My Summer Holiday – Part 5 (The hills are alive with the sound of music…)

Another of my childhood dream realized. I finally get the chance to visit Queenstown. Hooray! When the pilot prepared the plane for landing, it flew past the snow capped mountains, steep hills dotted with meadows and wild flowers, lakes and houses. The whole thing just resembles the opening scene of “The Sound of Music” minus Julie Andrews singing the opening rendition (Sigh!).

Believe it or not, Queenstown Airport is actually an aviation hazard enough to earn a black star rating. It is one of the world’s most difficult airports to land because of the mountainous terrain in the region. I salute the pilots for their skillful and superb navigation.

Despite being a small town, it has some of the finest, flashiest and trendiest shops/dining spots in New Zealand (However, the shopkeepers that I encountered were not very friendly). It is also a famous destination for gays. Despite the fact that it is a gay hotspot, I hardly detect a blip on my gaydar because it has been malfunctioned for a very long time. I saw a lot of cute guys strutting their stuffs around and I felt like an ugly malformed duckling surrounded by a flock of handsome white swans. I literally saw my self-esteem drop to the record lows and it made me shrunk even further into the dark corner.

Anyway, I diverted my attention to the beautiful scenery in Queenstown and it somehow took my blues away…