queenstown

There are multiple ways to experience the town. Tall mountains set the scene for bungee jumping or paragliding in summer and skiing in the winter. Glacial blue rivers are ripe for packrafting or jetboating. Hiking trails crisscross the alpine terrain. Yet increasingly, this adventure-rich town is emerging as more than just a place for thrills. New high-end hotels and villas, wellness activities like floating saunas and cold plunges, and a growing appreciation for the wine and food mean visitors can enjoy adventure without compromising on luxury.

HISTORY

While Maori visited the Queenstown area seasonally to hunt or gather pounamu( South Island greenstone), it wasn’ t until the Europeans arrived in 1860 that a permanent settlement began to grow on the lakeshore. Not long after their arrival, Europeans discovered gold in the region’ s rivers and a gold rush ensued. The boom faded by the end of the 1800s, but the legacy of the rush is still visible in the schist stone and timber buildings of Central Otago’ s small towns.

The most notable of these is Arrowtown, a 15-minute drive from Queenstown. The village is so well preserved it seems as if muddy-booted prospectors might appear

among the tourists at any moment. Along the main street are original buildings with their quaint facades intact, although they now house a range of boutique stores, restaurants and bars. A five-minute walk from the center of Arrowtown, on the banks of a tributary to the Arrow River, is a partially restored Chinese village dating back to the 1880s— the last intact Chinese settlement in Otago. The huts offer a glimpse into the often-overlooked role and harsh living conditions of Chinese prospectors during the gold rush.

Another place providing a window into the gold-rush era is Skipper’ s Canyon. The deep gorge is around 14 miles long, carved out of the rugged landscape by the Shotover River. Prospectors discovered gold in this river in 1862, luring tens of thousands of hopeful miners to the remote canyon. The Skippers Road, clinging to the edge of the gorge, was built to make access to the Shotover River easier for miners; before the road, there was only a pack track connecting settlers with the outside world. By the time the road was completed, the gold rush had already subsided. The road endured, even as the settlements it led to slowly dispersed. Today, it still appears much as it did in the 19th century— little more than a narrow strip of rock hacked into the sides of the gorge walls. Sheer drops and a narrow width mean this isn’ t a road for rental vehicles.

Visit instead on a 4WD tour, for the thrill of the road itself, and to see the remnants of Skippers Township, an isolated community that rose during the gold rush.

CULTURE

Many of the most popular events in Queenstown’ s calendar are sporting ones— hardly surprising given that the lakes and mountains in the area are a playground for hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers. Most prominent among these is the

Clockwise from right: Shops and restaurants along Queenstown Mall; the Kawarau River draining Lake Wakatipu at Frankton, near Queenstown; runners in the Queenstown Marathon Previous pages: Lake Erskine at Fiordland National Park

images: alamy; awl images; Graeme Murray

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