Food porn in Queenstown

What to do when the weather looks lousy and you don't feel like heading up the mountain to ski in zero visibility yet again? Go on a road trip of course. Where to on a wet rainy day? How about Queenstown to eat oneself silly.

I managed to convince two Japanese girls with a car to join me, so one Monday we headed off to Queenstown with a list of eateries to visit. Ami planned to buy a Go-Pro, but both Ai and I had only gastronomy on our minds. First stop Cafe Vudu for their pan au chocolat, but unfortunately already sold out. The rest of the pastries looked pretty good too, but just nearby was Patagonia Chocolate, which has divine hot chocolate with chilli, even diviner icecream, and some pretty awesome looking chocolate as well. Having devoured our hot chocolate and icecream it was time to visit what is a Queenstown institution, and the main reason we'd made the trip.

Fergburger. It's so popular they don't even bother advertising. The queue waiting for their gourmet burger means you can wait a good 45 min, and people happily do.  I think we only waited 20 min, enough to down a half of Speights at any rate! And when it arrives you tuck in to a rather large succulent beefburger. Yum!!

And the verdict? Well the hype doesn't live up to a better than average burger I'm afraid. But I'm happy that I've tried the Ferg because I can now confidently side with a lot of the Wanaka crowd who declare Red Star Burgers are better. Yep, I agree. Fergburger, you just ain't worth the trip!!

Following our Fergburger we hit a few sports stores, Ami bought her Go-Pro, Ai and I loitered in the tourist office, then we headed back to the car, past the British Lolly Shop. Gobstoppers, humbugs, all sorts of sweet temptations. Oh well....

Next stop Arrowtown, an ex goldmining town just out of Queenstown. It has some quaint old buildings, a museum, numerous ye olde worlde shops and some nice cafes and restaurants. It's also now the preferred place to live rather than tourist and hotel infested Queenstown down the road. I can see their point, especially when the first cafe we spied on leaving the carpark was, ummmmm, Patagonia Chocolates again!! After more icecream and cake, we wandered around, through yet another lolly shop, then rolled back into the car for the drive back home to Wanaka.

And guess what? Next month Wanaka gets its very own Patagonia Chocolates store. So there'll never be a need to go to Queenstown again!!