The day after our Blue Mountain trip was another long travel day – we were taking an early morning flight to New Zealand. While it wasn’t my intention to have such long days back to back, it was the only way to fit in everything with our schedule. So our alarms rang at 5am and we were out of the house by 5:45am. Luckily there were a couple of Vietnamese bakeries opened on our walk to the station, so at least we had banh mis to fill us up on our journeys.

The train to the airport took about an hour. Once we got inside we quickly went through security and immigration, then it was just waiting for our boarding time. It was my first time flying with Air New Zealand and I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the flight and service was. For a 3-hour flight, they offer complimentary Wi-Fi and a meal service, which I thought was pretty sweet. 

The flight into Queenstown was smooth and because it’s such a small airport we disembarked right onto the tarmac. We went through customs and had to do an extra biosecurity screening to make sure we weren’t bringing anything harmful into the country. Prior to entering New Zealand, we also had to pay their International Visitor Levy, which at $100 NZD was quite expensive. However, since I had already committed to flying halfway across the world, it was just another thing on my to-do list before leaving for the trip.

Once we got out to the arrival hall, I made a quick stop at the gift store to buy our Bee Card bus passes. While I had initially planned on buying two, the staff member told us that we could use one card for two people, so that saved us $5 on a second card. When the bus finally came, it was a quick trip to our hotel. Our stay at the Holiday Inn was very nice – the room itself was spacious and I was happy we had a full kitchen. It even came with a washer/dryer machine. Both of those came in handy during our time there. 

After getting freshened up, we took the bus back out to the city centre, as we would be having dinner that night at the Skyline Gondola. Even though I made the reservation way in advance, the only time slot they had was for a 5pm dinner. We did pay a little extra for their premium package which included a window table and a beverage. The view was absolutely stunning – you could see all of Queenstown from above. Dinner was a buffet and they served a variety of meat dishes like lamb and venison. However, I think I enjoyed the view and live music more than the food. =P

Once dinner was over, we took a walk to the viewing platforms. They had a luge attraction at the top which seemed like a lot of fun. There were some seating areas as well, so it allowed people to sit, relax and spend their time taking in the sights. Luckily New Zealand is two hours ahead of Sydney, so even though we were up at 5am, our early morning flight actually helped us with the time difference. After a quick stop at the supermarket, we headed back to our hotel to call it a night.