Queenstown NZ New Zealand
New Zealand
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and it is worth saying plainly: Queenstown has no sea berth and no cruise terminal. The town clings to the shores of Lake Wakatipu, deep in the Southern Alps, kilometres from the ocean.
As a land stay before or after a New Zealand voyage, or as a starting point for excursions to the fiords that ships sail past in the south. Anyone extending a cruise by a few days often ends up here.
A steamer launched in 1912, the same year as the Titanic, and the last coal-fired passenger vessel in the southern hemisphere. She leaves the central wharf on a 90-minute crossing to the high-country farm at Walter Peak.
A high-country farm with sheep-shearing demonstrations and sheepdogs at work. The journey is part of the pleasure: the steamer's engine room stays open to view, gleaming connecting rods and black smoke included.
The Skyline gondola, just behind the town centre, which climbs the mountainside to a lookout taking in the lake, the town and the Remarkables range. The more playful then ride the luge track back down.
Yes, but understand the commitment: the road takes about four hours each way, and day excursions stretch to around twelve hours. A helicopter reaches the fiord in about thirty minutes over the glaciers.
The Eglinton Valley, the Mirror Lakes and the Homer Tunnel, before cruising beneath the fiord walls near Stirling Falls. It is the same landscape ships admire from the Tasman Sea, seen this time from inland.
The region invented commercial bungy jumping, and the bridges nearby still draw those drawn to the drop. Add jet boats in the Shotover gorge and balcony trails above the lake. None of it is compulsory: the lakefront is perfectly good from a bench.
A former gold-mining village twenty minutes away by road, with miners' cottages and willows along the river where a few flakes are still panned. Its cafes and small museum repay the trip, especially in autumn when the foliage turns.
Yes, the Gibbston Valley produces pinot noir. Several estates receive visitors, and the route fits easily into a day out towards Arrowtown.
