Southern Comfort
Queenstown – wellbeing encapsulated.
Some places in this world are Godly. For those who believe in the bearded man in the clouds, New Zealand’s South Island is a geographical affirmation of his dedication to the job. I choose to believe that nature’s beauty has been carved by nothing more than time and climate, shifted into accessible patterns by humans and stampedes of wild Yaks… But whatever you believe, there would be very few to argue that this particular part of our big blue marble is just lovely.
Queenstown is a place to leave your heart in. It’s that very place you are told doesn’t exist; the excuse to stay living in the city. Queenstown is where you can breathe clean air, gaze earnestly at nature’s wonders, and still be thoroughly entertained by anthropological intervention. There is so much to do and see and be a part of here that it’s almost unfair – unfair to anywhere else one ventures to afterwards. Life springs up and out at you from the long limbs of Lake Wakatipu. Its unbearably cold waters seem to provide the energy needed to see out the day in this adventure playground. You may choose to hike. To swim. To luge. To go paragliding, coasteering or speed boating. To bungee. To take a ferry out to the Undying Lands with Gandalf and the Elves… Or you might simply want to get pissed and watch the sun go down, wondering how you could ever bring yourself to leave this paradise. The food is great; the wine is better. The atmosphere can be as lively or as calm as you need it to be. People like being here and it shows.
Queenstown, New Zealand on New Year’s Eve 2015 came with a warning. A sincere caution uttered to us by the slow-talking Kiwi manning the reception of our hotel. The forewarning was of the unavoidable busyness - the overflow of pie-eyed tourists and travellers amongst the locals, celebrating the unveiling of 2016. The advice was to keep our heads on a swivel, to pick our spot wisely and be prepared to have our dancing shoes dirtied-up by the crowds. The receptionist wasn’t lying, but he wasn’t telling the truth either. It seems that even on the busiest night of their upside-down calendar, the people of New Zealand are so few that one has to queue for just five minutes to get a drink at a lake-view bar to watch the fireworks. That’s like waiting in line for five minutes at Sainsbury’s to buy a 24 pack of bog roll in the middle of a Coronavirus pandemic… it just doesn’t happen! We managed to squeeze onto a table outside as well.
Every now and then I daydream about being back in Queenstown. It’s the place my mind wanders to when the monotony of everyday life thumps my forehead with anxiety-inducing force. There’s a million and one different reasons to visit New Zealand, the fibrous husk of Queenstown might just top that list of reasons…
