Winter Holiday Activities in New Zealand
Getaway Breaks in NZ’s Winter Months can be Exciting Experiences
May 11, 2009
On the shores of Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery, Queenstown is the ideal location for an extravagant winter festival. If a ten-day party doesn’t suit however, try jetboating, or a relaxing spa and massage in the soothing mineral waters of Rotorua.
Queenstown Winter Festival: 26th June – 5th July 2009
For the 10 days of the annual American Express Queenstown Winter Festival, this world-renowned South Island resort turns on an extravaganza of activities. This year is the 35th anniversary of the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest winter party and an all-out effort is underway to make the 2009 event even more spectacular than usual. To celebrate the beginning of winter, the festival opens with fireworks at the lakefront, al fresco food stalls and live music.
Throughout the festival, concerts, a masked ball, sumptuous food and wine evebts, and arts and cultural experiences are planned to run side by side with street parties and parades. International and home-grown acts will entertain visitors with live music, theatre and comedy, and up in the mountains there will be ski races, night skiing and dog races.
Ten kilometers from the city centre, Queenstown International Airport is well served by major airlines with Air New Zealand and QANTAS Airways making regular international and domestic flights. Those who prefer to drive will find the route wonderfully scenic whether traveling privately or with a tour group.
There is a varied range of accommodation choices in Queenstown from bed and breakfasts to backpackers and five-star resorts.
Jet Boating Along the Shotover or Waikato Rivers
Adrenaline-pumping jetboat rides can be experienced in Queenstown along the Shotover River. The scenery through the Shotover River Canyons is unique with steep rock faces soaring from both sides of the narrowed river. Expert jetboat pilots race their boats through centimeters of water and give passengers the thrill of a 360º spin without losing momentum. Shotover Jets, Shotover Jet Beach, Gorge Road, Arthurs Point, PO Box 189, Queenstown, New Zealand, Tel: +64 3 442 8570, info@shotoverjet.co.nz.
In the North Island near Lake Taupo, jetboat riders can experience the excitement of speeding along the Waikato River between native bush, sheer cliff faces and areas of geothermal activity. From a unique vantage point, passengers can view the majestic sight of the Huka Falls where the normally 100 metre-wide river is squeezed through a narrow gorge to surge over a 20-metre-high drop.
Hukafallsjets, Wairakei Park, Taupo, New Zealand, Tel+64 7 374 8572, info@hukafallsjet.com.
Wind Down With a Thermal Spa and Massage in Rotorua
There can’t be many things more soporifically luxurious than a thermal spa followed by a massage. At the Lake Spa Retreat, overlooking Lake Rotorua, visitors can wallow in a thermal pool and then luxuriate with a body polish, massage or thermal treatment. Body polishes include the deliciously fragrant manuka honey and lavender, or thermal mud combined with apricot, kiwifruit and ground almonds. Lake Spa Retreat, P.O. Box 40 Lakeside 1000 Hinemoa Street Rotorua, New Zealand, Tel: +64 7 348 1328 Fax : +64 7 348 9486.
Hell’s Gate Waiora Spa offers full immersion in a mud bath followed by a mineral spa. A warm shower after a mud body scrub and mask adds up to two hours of total relaxation and skin that feels refreshed and rejuvenated. Hell's Gate Waiora Spa, State Highway 30, Tikitere, Rotorua, New Zealand, Tel +64 7 345-3151, Fax +64 7 345 9117.
New Zealand's winter landscape can be spectacular with snow-capped mountains, clear blue skies and mirror-like reflections. The high season may be October-April but the autumn-winter months also offer outstanding holiday opportunities.
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