May 25, 2010 On Day 7 of our tour, after another early morning breakfast, we left the Edgewater Resort on Lake Wanaka and headed for Queenstown. We stopped in Cromwell, home to some great vineyards and fruit orchards. Did you know that Cromwell has the largest number of wineries and fruit orchards in New Zealand? The fruit is plentiful and you can tour some of the vineyards and sample the different types of white wines are produced in Cromwell. We stopped and had lunch in a small town –Arrowtown, which is located halfway between Cromwell and Queenstown, has become a haven for weekenders who want to get away from the city and it is less than 1 hour from Queenstown. Arrowtown was a former gold mining town and has become a living, historic holiday destination. It offers some spectacular scenery, tree lined streets, quaint homes, four distinct seasons that offers a tranquil atmosphere and has attracted visitors from all over the world. There are some great boutiques for shopping, lots of arts and crafts and locally made wool products, lots of wonderful eateries, and some museums with the local history. It’s a great place to spend a leisurely afternoon or for a weekend retreat. After a delicious lunch of homemade breads, scrumptious meat pies and a dessert, we boarded the bus and made our way to Queenstown where we would spend the last 2 nights of our stay in New Zealand.
We arrived in Queenstown about 3pm and did a quick city tour and then did 2 hotel inspections at the Novotel Lakeside Hotel Queenstown and the Crowne Plaza Hotel Queenstown ---both 4 star hotels. The Crowne Plaza Hotel was my favorite of the 2 hotels that we toured because it was located across the street from the Lake. After inspecting both hotels, we checked in at the Sofitel Queenstown---a 5 star luxury boutique hotel. We had stayed in deluxe hotels throughout our stay in New Zealand, but they had definitely saved the best for the last…it was fabulous! Our room was a Jr. Suite with overstuffed beds, down bedding and coverlets, Espresso maker in the living area, a large bathroom with Jacuzzi tub and a TV mounted above the tub, heated marble floor and towel racks and best of all--- a large walk-in waterfall shower with multiple spray heads. Talk about luxury, it was a dream! The hotel left a tray of chocolate candies and bottled water as our welcome gift.
Late that afternoon we took the ski gondolas up to Coronet Peak and for those in our group that wanted to do the Bungy jump or the swing jumps we were given complimentary jumps. Ten people in our group did the jumps and I must admit that I was not one of those people. I decided that with a bad back and not being a crazy dare devil that I would gladly forego this extreme threat to my life!!! Zip lining is one thing, bungy jumping is something all together different---I don't remember saying that I was CRAZY!!! AJ Hackett Bungy Company provided all the jumps, t-shirts and photo/CD packets of the jumps for each person complimentary---this was an unbelievable gesture—since it would have cost each person about $500 for the entire jump experience!! Later that evening we returned to the Skyline Restaurant at Coronet Peak for a Maori show and a Taste of New Zealand dinner, complete with beef, pork, seafood and lamb—and of course DESSERTS. The restaurant was at the top of the peak and offered a 220degree panorama view of Queenstown at night---what a beautiful sight! After a long day, we snuggled under our down comforters and slept like babies. We had one more night in Queenstown before leaving for home, so don’t you even think of not returning to my Blog for the next day’s activities! Did I tell you that I love Queenstown!  | 
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