Autumn in Queenstown Queenstown Life week in pictures

If you haven’t been here in Autumn before I forgive the gasps and jaws on the floor. The colour’s here are absolutely mindbendingly awesome. They come at you like a freight train, but look around and they’re gone. So snapping like mad is expected. It’s also the time for us to get ready for Winter. I’ve been around here a while now to have lived in a few different houses and suburbs and while I like ice in my gin and tonic I hate it on my cornflakes and on top of my duvet in the morning because the house I live in is as insulated as a waffle.

Get clever people! Some of the best houses in Summer are ice boxes in Winter and anyone living in Kelvin Heights will tell you (as they wave from their sunny side of the hill) that a bit of sunshine in Winter not only dries the clothes you washed last week it puts a smile on your dial.

A few tips from me:

1) Get your firewood sorted early. Have I done this yet? No. Do I intend to? Yes. Letting it sit in the warmth for a bit helps it along when you are trying to get your fire cranking after a hard days graft and you’re freezing.

2) Invest in a hot water bottle, electric blanket (but don’t fall asleep with it cranking), puffa jacket. I swear by hot water bottles. I didn’t even know they still made them coming from a country of radiators. But when your tootsies are cold they are amazing at making everything cozy once more.

3) Keep up the exercise. One of the (many) great things about this place is in Winter the snow can be falling on the ski fields (yay) but you can still ride and run and walk in the valley. The trails are amazing this time of year. Get a sweat on and keep warm. All the more reason for a hot chocolate at the end of the day.

4) Plan plan plan. There’s so many things on during the colder months that you forget to put that ‘gun shooting in the snow’ race in your diary. X-country weekends, biking running, Winter shows and who could resist the dog barking competition of Winter Festival. So now. Do it like your mother told you. Invest in a diary.

Autumn in Queenstown