The Queenstown Gondola is something that everyone should visit at least once. I went for a couple rides, in the morning and at night, so that I could get a great view of Queenstown. I entered Skyline Queenstown through a set of glass doors.
Queenstown Gondola Skyline: Breathtaking Views Both Day and Night
There was a sort of lobby and information center in the front.
I walked towards the entry of the gondola ride.
People were lining up to buy tickets. I joined the line.
The prices were written on a big board behind the counter.
They gave me a map of Skyline Queenstown when I bought my tickets.
Then I headed to the area where the actual gondola ride would take place. The gondolas were slowly rotating on their big cables.
Each gondola had benches on two sides and was big enough to fit a group of nine or ten people.
I looked at the machinery and gear with a lot of interest. Everything was so big! Then I carefully climbed into my gondola. The gondola was made of glass and I knew that the view of Queenstown would be absolutely stunning. I was ready to take dozens of pictures.
The gondola started climbing up the hillside. At first, I could only see dry brown grass and rocks under me. It was moving quite slowly so the ride wasn’t scary.
Finally, my gondola moved high enough that I could see all of Queenstown in front of me. I could see tiny houses and cars and people walking around.
Ahead of me, there was a forest. The gondolas went right to the top of the mountain.
The view of Lake Wakatipu was beautiful. The water looked so still and calm and there were forests, mountains and fields visible in the background.
There was some haze that day and the sky wasn’t clear. So the snowcapped peaks in the background were barely visible.
My gondola was about to reach the top. I got ready to get off the gondola.
A signboard showed the way to the different places I could go, like the Luge rides or the viewing deck or the Stratosfare restaurant. There was even a bike route and different treks at the top of the mountain.
I walked towards the area where the Luge was. I was quite excited about having a new experience! There were replicas of the carts sitting there for visitors to admire.
There was also a lot of information about the Skyline project and the building. I read that the whole place was going through an update and the building was being replaced.
The Luge had been inspired by a Canadian ride and it had also been updated many times. The people of Queenstown were all very proud of it.
The ten seater gondolas were new. Earlier, there had only been four seater ones. Skyline had needed to construct a bigger terminal to fit the big gondolas.
Skyline had also been renovated in 1987 when they had gotten Austrian gondolas. The restaurant and the base terminal had also gone through changes then.
The first bubble gondolas had been launched in 1967 so that visitors could ride up to Bob’s Peak.
A bus driver called Jon Dumble had been very important in setting up the first gondolas. He also managed the chalet and drove tourists up to Bob’s Peak on a bus.
The co-founder of Skyline was a man called Hylton Hensman and he played a pivotal role in setting up the gondolas.
The first mountain chalet was built in 1964.
I traveled back down on the gondola at night.
The city lights looked brilliant in the utter darkness.
