Queenstown Winter Festival

If you have never been to Queenstown, you are missing one of the most beautiful towns in New Zealand. It is situated on a lake – Lake Wakatipu – and is surrounded by mountains. Two good ski fields are very close to the town – the Remarkables on one side of Queenstown and Coronet Peak on the other. Right now they both have good snow but are hoping for more snow tomorrow.

Every year, Queenstown holds a 10 day winter festival. This year’s festival starts tonight with fireworks and live entertainment from local singers and musicians, all outdoors. The temperature tonight is not too cold – about 8 degrees. There is an outdoor ice skating rink in the town during the festival.

Tomorrow, there are many events like a mountain bike race on the snow, a one-mile running race in the streets for children and adults, a family fun day and an ice hockey competition in the evening.

Every day there are fun events on the mountains or in the town. The festival finishes on July 1st.

The school term in New Zealand finishes June 29th so many families will travel to Queenstown June 30th for their winter holiday, just in time to enjoy the end of the festival.

Vocabulary

• situated – located
• surrounded –around on every side
• ski field – New Zealand expression for ski area

Structure

…have never been to Queenstown – Note: present perfect tense

There is / there are – a good way to introduce a topic (also there was/ were/ has been/ have been/ will be)