Queenstown – Hiking & Reveling in Beauty

As a reward for the skydive, we ate lunch at the very famous Fergburger! It was absolutely the most mouthwatering burger I have ever tasted! Since it was so huge, I went simple on the toppings. My boyfriend loves his burgers, and he ordered the “Big Al.” It’s topped with two patties of New Zealand beef, two eggs, bacon strips, beets, lettuce, tomato, onion, and aioli. When our burgers were ready he said, “Congratulations, you have a Big Al!” The thing was absolutely massive. But he ate it all and loved every second of it. 

We were expecting to have to wait in a long line, because we always saw one out front. We didn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes for our burgers! In the summer months though I bet that’s a different story. Afterwards, we walked past Cooke Time where they sell freshly baked cookies warm from the oven. You can smell the cookies from outside, so I couldn’t resist . . . and they rocked my world.

To burn it all off, we hiked the Queenstown Hilltop Track. This hike was hours of never-ending steepness. I thought surely it has to even out and level off at some point. But it never did. The views from that high up are incredibly gorgeous! My breath was constantly taken away each time I looked out and saw the colourful trees, sparkling lake and massive mountains. Before dinner, we took the cable car to the very top of the city for that famous Queenstown view. It was amazing – the sun was just starting to set on the mountains.

The next day we spent exploring the other side of the city down by the lake. It was just as pretty and I would have sat on those rocks all day if it didn’t get so chilly. To warm up we ate breakfast in a cafe along the shore, and that gave us much warmer views of the lake.