Queenstown Adventure Shopping Wine

Located in New Zealand’s South Island, Queenstown in a beautiful city surrounded by lush nature. The stunning Remarkables mountain range, Coronet Peak, Walter Peak, and Cecil Peak border the metropolis. However, Lake Wakatipu is the star attraction. Running 80 kilometers long (almost 50 miles), it sits in the midst of this endearing town. Queenstown also offers it all…Adventure, Shopping, Wine, and lots more.

Queenstown NZ Lake Wakatipu — Lake Wakatipu

Queenstown Adventure Shopping Wine

Queenstown is home to adventure. On the lake, you will find an array of boat tours to view the area by water. Excellent hiking and running trails can be found throughout the district for all you nature buffs.

Wonderful restaurants, bars, shops, bakeries and galleries line the streets in town and along the waterfront. A wide array of adventure tours are promoted everywhere you look.Of course, all kinds of wine tours run from Queenstown into its surrounding areas. I had a fabulous time taking the Hop on Hop off Wine Tour. CLICK HERE to read my review.

Milford Sound Tour From Queenstown

Our awesome tour guide Jorge with the cheeky kiwi minivan

You can also take a bus tour to Milford Sound. I chose Cheeky Kiwi Travel, which included a boat ride as well as a mini-bus drive to and from this popular attraction. CLICK HERE to read my review for that tour. We enjoyed a lovely stay at the beautiful Milford Sound Lodge. CLICK HERE for that review. We had a plane ride scheduled to see the area from above, but unfortunately the flight was canceled due to bad weather. We have heard great things about Air Milford. They offer numerous flight tours from Queenstown and have a 100% safety record.

Arrowtown

A quaint little town just twenty minutes from Queenstown, Arrowtown will take you back to the 1800s. Here you can learn about the historic gold mining town and walk through a Chinese settlement founded in 1862. You can also enjoy some fabulous shopping, open art studios, galleries, a museum, restaurants and bars. I’ll be writing an article soon featuring a more in-depth look at Arrowtown. It happened to be on my wine tour mentioned earlier, and I loved it.

Shotover Jet

For all you adventure seekers…you will want to take the Shotover Jet Boat. There are many jet boats, but only one is a Maori owned business. In fact, this company is the only one allowed to take tourists through the Shotover River Canyons. CLICK HERE to read Richard’s Review – he had a terrific time on this attraction.

And finally, you will not want to miss the Skyline gondola which overlooks the entire Otago region. My husband and I considered dining at the Stratosfare restaurant up there, but we had already celebrated our anniversary at the Sky Tower restaurant in Auckland – CLICK HERE to read that review. Since our time in Queenstown was limited, we took the gondola up just for the views. We were so glad we did it. There were several places to relax as well as casual places to grab a quick bite. CLICK HERE for more info on the Skyline.

Queenstown NZ Skyline — Lake Wakatipu from the top of Bob’s Peak; photo by Richard Bilow

If you are planning a trip to New Zealand, be sure to put Queenstown on your list of places to visit. Book at least 4-5 nights to take in a good sample of all this beautiful city has to offer.

CLICK HERE If you would like to find out more about New Zealand attractions or read additional stories about ETG’s experiences in New Zealand.

ETG also encourages you to visit New Zealand’s official tourism website – https://www.newzealand.com