We started today off with an early wake up to watch the mighty Philadelphia Eagles get a great victory. A nice way to start the day. After that we packed our stuff up and moved to an upgraded room that we paid for, for the next two nights that has a hot tub and a view. As it turned out and unfortunately for us the hotel (which is the Hilton Resort & Spa QT – just to name and shame) overpromised and underdelivered. The room which was FAR more expensive does have a hot tub, yes. But it is tiny, partially broken and has no light. The room is actually smaller and worse than the previous room and we are three floors lower. Not great.

We put our bags in the new room and went out for breakfast. This time we went to a French bakery nearby called Ma Boulangerie. We ordered a marmite scroll, a tomato and cheese scroll as well as a pistachio and a salted caramel macaroon. It was all pretty good, but nothing to get too excited about.

Our morning activity had us driving over to the town centre where we decided to have a quick 18 holes of mini-golf at Queenstown mini golf. This one was definitely better than the one in Wanaka. We played better too and the course was definitely in better shape.

Right next door was a Max Brenner so we sat down for a white chocolate chai which was pretty cool. It came in like a teapot that you put over the top of your cup and it drains into your cup. We haven’t seen teapots like this before. The chai was sweet, spicy and delicious.

Just past Max Brenner is Kingpin. We had quite a few things to try out here. Firstly we did some bowling. The lanes are small but modern. You don’t have to wear bowling shoes which was weird (and probably dangerous). They also don’t have bumpers so Aimee ended up with a massive score of 45.

After the bowling we went downstairs and played the arcade games. This part of the day was awesome. The arcade games were great. We won a 1000 ticket jackpot on a machine completely by chance when Aimee pressed a button at random. We spent about an hour playing arcade games and then spent our tickets on a cool Moscow mule cup and some lollies.

They also have escape rooms at Kingpin. We did the Maniac escape room. It is based off the movie SAW and is a scary themed escape room. You start out handcuffed and in the dark (that sounds a lot scarier than it actually was). We ended up beating this room but honestly, it was probably the worst escape room we have ever done. The theming was poor, it was not well thought out and the puzzles were not intuitive. Would not recommend.

We left Kingpin and went up on the QT Skyline which was again right next door. The Skyline is a gondola that takes you literally up a mountain. The views up the top were lovely.

We decided to grab some food up here as it was about 4PM and we hadn’t had anything to east since breakfast. We grabbed a Hawaiian pizza which was surprisingly good.

They have quite a few things up the top of the skyline. You can bungee jump, paraglide, mountain biking or Luging. We had done the luging last time we were in New Zealand in Rotorua and it was unreal so we did it again. It was fun again too. The track was shorter and less scenic than in Rotorua though. Still a really cool concept and you pick up some mad pace heading down the track.

After a little walk around at the top we decided to head back down and go back to the hotel for a little bit. We spent about an hour getting ready for dinner which we headed back into the town centre for. Tonight we were eating at a place called Flame Bar & Grill. It is what it sounds like – a place that sells a variety of grilled meats. For entree we ordered the 5 pack of cheese balls. These things were kind of weird, we didn’t know what to expect but were surprisingly good with a bready, cheesy centre.

For mains we weren’t massively hungry and wanted to share but it is the restaurants policy that you have to order 1 meal per person. A bit weird again but we kind of get it. We feel like we’ve been a bit fleeced today. We got a half rack of ribs and a lamb skewer. This may sound small – but it was anything but. So much meat. It was all really tasty and we loved the way it was presented, but we’re not the biggest meat eaters so it was a bit much for us.

Then for dessert we got the Bomb Alaska. This thing was unreal. It is three layers of ice cream with a layer of meringue on top. It is made to look like a flame and then at the table they light it on fire! It was pretty cool. The yellow part tasted like a frosty fruit which was awesome. A really great dessert.

We were incredibly full after that so we went back to the hotel for some hot tubbing (if we can work it out!) and some sleep.

Spending:

Breakfast – $20
Parking – $23
Minigolf – $26
Max Brenner – $18
Arcade – $31
Skyline – $100
Lunch – $33
Dinner – $140
Total – $391