Sydney, Australia

From the Exile of Criminals to an Exemplary City


Bar over the great estuary
Nightlife at a bar overlooking the estuary and Sydney Harbor Bridge.
An Inspiration in Large Format
Asian girls shopping near George Street.
Sail to Luna
Competition sailboat passes in front of Luna Park.
Indigenous animation
Accurately painted aborigine plays digestoo on Sydney's Circular Quay.
Another night of opera
A vessel leaves light marks as it sails past the Sydney Opera House, in the city's great estuary.
Post-Labor I
Lively conversations on one of the many terraces always at the pine cone in Sydney.
Leftover busker
Saltimbanco juggles apples and fire around Circular Quay.
multilevel sydney
Bright traffic on George Street.
literate conversations
Young people live on the steps of a library in Sydney.
towards the other bank
Well-lit boat crosses the Sydney estuary.
Photo(in)gallery
Photo shoot of a wedding in one of the shopping galleries in the center.
Natural urban decoration
Ibis refresh themselves in an artistic fountain from Kings Cross.
Opera House in the spotlight
The most iconic building in Sydney, Australia and Oceania illuminated after dusk.
Bridge tour
Visitors roam the top of the Harbor Bridge.
Harbor Bridge, night version
Detail of the Harbor Bridge Lighting.
The Rocks
The Rocks entertainment area, with some of the buildings that housed inmates arriving from Great Britain.
Science
Detail of Sydney's prolific Victorian architecture.
Saint Andrew's Cathedral
Staircase to Saint Andrew's Cathedral
The first of the Australian colonies was built by exiled inmates. Today, Sydney's Aussies boast former convicts of their family tree and pride themselves on the cosmopolitan prosperity of the megalopolis they inhabit.

Kings Cross is the first area of ​​the city that most foreigners who arrive unwilling to pay more than a few tens of dollars per night's sleep come across.

Apart from the departure and the airy journey from the airport, it was also our inaugural and surreal vision of Australia.

During the afternoon, we walked backwards and forwards through the neighborhood under a sun that baked our skin and made us tired to bend but cheered the souls fed up with the freezing weather of Alone.

We compete with young people from all possible stops for the last vacancies in the humble inns of the neighborhood already equipped for another full summer. No sooner had twilight set in, than Kings Cross transvested into his night mode.

Drunkards, drug addicts, prostitutes and pimps, countless of Sydney's marginal characters, began to roam around it.

As happens in any and all cities, there they found their social niche between alternating bars, sex shops, peepshows, showgirls' houses, liquor stores and an opportunistic MacDonalds franchise that fed at low prices and scleroticized that artery by itself dysfunctional city.

The passersby we came across seemed so lunatic, improbable, and outlawed by life that we found ourselves yielding to the weight of British colonial history in an attempt to explain its unexpected presence and abundance.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Saint Andrew's Cathedral

Staircase to Saint Andrew's Cathedral

We didn't want to be negative. Nor can we ignore the cultural importance of the neighborhood that hosted its music clubs and helped launch such landmark Australian bands as Go-Betweens and Nick Cave, among many others, to stardom.

But were there concentrated the genes of the most deviant English convicts who populated the enigmatic depths of the world?

Sydney Cove, Britain's Chosen Destination for Inmates

After the declaration of independence of USA., in 1776, Great Britain could no longer send its prisoners across the Atlantic.

Flooded with prisoners, the rulers decided to found a new penal post on the lands discovered by James Cook some sixteen years earlier.

The inaugural settlement took place at Sydney Cove. It was built on the basis of prison establishments built on lands of the Eora aboriginal tribe.

In 1792, there were only 4300 British prisoners exiled, but more than half of the native population of the area (4 to 8 indigenous people) had already been decimated by an epidemic of smallpox disseminated by the prisoners.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, CBD

Well-lit boat crosses the Sydney estuary.

Those who visit Sydney today soon find themselves on the shores of its privileged Harbour, which, even in times of expansion, Captain Arthur Phillip and other seamen soon cataloged as one of the best estuaries they had ever seen.

Sydney Harbour, a Grand Sea-facing Estuary of Tasmania

We bought some generous sushi rolls at the subway station entrance and had lunch on the go, late and late.

We shared the double-decker carriage with a group of blond, chatty surfer friends. Them, on their way to Bondi Beach's bathing Eden. We exit between the near-skyscrapers of the Central Business District (CBD), a few hundred meters from the much calmer inland waters of Circular Quay.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Busker

Saltimbanco juggles apples and fire around Circular Quay.

An acrobat made his living by juggling flames on a huge unicycle that pedaled in the shadows generated by a metallic road structure.

Later on, a pair of aboriginals, almost naked and accurately painted, did the same, in her case, playing long hypnotic themes of digestoo wrapped in different house environments.

"Thank you friends. Get closer, we won't bite you!

Unless they look like a kangaroo, of course!” announces one of them with a strong ozzy accent in search of the audience and the dollars they exchanged for their music CDs.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Indigenous animation

Accurately painted aborigine plays digestoo on Sydney's Circular Quay.

From Aboriginal Presence to Australians of All Parties

From Aboriginal to Contemporary much has changed in Australia's ethnic landscape. Sydney, in particular, has become its cosmopolitan and multicultural city.

There are around 55.000 inhabitants of Aboriginal ancestry in the city, coming from the four corners of the large island.

Today, of its nearly five million citizens, more than 1.5 million were born in other non-Australian parts of the world, an immigration trend that was established after the end of World War II and continues to intensify with strong contributions from New Zealanders, Chinese, Indians , Vietnamese, Koreans and Filipinos, as well as the Lebanese, Italians and Greeks.

Sydney, speaks 250 languages. A third of the inhabitants are masters other than English.

As we walked along Pitt's shopping streets, York and George proved to be so predominant Asians that it felt like we were in Hong Kong.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, fashion

Asian girls shopping near George Street.

The height of Sydney's clearance reached our ears when the beady-eyed owner of an establishment was indignant at our resistance to taking a fake change:

"That's lubish!” threw the newly arrived small businessman in his still precarious English.

The Historical Hedonism of the People of Sydney

In those parts or wherever we went, we enjoyed it like almost all sydneysiders they took advantage of the bounty of the area's climate.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, esplanade

Statue of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, next to an esplanade in Sydney's Old Town.

CBD executives and bank employees matched short-sleeved shirts and even shorts with loose-fitting ties that enforced a modicum of professional ceremony.

After four or five in the afternoon – the very afternoon limit for working hours – instead of sneaking into the house, they joined the crowds drinking beer in pubs or outdoors.

Or they went for a run or a bike ride in their favorite, flowery and sunny parks and gardens, arranged around the many bays and peninsulas of that southern city.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Ibis

Ibis refresh themselves in an artistic fountain from Kings Cross.

As we had already seen on the subway, carefree teenagers wore flowery shirts or walked – on foot or by bus – bare-chested and flip-flops exchanging their rugby ball or australian footballo or with surfboards and bodyboards, depending on the sport that most captivates them.

We dare not contradict the notion that, due to its geographical isolation and obsession with sport, it is drunken by evasion to oceanic nature and the Outback, Australia will be a great desert, also cultural, with a hedonistic Anglophone population, averse to class stratification and poorly polished.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, passing the time

Australians follow the action at Circular Quay on The Rocks waterfront.

It is believed that this is due to the fact that he descended from both the inmates and the military who controlled colonial operations until the beginning of the XNUMXth century.

Paying for labor and local produce in rum and hence nicknamed the Rum Corps, these many soldiers challenged and supplanted the authority of three of the colony's first governors.

One of them was called William Bligh, made notorious by a no less famous “Bounty Revolt” which took place in the Tahiti.

But if there are places that seek to eradicate the nation's civilizational harshness, Sydney is one of them.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Queen Victoria Mall

Interior of the Queen Victoria department store.

The Architectural Magnificence and Culture of the Sydney Opera House

The impressive Opera House remains at the forefront of this mission.

We found it ahead of us after passing the bustling wharves of Circular Quay and the centuries-old buildings of The Rocks that housed the first inmates and their guardians, now preserved as shops, art galleries, cafes and pubs.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, The Rocks

The Rocks entertainment area, with some of the buildings that housed inmates arriving from Great Britain.

In 1973, when it was inaugurated, the Opera House aroused enormous controversy, if not for having cost 109 million dollars when it had been budgeted at XNUMX million.

That was the price of its fearless architecture, interpreted as white sails in the wind, white turtle shells, sea shells and camel humps, in any case, soon promoted to the great symbol of Sydney.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Opera House

Boat sails near the Sydney Opera House, in the great estuary of the city.

It is the scene of exhaustive exploration of almost every visitor to the city and also of around 3000 annual events of various arts.

As we admire it, we notice that dozens of figures walk the heights of the Sydney Harbor Brigde, with breathtaking views of the Opera House and the endless estuary.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Harbor Bridge, Harbor Bridge

Visitors roam the top of the Harbor Bridge.

Unsurprisingly, despite the distance to the rest of the world Sydney is one of its fifteen cities most visited.

It receives around three million international visitors a year, almost half of those from Australia.

Of these, a good number realize the prosperity and unique quality of life offered by the growing megalopolis of the Oceania, return and install themselves once and for all.

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Harbor Bridge

Nightlife at a bar overlooking the estuary and Sydney Harbor Bridge.

We've landed there on two occasions. It never happened to us.

Discovering Tassie, Part 2 - Hobart to Port Arthur, Australia

An Island Doomed to Crime

The prison complex at Port Arthur has always frightened the British outcasts. 90 years after its closure, a heinous crime committed there forced Tasmania to return to its darkest times.
Cairns-Kuranda, Australia

Train to the Middle of the Jungle

Built out of Cairns to save miners isolated in the rainforest from starvation by flooding, the Kuranda Railway eventually became the livelihood of hundreds of alternative Aussies.
Wycliffe Wells, Australia

Wycliffe Wells' Unsecret Files

Locals, UFO experts and visitors have been witnessing sightings around Wycliffe Wells for decades. Here, Roswell has never been an example and every new phenomenon is communicated to the world.
Perth, Australia

the lonely city

More 2000km away from a worthy counterpart, Perth is considered the most remote city on the face of the Earth. Despite being isolated between the Indian Ocean and the vast Outback, few people complain.
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Perth to Albany, Australia

Across the Far West of Australia

Few people worship evasion like the aussies. With southern summer in full swing and the weekend just around the corner, Perthians are taking refuge from the urban routine in the nation's southwest corner. For our part, without compromise, we explore endless Western Australia to its southern limit.
Perth, Australia

The Oceania Cowboys

Texas is on the other side of the world, but there is no shortage of cowboys in the country of koalas and kangaroos. Outback rodeos recreate the original version and 8 seconds lasts no less in the Australian Western.
Atherton Tableland, Australia

Miles Away from Christmas (part XNUMX)

On December 25th, we explored the high, bucolic yet tropical interior of North Queensland. We ignore the whereabouts of most of the inhabitants and find the absolute absence of the Christmas season strange.
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
Perth, Australia

Australia Day: In Honor of the Foundation, Mourning for Invasion

26/1 is a controversial date in Australia. While British settlers celebrate it with barbecues and lots of beer, Aborigines celebrate the fact that they haven't been completely wiped out.
Melbourne, Australia

An "Asienated" Australia

Cultural capital aussie, Melbourne is also frequently voted the best quality of life city in the world. Nearly a million eastern emigrants took advantage of this immaculate welcome.
Discovering tassie, Part 3, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania from Top to Bottom

The favorite victim of Australian anecdotes has long been the Tasmania never lost the pride in the way aussie ruder to be. Tassie remains shrouded in mystery and mysticism in a kind of hindquarters of the antipodes. In this article, we narrate the peculiar route from Hobart, the capital located in the unlikely south of the island to the north coast, the turn to the Australian continent.
Great Ocean Road, Australia

Ocean Out, along the Great Australian South

One of the favorite escapes of the Australian state of Victoria, via B100 unveils a sublime coastline that the ocean has shaped. We only needed a few kilometers to understand why it was named The Great Ocean Road.
Discovering tassie, Part 1 - Hobart, Australia

Australia's Backdoor

Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and the southernmost of Australia, was colonized by thousands of convicts from England. Unsurprisingly, its population maintains a strong admiration for marginal ways of life.
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

Tropical Queensland: An Australia Too Wild

Cyclones and floods are just the meteorological expression of Queensland's tropical harshness. When it's not the weather, it's the deadly fauna of the region that keeps its inhabitants on their toes.
Red Center, Australia

Australia's Broken Heart

The Red Center is home to some of Australia's must-see natural landmarks. We are impressed by the grandeur of the scenarios but also by the renewed incompatibility of its two civilizations.
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Michaelmas Cay, Australia

Miles from Christmas (Part XNUMX)

In Australia, we live the most uncharacteristic of the 24th of December. We set sail for the Coral Sea and disembark on an idyllic islet that we share with orange-billed terns and other birds.
Discovering tassie, Part 4 - Devonport to Strahan, Australia

Through the Tasmanian Wild West

If the almost antipode tazzie is already a australian world apart, what about its inhospitable western region. Between Devonport and Strahan, dense forests, elusive rivers and a rugged coastline beaten by an almost Antarctic Indian ocean generate enigma and respect.
Wadjemup, Rottnest Island, Australia

Among Quokkas and other Aboriginal Spirits

In the XNUMXth century, a Dutch captain nicknamed this island surrounded by a turquoise Indian Ocean, “Rottnest, a rat's nest”. The quokkas that eluded him were, however, marsupials, considered sacred by the Whadjuk Noongar aborigines of Western Australia. Like the Edenic island on which the British colonists martyred them.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Annapurna Circuit, Manang to Yak-kharka
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna 10th Circuit: Manang to Yak Kharka, Nepal

On the way to the Annapurnas Even Higher Lands

After an acclimatization break in the near-urban civilization of Manang (3519 m), we made progress again in the ascent to the zenith of Thorong La (5416 m). On that day, we reached the hamlet of Yak Kharka, at 4018 m, a good starting point for the camps at the base of the great canyon.
Architecture & Design
napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s – Old-Fashioned Car Tour

In a city rebuilt in Art Deco and with an atmosphere of the "crazy years" and beyond, the adequate means of transportation are the elegant classic automobiles of that era. In Napier, they are everywhere.
Full Dog Mushing
Aventura
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
Moa on a beach in Rapa Nui/Easter Island
Ceremonies and Festivities
Easter Island, Chile

The Take-off and Fall of the Bird-Man Cult

Until the XNUMXth century, the natives of Easter Island they carved and worshiped great stone gods. All of a sudden, they started to drop their moai. The veneration of tanatu manu, a half-human, half-sacred leader, decreed after a dramatic competition for an egg.
New Orleans Louisiana, First Line
Cities
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

The Muse of the Great American South

New Orleans stands out from conservative US backgrounds as the defender of all rights, talents and irreverence. Once French, forever Frenchified, the city of jazz inspires new contagious rhythms, the fusion of ethnicities, cultures, styles and flavors.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Lunch time
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
full cabin
Culture
Saariselka, Finland

The Delightful Arctic Heat

It is said that the Finns created SMS so they don't have to talk. The imagination of cold Nordics is lost in the mist of their beloved saunas, real physical and social therapy sessions.
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Bark Europa, Beagle Channel, Evolution, Darwin, Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego
Traveling
Beagle Channel, Argentina

Darwin and the Beagle Channel: on the Theory of the Evolution Route

In 1833, Charles Darwin sailed aboard the "Beagle" through the channels of Tierra del Fuego. His passage through these southern confines shaped the revolutionary theory he formulated of the Earth and its species
Vietnamese queue
Ethnic

Nha Trang-Doc Let, Vietnam

The Salt of the Vietnamese Land

In search of attractive coastlines in old Indochina, we become disillusioned with the roughness of Nha Trang's bathing area. And it is in the feminine and exotic work of the Hon Khoi salt flats that we find a more pleasant Vietnam.

View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

View from John Ford Point, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States
History
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Viewpoint Viewpoint, Alexander Selkirk, on Skin Robinson Crusoe, Chile
Islands
Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile

Alexander Selkirk: in the Skin of the True Robinson Crusoe

The main island of the Juan Fernández archipelago was home to pirates and treasures. His story was made up of adventures like that of Alexander Selkirk, the abandoned sailor who inspired Dafoe's novel
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Winter White
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
silhouette and poem, Cora coralina, Goias Velho, Brazil
Literature
Goiás Velho, Brazil

The Life and Work of a Marginal Writer

Born in Goiás, Ana Lins Bretas spent most of her life far from her castrating family and the city. Returning to its origins, it continued to portray the prejudiced mentality of the Brazilian countryside
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Wildlife, lions
Nature
NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Heart of Mozambique's Wildlife Shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Hammock in Palmeiras, Praia de Uricao-Mar des caraibas, Venezuela
Natural Parks
Henri Pittier NP, Venezuela

PN Henri Pittier: between the Caribbean Sea and the Cordillera da Costa

In 1917, botanist Henri Pittier became fond of the jungle of Venezuela's sea mountains. Visitors to the national park that this Swiss created there are, today, more than they ever wanted
Agua Grande Platform, Iguacu Falls, Brazil, Argentina
UNESCO World Heritage
Iguazu/Iguazu Falls, Brazil/Argentina

The Great Water Thunder

After a long tropical journey, the Iguaçu River gives a dip for diving. There, on the border between Brazil and Argentina, form the largest and most impressive waterfalls on the face of the Earth.
Characters
Look-alikes, Actors and Extras

Make-believe stars

They are the protagonists of events or are street entrepreneurs. They embody unavoidable characters, represent social classes or epochs. Even miles from Hollywood, without them, the world would be more dull.
The Guardian of the World Surfing Reserve at sunset
Beaches
Ericeira, Portugal

The Fishing Village on the Crest of the Surf

Ericeira has long been a land of fearless seafarers, the site of some of Portugal's most memorable moments in history. When, in 2008, the A21 motorway made it more accessible and, shortly afterwards, it was declared Europe's only World Surfing Reserve, it began to dazzle the world, in addition to the holidaymakers of Lisbon and Torres Vedras.
Promise?
Religion
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
On Rails
On Rails

Train Travel: The World Best on Rails

No way to travel is as repetitive and enriching as going on rails. Climb aboard these disparate carriages and trains and enjoy the best scenery in the world on Rails.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Society
Campeche, Mexico

A Bingo so Playful that you play it with Puppets

On Friday nights, a group of ladies occupy tables at Independencia Park and bet on trifles. The tiniest prizes come out to them in combinations of cats, hearts, comets, maracas and other icons.
Saksun, Faroe Islands, Streymoy, warning
Daily life
Saksun, streymoyFaroe Islands

The Faroese Village That Doesn't Want to be Disneyland

Saksun is one of several stunning small villages in the Faroe Islands that more and more outsiders visit. It is distinguished by the aversion to tourists of its main rural owner, author of repeated antipathies and attacks against the invaders of his land.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Wildlife
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.