QUEENSTOWN · NEW ZEALAND
Where the mountains meet the lake.
Milford Sound day trips, Shotover jet boats and steamer cruises across Lake Wakatipu. Gibbston wine, Arrowtown gold, alpine flights and the Middle-earth valleys above Glenorchy.
Only here
The South Island keeps these to itself.
Scenic flights and zip lines turn up the world over. A mile-deep fiord, the canyon the jet boat was invented in, and the valleys that played Middle-earth belong to this stretch of New Zealand alone.
Fiordland
Milford Sound
Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world, and the drive there is half the reason to go. Cliffs drop a mile straight into black water, waterfalls fall off the rim in ribbons, and the cruise runs out to where the fiord opens to the Tasman Sea. Nowhere else in the country looks like it, and you reach it from here.
- 1 Small Group, Award Winning Milford Sound Day Experience & Cruise
- 2 Milford Sound Fly-Cruise-Fly Tour from Queenstown
- 3 From Queenstown: Milford Sound Cruise and Coach Day Tour
Invented here
The Shotover Jet
The jet boat is a South Island invention. Bill Hamilton built the first workable impeller drive to run his own shallow braided rivers in the 1950s, and the Shotover Jet still threads the same narrow rock canyon at speed, close enough to the walls to make you duck, with the full 360 spins its drivers are licensed to pull nowhere else.
- 1 Shotover River Extreme Jet Boat Ride in Queenstown
- 2 Queenstown: Shotover River and Kawarau River Jet Boat Ride
- 3 Queenstown: Shotover River Extreme Jet Boat Experience
Middle-earth
The Film Country
The valleys above Glenorchy, the beech forest at Paradise and the peaks ringing the lake stood in for Middle-earth across the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. Guided trips run out to the actual locations, with the maps, the back-stories and the odd prop to put you in the scene.
- 1 Lord of the Rings Scenic Half Day Tour from Queenstown
- 2 From Queenstown: Lord Of The Rings Tour to Glenorchy
- 3 Queenstown: 4WD Lord Of the Rings Half-Day Tour
The favourite
The one more people book than anything else.
Out of every cruise, flight and jump in Queenstown, this is the day travellers choose most. A safe place to start a first trip.
The classics
Queenstown's Most Popular Days Out
Milford Sound, the Shotover canyon, the lake crossings and the high-country wineries. The days most people come south for.
Where to begin
The days that define a Queenstown trip.
Milford Sound, the lake cruises, the wineries, the jet boats, the alpine flights and the Middle-earth valleys. Six guides to the experiences most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day trip
Three ways to reach the fiord.
Milford is 290km of mountain road each way, so how you get there matters as much as whether you go. Coach, plane, or a bit of both, depending on the time you have and the budget you bring.
By season
A different town four times a year.
Queenstown reinvents itself every season: powder in winter, gold in autumn, roaring waterfalls in spring, the lake wide open all summer. There is no wrong time to come, only a different trip.
Lake Wakatipu
The cold heart of the whole valley.
Wakatipu bends in a long lightning-bolt below the town, snow-fed and so clear you can read the depth by the colour of the water. Walled in by the Remarkables and 380 metres deep, it is the centre of gravity for everything here. Cross it by coal-fired steamer, sail it at dusk, or open the throttle and tear across it.
Get out on the water →Central Otago
The world's southernmost pinot.
Gibbston Valley sits in a glacier-cut gorge twenty minutes from town, the heart of Central Otago wine country. Cellar doors, long vineyard lunches and a wine cave bored into the rock, strung along the Kawarau between the vines and the old gold-rush bridge.
- 1 Boutique Wine Tour – visit Central Otago, 4 Wineries & Lunch
- 2 Award Winning Premium Wine Tour Queenstown Tasting at 4 Wineries
- 3 Queenstown: Afternoon Wine & Beer Tour with Platters
By adrenaline
Every speed, one town.
Queenstown earns the adventure-capital name by covering the whole range. Ease right off when you want to, lift off when you want more, and free-fall when you want to find out what you are made of.
Take it slow
Lake time and long lunches.Gourmet cruises across to Walter Peak, vineyard afternoons through Gibbston, the whole day spent at water level.
Classic adventure
River speed, alpine air.The Shotover Jet through the rock canyon, a scenic flight over the Remarkables, the long day out to Milford and back.
Maximum air
Straight off the edge.A tandem skydive over the Wakatipu basin, a canyon swing off the ledge, a paraglider launched from Coronet Peak.
By place
One base, a whole region.
Queenstown for the lake and the action. Milford Sound for the fiord. Glenorchy for the wild head of the lake. Arrowtown for the gold-rush gold. Gibbston for the wine. Mount Cook for the highest peak in the country.
By activity
Pick your kind of day.
Up high on a scenic flight, fast on the river, slow on a cruise, or out at a Gibbston cellar door. Twelve ways to fill a Queenstown day.
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