Waiatoto River Safari, Puzzling World and Queenstown

Queenstown, located on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, is our fourth overnight stop. If Kaikoura is beautiful, Queenstown, to me, is charming and attractive. Our motel overlooks this picture-postcard town. It took my breath away!

Tourists come here in drove. But ‘beauty’ alone is not good enough to draw the crowd. A lot of happenings take place here in Queenstown. Restaurants, cafes, shops and adventure activities such as bungy jumping, parachuting, white-water rafting, jetboating, sky gondola ride, skiing (in winter), and many others await the tourists to dig deep into their pockets for some gastronomic delights, souvenirs and some adrenaline-filled fun & excitement!

On our way to Queenstown, we stopped at Waiatoto River Safari for a jetboat ride. We had a full 2 hours of hilarious time especially when the boat did the 360-degree spin. We enjoyed the fun and the thrill very much, but not the charges! It cost us NZ$ 135.00 (RM 337.00) per person and that was after the group discount (normal price: NZ$ 169.00 or RM 422.00)! If the spin did not give us heart attack, the charges almost!

While the spin did not give us any heart attack, neither did it ‘throw us’ off balance. But at the Puzzling World in Wanaka seven hours later, we were close to it!

Puzzling World
The 1.5km maze was crazy and killing, but we did it – through the emergency door! Then there is the amazing 3-D Hologram Hall (the 3-D famous faces seem to be following the person around the room), Ames Forced Perspective Room (the room is distorted, yet when viewed from outside through the window, it looks perfectly normal), and then there are things which seem to defy the centre of gravity and many, many more!

Having fun on the jetboat ride along
the Waiatoto River (above and below)


Lunch at ‘The Cray Pot’, Jackson Bay

Lake Wanaka, on the way to Queenstown

Lake Hawea (above and below)




Puzzling World, Wanaka


How many legs can you see?

How many animals can you see?

Are the spirit levels horizontal?
See the photo below for answer.


Is the water running uphill?
See the photo below for answer.


The Roman-style toilets. Only the
person in front is real, others are not!

The group trying to save the
leaning tower of Wanaka from falling!

Queenstown at dusk. View from outside our motel.

Queenstown, near where we stayed (above and below 2)



Queenstown by night