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A trip through Middle Earth (AKL, WLG, ZQN, CHC on NZ and SQ)

A trip through Middle Earth (AKL, WLG, ZQN, CHC on NZ and SQ)

Old Sep 13, 2018, 10:24 pm
  #31  
 
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Awesome pics - having lived in Wellington for many years it was wonderful to see you got to see it on a good day - and not so good day. Milford in the rain is the best as the waterfalls are really flowing. The old Govt buildings are now a hostel - they are the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere - and I can remember when they worked as Govt offices and indeed I have been in the building on official business.
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 1:27 am
  #32  
 
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Loving your TR! Its bringing back so many memories of our recent trip to NZ. I didn't bother waiting in the long queue for Fergburger - was it worth the wait?
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 9:09 am
  #33  
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Originally Posted by kevincrumbs
It's obviously not my TR but I also didn't see a response from OP. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it's otak otak.
I think I remembered it was chicken wrapped in pandan leaves.
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 9:11 am
  #34  
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Originally Posted by nequine
Loving your TR! Its bringing back so many memories of our recent trip to NZ. I didn't bother waiting in the long queue for Fergburger - was it worth the wait?
I was lucky I only waited for a mere 10min, so guess was worth it. Not so sure of the worth if the wait was 30min or more though...
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 9:28 am
  #35  
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One of the few rainbows sighted while on the ride back to Queenstown.




Shed with a view




Sakuras in Queenstown too!




Dropped by the Remarkables outlets for a bit of shopping.




Dinner at a very popular restaurant in Queenstown, Flame Bar and Grill. Best to make a reservation prior as it is almost certain that no tables would be available for walk-ins during the dinner hours. We had steak, pork ribs and lamb chops, all of which were delicious! Just simple grilled meats to perfection and light seasoning.








More gelato for dessert.




On the last day in Queenstown, it was perfect weather. Walked to the cable car station for the trip up to Skyline Queenstown!








Had buffet lunch with a magnificent view at the Stratosfare Restaurant. The lunch buffet offered quite a variety of choices and was value-for-money if purchased with the cable-car package.

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Old Sep 14, 2018, 10:13 am
  #36  
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More of the buffet selection.












And of course the magnificent views!










Paragliding is very popular in such nice weather.






Descending back to town. It was certainly a beautiful ending to the Queenstown leg.

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Old Sep 14, 2018, 11:39 am
  #37  
 
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Were you able to do any hiking? I'm not a big hiker, but the scenery along the hiking trails in the South Island are amazing.
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 11:42 am
  #38  
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Nice one, thanks
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Old Sep 14, 2018, 3:07 pm
  #39  
 
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Loving the TR. I'm going to CHC and ZQN in November, those photos making me look forward to going even more.
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Old Sep 15, 2018, 4:35 am
  #40  
 
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The views from the Skyline are fantastic, reminds me of my own photos although mine were done in the March.
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Old Sep 16, 2018, 9:03 am
  #41  
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After walking back to the hotel to pick up our luggages, we again took the public bus from the bus stop outside our hotel back to Queenstown airport. It was only a 15min bus ride at a very affordable NZ$2 per pax.






The pretty small Queenstown Airport terminal building.




Traditional manual check-in counters for JetStar, Qantas and Virgin.




While NZ uses mainly self-check-in kiosks.




Boarding pass printed.




Queenstown is proud to hold the annual Winter Pride.




FIDS and waiting hall.






Queenstown Airport is certainly one of the most scenic airport in the world!






Virgin arriving from Australia.

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Old Sep 16, 2018, 9:46 am
  #42  
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JetStar arrived from AKL and Star-liveried NZ A320 pushed back.




Fun fact: JQ uses Australia-registered aircraft on domestic NZ flights due to open-skies agreement between Australia and New Zealand.




Our ATR72 arrived from Christchurch. This afternoon flight was originally scheduled on an A320, but was changed to the ATR72 instead subsequently.








24 August 2018
Air New Zealand
NZ 5652
Queenstown (ZQN) - Christchurch (CHC)
ATR72-600
ZK-MVH
Economy Class
Flight Time: 0H51M



Boarding gate for the prop flight is via Gate 1. Interestingly, there were no security checks prior to boarding the flight. We were scanned through and allowed onto the tarmac to board.












Beautiful tarmac view! The red-roo was also at ZQN.




Legroom on this ATR was good, helped by the slimline seats fitted.




Safety card

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Old Sep 16, 2018, 10:24 am
  #43  
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View out the window.




Boarding completed. The flight was totally full. With no IFE system on this prop, safety demo was done manually.




Started the short taxi to the runway.




Holding short for Virgin to depart.




Taxiing down the runway and making a U-turn to depart from heading Rwy23.






Very scenic departure from the beautiful Queenstown!














Video of the taxi and beautiful departure.

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Old Sep 17, 2018, 8:50 am
  #44  
 
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I was surprised that the flight was scheduled for so long!

Looking forward to hearing your about your Christchurch adventures, we loved the city when we visited there and be interesting to see how much further on the repairs are after the devastating earthquake.
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 8:42 am
  #45  
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Flying on the ATR72, we were treated to gorgeous mountain views due to the lower flying altitude of only 17,000ft and slower airspeed.












The 2 cabin crew on the flight first came around offering water.






More gorgeous views enroute.






The crew then pass through again, offering cookies and coffee/tea. They were kind enough to give me 2 cookies, washed down with a cup of tea.





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