Les Alpes Queenstown

Les Alpes Queenstown

This is a nice little French cafe in Chruch Street, Queenstown.

Quite reasonably priced - $4.5 for a mochaccino and $10 for a ham and cheese croissant with salad side dish. The quality of the coffee is good and I think I will be back just for it. The $10 croissant - ham and cheese, is almost like a meal in itself for a small eater like me. Their french cakes and pastries don't like too expensive either but a bit too sugary for me.

The place has a good central location. The staff are not in too much of a hurry to kick you out. We spent just over an hour in this cafe. It's quite cosy... though I can imagine that they'd turn on the fire when there's more people.

They have some nice mellow music... I would have loved some more French background music (instrumental) though... I thought for a few minutes I heard some Indian music which I thought was a bit odd especially if everywhere around the cafe seemed French enough -ie from the plaids as table cloth, the style of furniture.

HQwifi doesn't work in this cafe... then again HQwifi works only 10% of the time when I am in Queenstown... apart from the high cost of this wifi service, once you get logged in, if ever you can get logged in, please expect the most unreliable and slowest connection. So do yourselves a favour and don't waste your money trying to login and just enjoy the coffee :-)


Restaurant and Food Reviews
Accommodation Tips
Personal Health
Investment Ebooks
Travel in the Philippines
Living in New Zealand

Queenstown's Patagonia

Wet and chilly these days in Queenstown. Then again, this beautiful piece of paradise has something else to offer in a weather like this. What soothes the cold and loneliness could be a comfort mochaccino with special Patagonia chocolate. This doesn't come cheap at $5.5 per cup but it's all worth it. Patagonia has fortunately improved to have the fastest free wifi in town. No it doesn't offer free 'charging' of laptops but I guess newer models of laptops now allow up to 4 hours of battery even under heavy usage.

Seriously, the joy of working on emails while having a view of the Lake Wakatipu is beyond compare. It's one of the things I will remember most in Queenstown.

Today I talked with an Indian (born) lady who grew up in NZ. She was lovely and very fluent. She lives comfortably in Auckland but she said that Queenstown is where she and her husband want to live in the future. Queenstown is a small town in NZ - it is actually the most expensive place to live in New Zealand because of lesser jobs available and high cost of living.

For what it's worth, I'll enumerate issues with living in Queenstown... not that they all matter because I think once you try living here, all the nuisances might be worth it:
1. There's only one real grocery store - New World - over at Remarkables park. Sure there are others in town which I wouldn't even mention! They are too expensive.
2. The lack of jobs ... if you're a chef or manager of customer services, you might get a chance to live here... otherwise, you need to be really wealthy or you need to have substantial inheritance!
3. There's a lack of activities for residents. Sure there are a lot of things to do for tourists! Queenstown is living on tourism! But those who actually live here? All year round? Too quiet in May - June.  If you're adventurous and love walking, riding, running, then this is the place for you. If you love culture... sadly that's what Queenstown and pretty much the rest of NZ doesn't have... (expect Rotorua where there is a strong presence of indigenous culture...)
4. Food is very western... Not much options in terms of good value fruits and vegetables
5. Too far from other countries - it's located at the edge of the world... unless you have good friends and family around, you can get a little too lonely.

Restaurant and Food Reviews
Accommodation Tips
Personal Health
Investment Ebooks
Travel in the Philippines
Living in New Zealand