During our 16-months of hunkering down in Aotearoa during the pandemic, we spent about 7 of them living in and around Queenstown and Wanaka at different points during our trip. Needless to say it became the heart of us while in Aotearoa and our kiwi built family resided there, so there is where we kept returning to.
Prior to arriving on the island we had just wrapped up a snowboard tour of Europe & Japan, and had only spent 7 days in Vietnam when we made the call to head south where we had year long visas already lined up for Aotearoa, which meant we got a second snowboard season in one year. Snowboarding in NZ isn’t what I would describe as epic, especially having just come from powder days in Japan, but the ski culture in Queenstown was just what our hearts needed.
We spent May – September 2020 mountain biking, snowboarding, making new friends, and exploring the region that became our home. We invested in a cask of whiskey at Cardrona Distillery, and had way too much fun sharing whiskey with friends. We had roommates that became family and celebrated US thanksgiving with a big feast.
Queenstown & Wanaka hold such a special place in my heart and I’ve missed them a lot lately so I made a little tribute video to some of the beauty of that area and some of the happy memories we made there.
Wandering Wild 