The Skyline gondola & luge
A gondola up Bob’s Peak for the lake view, and a gravity luge down — children would ride it all day.
Queenstown
Lakeside adventure under the Southern Alps
Best time
December – March; July – September for snow
Gentle pace
3–5 slow days
Ideal for
Active families · Couples · Adrenaline seekers
Queenstown sits on the shore of Lake Wakatipu beneath the Remarkables, a saw-toothed range that turns rose at sunset. It is the adventure capital of the world — bungy, jet boats, mountain bikes — but it is also a gentle lakeside town, with steamers, gondolas and easy lakeside walks for families who prefer their thrills smaller.
With children, ride the gondola for the luge and the view, take the vintage TSS Earnslaw across the lake, and drive to Glenorchy for the most beautiful hour of road in the country. In winter, learn to ski at Coronet Peak.
Worth lingering over
The TSS Earnslaw steamship
A 1912 coal-fired steamer across the lake to a high-country farm for afternoon tea and sheep-shearing.
The drive to Glenorchy
An hour along the lake’s edge to a sleepy village and the head of the Routeburn track — pure Middle-earth.
Hidden gem
Glenorchy and the Routeburn
An hour’s drive along the edge of Lake Wakatipu — through scenery so dramatic it stood in for Middle-earth — lies the tiny village of Glenorchy, and beyond it the start of the Routeburn, one of the world’s great walks. You need not do the whole thing: even the first hour along the river, through beech forest and mountain light, is worth the drive and almost no visitor makes it.