Queenstown A town fit for a Queen
Located in the Southern Alps of New Zealand is Queenstown, a small resort town of roughly 18 thousand people. It is regarded as New Zealand’s winter capital, and it is the most important tourist centre in New Zealand, surpassing even Rotorua in the North Island.

The most accepted story as to how the town got its name is that the surrounding scenery it was so impressing and beautiful, local gold diggers proclaimed that the place was fit for Queen Victoria. She never visited New Zealand, but her heirs and members of the royal family have visited this beautiful place many times. The positioning of Queenstown in a glacial valley on the shores of Lake Wakatipu impresses everyone who arrives here.  At around 300km², Wakatipu is the third largest lake in New Zealand. It also has the longest shoreline of any lake in the country and is one of the deepest at around 400metres. According to the Maori, the valley of the lake was carved out by the body of a giant serpent, and perhaps the distinctive s-shape of the lake explains how this legend came about.  The town and lake are surrounded by high mountain peaks, the highest of which exceed 2300 metres above sea level.  The unique scenery was not lost on the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy Peter Jackson and many takes for the epic movies were filmed in the area. There have been other film and television crews who filmed around Queenstown, with the scenery often being used to imitate Tibet, Korea, Japan, Scotland or Canada for example.  

Artist’s canvas
Tourists visit Queenstown all year round. Although it can get quite cold in the winter months (June-August), it is generally dry, and when the sun is shining the only reminder that it is winter is the snow covered mountains.  It is hard to choose the perfect time to visit. This is the problem faced by many artists, for whom Queenstown is their favourite landscape. In spring rhododendrons, roses and lupins bloom in an incredible assortment of colours.  In autumn the yellowing tree leaves, the blue sky and the dark green waters of the lake with its silver cliffs, give endless sources of inspiration. In winter the town is surrounded by white snow covering the surrounding mountains. It only snows a few times each winter in the town itself, while permanent winter snow is commonly found above 1400metres. Icy roads are an occasional test for both local and visiting drivers. Icy roads in New Zealand are not sprinkled with salt or sand, so in order to avoid the risk of accidents and slips, tyre chains are a necessary accessory to have in every car.

Total tourism
Queenstown has an endless choice of attractions and activities, and with tourists in mind developers are building houses and apartments with stunning views for the lake below. Some of the most expensive real-estate in New Zealand can be found here. It can be said that Queenstown is a place of total tourism; with hundreds of hotels, hostels and motels offering accommodation for all budgets. Visitors have every option from renting a villa with lake views to sharing a simple tent section at a campground. No holiday in New Zealand is complete without visiting Queenstown and even New Zealanders admire the pristine beauty of this place, not to mention Australians, who simply do not have such stunning mountains, lakes, rivers and streams back home. Nor do they have such great ski fields as the ones found in the Southern Alps. For a few years now there have been direct flights to Queenstown from Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney, and as a result Queenstown has the fastest growing airport in the country. Queenstown calls itself the ‘Adventure Capital of the World’, and there is a lot of truth to that. Would you like to take a helicopter flight? Easy. What about paragliding? Just call and book. Extreme mountain biking? It’s here as well. Almost any adrenaline filled adventure is just a phone call away, and within walking distance. Do you want to jump out of a plane but have never tried skydiving before? Not a problem. The instructor will jump attached to you, so just sit back and enjoy the view from high in the air. Alternatively, with a parachute on your back you get attached to the back of a jet boat by a rope. When the boat takes off on the water, the parachute takes you up in the air, and you glide behind taking in the unforgettable views around you. If that is not enough adrenaline for you, you can fly in a jet plane, or bungy jump - off a bridge, a platform or even a pod strung 134m above a river.  Queenstown is the place where commercial Bungy Jumping began in the late eighties. It was the vision of a New Zealander called Alan J. Hacket, who patented the idea and did everything to show it was safe.  He even jumped off the Eiffel tower to promote his new venture, and since 1988 it has grown into an international empire. Bungy jumping has become popular all over the world, and yet many are drawn to the historic Kawaru Bridge, because this is where it all began. Those that do not wish to jump can listen to the screams of others, crazy enough to do the 43 meter fall off a bridge with an elastic rope attached to their feet. The oldest person to have done this so far was 94, the youngest 10. For most, one jump is enough, but for others the Kawarau Bridge is just a fore runner to a much more serious event. A few kilometers way, in a canyon, hanging 134 meters above the Nevis River, is a platform. The freefall from this platform itself takes 8.5 seconds, which can feel like an eternity, and the most entertaining part is seeing the faces of the jumpers just as they step out onto the platforms ledge. Another activity popular amongst tourists is jet boating, where fast boats take you on an adrenaline filled ride through canyons of the Kawarau or Shotover River. The jet boat was the creation of a New Zealander, an engineer from Christchurch called William Hamilton. His designed a water jet engine, which instead of using a propeller, created thrust by taking in water, and expelling it under high pressure from behind the boat. The genius of the design allowed a boat to travel at very high speeds on just a few centimeters of water. The idea has gone global, and every day of the year in Queenstown, jet boats wiz through canyons with screaming and adrenaline filled passengers. Other ways to experience the beautiful mountain rivers here include whitewater rafting and white water sledging. Calmer water activities include kayak trips on Lake Wakatipu, and sailing trips on an Americas Cup yacht, which has been added to the wide range of unique activities on offer here.

Gold Rush
Money can disappear very quickly in Queenstown. Some believe that they can make it all back by striking gold. From the 1860s the Central Otago region went through one gold rush after another. Gold diggers arrived from many countries of the world, and although most were Europeans, there was a significant number of Chinese. Remains of their settlements can be seen around Arrowtown and on the way to Cromwell. Both these towns are worth a visit, and a walk through their historic town centres will take you back to the gold rush days. As you walk amongst beautifully restored cottages and stone stores, it feels like a film set for an American Western. To find out more about the history of the region a visit to the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown is a must. Here you can also rent a gold pan (with a shovel and instructions), walk a few hundred metres along the bank of the Arrow river until you find a nice spot, dig in and start panning. Who knows, maybe that elusive gold nugget is right under your feet.

White Fever
The ski season in Queenstown kicks off with the Winter Festival at the beginning of June. People diving into the bone chilling 8°C waters of Lake Wakatipu is one past time of this festival. Every day snowboarders and skiers board coaches, minibuses and cars fitted with snow chains, and head for one of the two ski fields in the area, Coronet Peak and the Remarkables. A third ski field, Mt Cardrona, is only about an hours drive away. Wealthier tourists take to the ski fields by helicopter. For around $400, experienced and brave skiers can fly to the higher mountain ranges for some extreme skiing, where they go down very steep mountain sides at high speeds. Snow crazy tourists from the northern hemisphere come to Queenstown in June, July and August to get two winters in one year.

At a slower pace
Of course you don’t have to be an adrenaline junkie to enjoy your stay in Queenstown. Tourist preferring calm and relaxing activities can take a majestic cruise on Lake Wakatipu. The 100 year old TSS Earnslaw was once used to transport produce and stock to farms on the shores of the lake, today however it is one of the most popular attractions in Queenstown. Built in 1912, it is probably the last remaining coal powered steam ship in the southern hemisphere. During the cruise you can see the historic engine in action with your own eyes. The Earnslaw has become one of Queenstown’s most recognisable icons, and there are sailings departing throughout the day.  During some of these cruises passengers disembark at Walter Peak Station, on the other side of the lake, where they partake in a farm show, go horse riding, and enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner at the station restaurant. Water in the lake cold even in the summer, and rarely goes above 12°C, but this is normal for a deep mountain lake like Wakatipu. There is however a shallow beach at the bottom end of Queenstown Mall, and during a hot summer’s day the water here can get up to 20°C. There is even a floating platform on which swimmers can rest before jumping back into the crystal clear water. Fishing enthusiasts will not be disappointed with Queenstown either as salmon and trout are plentiful in the lakes and rivers.  The area is also a golf hub with around 10 golf courses. One such golf course, owned by the most successful New Zealand jeweller Sir Michael Hill, hosted the New Zealand Golf Open between 2008 and 2010. As in any frontier town, you would expect to find a lot of brothels in Queenstown, but this is not so. I guess that tourists exhausted after a day of adventure and adrenaline have different demands than a frustrated miner ill with gold fever. That is not to say that there are no brothels at all. Every form of adrenaline filled adventure can be found in Queenstown after all.

To Milford
Queenstown is only a two hour drive from one of the largest national parks in the word – Fiordland. Every morning at around 7am, dozens of tourist busses depart Queenstown for an all day trip to Milford Sound, or the less popular but more beautiful Doubtful Sound. The distance from Queenstown to Milford Sound is 300km, and there is only one road leading in and out of the park. It is a drive through one of the most visually pristine areas of the world. Upon arriving in Milford Sound tourists board one of the many ships that take them for a cruise on what is actually a flooded glacial valley. After the cruise, the 300km return journey to Queenstown completes a 12-14 hour day. For those with less time to spare Milford Sound can be reached by plane or helicopter from Queenstown, Glenorchy or Te Anau. Up to 8000mm of rain falls in Fiordland every year, but despite the weather, it is still known as the ‘Walking Capital of the World’ offering hundreds of kilometres of walking tracks. If you were to ask me what the best time to visit Queenstown is, I would say that unlike other resort towns, Queenstown does not close its doors to tourists for the spring and autumn. Most attractions and adventure activities operate throughout the year, but for me the most important element to this place is the beautiful scenery, and for this reason I like Queenstown at any time of day and year.
BOGUSŁAW NOWAK