Well there are two sides to Queenstown as a fitness destination. Good & bad. I’m leaving in a week after a 2 month stay.

I’ll tell you the bad stuff first. The air here is polluted. You wont see that in any article or official report but I have coughed my guts out the whole time I have been here – especially at first.

In the tourist village its caused by chimneys all over the place. Being an alpine village it often gets a bit chilly & folks just crank up the fire.

However on other trips I have stayed at Frankton near the airport & also coughed my guts out. Over there it was a dust bowl. So if the smoke doesn’t get you the dust will.

Up on the mountain in the trees however the air is clean & fresh. As it is most places around here just not where most of the people are to be found.

OK second thing wrong with the place is drugs & alcohol. The village is full of bars & drunks. At the backpackers here they are on LSD & god knows what. So many people come here to party not keep fit.

Finally this is not a town for bodybuilding & powerlifting. Of course you can do that anywhere if you want but it is not the focus here.

I joined the local gym which makes it pretty clear its a gay friendly gym. I am not gay lol but its the only place available to train without catching a bus. So I would have much more preferred to train at a hardcore body building / powerlifting nohomo gym.

There are a bunch of CrossFit & fighting gyms in town but again – probably not for heavyweights in this town.

Now for the “good” news – kind of

This place is a meca for endurance sports & athletes. There’s are so many super fit mother fuckers around here that kick my ass at endurance. Cycling – there are races all over the place, marathons – they just do it daily, not up hill, up mountain. Even many old people here are super fit, and the freaks on LSD are also very fit at endurance.

Suffice to say all of the folk hiking for days on end & zapping up mountains in 1/4 the time of me are skinny little runts with little fat or muscle.

I can beat them all up but they are kicking my ass badly at cardio. The consolation is that Queenstown is a special destination. People that come here to participate in the sports or great hikes usually have trained hard at endurance for months in advance. If you come here as a weightlifter & they kick your ass like me, don’t feel so bad. These fuckers came prepared.

So if you are cutting, losing some fat & building up endurance this is a great place to be for a while.

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