.  We found a similar view near toilet. At 1:20p, we reached Roy's peak. Changed from sunny to rainy in 10 min. 

 We spent 20min taking photos at top.  Then we went back to viewpoint, and there was only a 15min wait to take picture.

At 4:20p, we reached our car again. Brought 2.5L water, drank 1.75L.

Don't miss Lindis pass on drive to Mount Cook.

Twizel: Fishtail Restaurant.  We ate Mango lassi (delicious), Fishtail goat curry, Fish malabari (fish with grated coconut in a cashew nuts sauce).