Queenstown, NZ

Josh Emett's contemporary New Zealand restaurant tucked down a laneway off the lakefront, with a daily-changing menu built on South Island producers. It's the town's benchmark for refined Kiwi cooking without the resort-hotel feel.

A cellar-door restaurant on the edge of Lake Hayes serving a long Trust the Chef tasting menu of Central Otago produce paired with the estate's pinots. Repeatedly named one of New Zealand's best restaurants and worth the 15-minute drive out of town.

A converted motel on the road into town with a kitchen garden out front and a menu built around what's growing and what local farms send through. It's where Queenstown locals go when they want serious cooking in jeans.

An all-day cafe and bar that bakes its own bread, mills its own coffee blend, and runs a long menu friendly to vegan and gluten-free eaters. The covered courtyard with heaters is one of the few proper outdoor brunch spots in town.

A bright, light-filled brunch room at the foot of the gondola track, run by the same team as Vudu. The seasonal cabinet, pancake stack, and house pastries draw the queue.

The original Queenstown brunch institution, run by the same locals since 1997, with a lake-facing back deck most visitors never find. It's the cafe that taught the town how to do specialty coffee and proper eggs.

The single-location burger joint that became a Queenstown rite of passage, open most of the day and well into the night. The queue is famous; the Ferg Deluxe and the Sweet Bambi (venison) are the orders.

The bakery sibling next door to Fergburger turning out savoury pies, brioche cinnamon scrolls, and proper pastry from before dawn until well after midnight. It's the morning-after stop and the late-night-snack stop both.

The third in the Ferg family, churning small-batch gelato and sorbet a few steps from the burger queue. Flavours rotate with the season and lean genuinely Italian rather than dessert-cafe sweet.

A small Steamer Wharf bar pouring an unusually deep craft beer line-up alongside breakfast, tapas and a famous eye fillet on a hot stone. It's the locals' all-day room when the rest of the wharf is overrun.

A glass-walled seafood room jutting out from Steamer Wharf with a 270-degree view across Lake Wakatipu. The menu is short and built on Bluff oysters, blue cod and South Island fish.

A cult takeaway shack selling one thing: a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with garlicky scalloped potatoes, packed in a foil tray to take back to your Airbnb. Order in the morning, collect at dinner.

A waterfront shared-plates room on Steamer Wharf serving small, medium and large dishes built for the table. It's the easiest dinner in town when the group can't agree on a cuisine.

A historic cottage on Marine Parade turned into a heavy-curtained dining room of dry-aged steaks, game and a deep wine list. It's the white-tablecloth special occasion that locals still rate.

A tiny upstairs dining room hidden down Cow Lane with a wood-panelled fireplace bar above. The menu leans European game and lamb; the bar is a town favourite for a late whisky.

The lakefront bar of Eichardt's Private Hotel, pouring proper martinis and serving a tight small-plates menu in the prettiest room in town. It's the pre-dinner drink with the best view in central Queenstown.

A long-running Latin American room above Searle Lane serving Cuban, Peruvian and Mexican dishes the rest of town doesn't really attempt. The ceviche and the Cuban pork are the orders.

A loud, plant-filled Mexican room on the lakefront from the Madam Woo team, doing house tortillas, mezcal and tacos worth a queue. It's the most consistent fun-night dinner in central Queenstown.

A nine-seat teppan counter on Beach Street where the chef cooks scallops, wagyu and seasonal vegetables in front of you, paired with a serious sake list. The best omakase-style seat in town.

A Polynesian-meets-Pan-Asian dining room on Beach Street with a kitsch tiki interior and a menu of dumplings, satay, and big shareable mains. Genuinely fun and the kitchen is better than the room suggests.

An intimate Italian dining room in a 1882 stone cottage off Church Lane, doing handmade pasta and a tight regional wine list. The most romantic table in central Queenstown when the fire is lit.

A small upstairs room on Earl Street with a strong gluten-free leaning and a kitchen that quietly outperforms its prices. A local favourite for a proper sit-down dinner that doesn't need a reservation a week ahead.

A small Beach Street seafood-and-steak room run by the same chef-owner since 2007, doing blue cod, Bluff oysters and Wakanui beef. The menu doesn't chase trends and the regulars like it that way.

A lakefront Irish pub doing properly cooked pub food (Guinness pie, lamb shank) alongside live music most nights of the week. It's the casual rainy-day room when nothing else feels right.

The 450-metre climb up Bob's Peak from the gondola base to the Skyline complex, mostly under beech forest. Steep but short; the trade-up of walking up and gondola down is a Queenstown ritual.

Queenstown's classic full-day climb to a 1,748-metre summit with one of the most complete 360-degree views in the South Island. Six to eight hours return, with the last hour a proper alpine scramble.

A 2.5-hour return loop up the smaller hill behind town through Douglas fir forest to the Basket of Dreams sculpture at the top. Friendlier than Ben Lomond and the view across Lake Wakatipu is nearly as good.

An eight-kilometre, mostly flat loop around Lake Hayes between Queenstown and Arrowtown. Cyclable, prammable, and the best autumn walk anywhere in the region.

A 130-kilometre network of mostly flat cycle and walking trails connecting Queenstown, Frankton, Arrowtown and Gibbston wineries. The Twin Rivers section from Frankton to Arrow Bridge is the easy half-day.

A flat seven-kilometre lakefront path from Queenstown Gardens out to Frankton, useable as a walk or cycle. The quietest way to see the lake at water level.

An 11-kilometre section of the Queenstown Trail from Arrowtown to the Kawarau Bungy bridge, crossing four suspension bridges over the Arrow and Kawarau rivers. Mostly downhill if ridden in that direction.

A three-hour loop from Arrowtown's main street up the gully and back along the Arrow River, mostly in old gold-mining country. Quiet, varied, and ends with a swim hole at the bottom in summer.

A five-hour return ridge walk above Arrowtown to Big Hill saddle, with a long open ridge and a view straight down into the Wakatipu Basin. The harder of the two main Arrowtown walks.

A two-hour return forest walk from Fernhill roundabout up the creek through beech forest, an old water-supply route for Queenstown. Cool and shaded on a hot summer afternoon.

A flat seven-kilometre section of the Queenstown Trail from Lake Hayes around the back of Bendemeer into Arrowtown. The easiest way to walk between the two and avoid the highway.

The gondola, restaurant deck and luge complex at the top of Bob's Peak directly above town. The summit lookout is the postcard view; the luge is a serious half-hour of fun for any age above eight.

The thirty-minute jet boat ride through the narrowest part of the Shotover Gorge, with 360-degree spins and close-pass canyon walls. The original Queenstown jet boat ride, in business since 1965.

The 43-metre suspension-bridge jump that started commercial bungy worldwide in 1988. Still the easiest, prettiest jump in town and the one most first-timers do.

A 134-metre jump from a wire-suspended cable car over the Nevis River canyon, plus the world's biggest swing on the same site. Reached only by 4WD coach from town; the bigger sibling of Kawarau.

The 1912 coal-fired twin-screw steamship that still runs daily cruises across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak farm. One of the last working steamships of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

A small luxury hot-pool retreat in cedar tubs cantilevered over the Shotover River. Twenty minutes from town, private rooms only, retractable roof for the sky.

Queenstown's south-facing ski field 25 minutes from town, with night skiing on Friday and Saturday evenings in season. The closer, more sun-exposed of the two local fields.

The higher, colder ski field on the eastern side of Lake Wakatipu, 45 minutes up the access road from town. Better snow late in the season and a wider beginner basin.

The original Gibbston cellar door, with a wine cave drilled into the schist hill, a long lunch restaurant and a cheese counter. The natural first stop on a Gibbston wine tour.

A family-owned 1987 vineyard reached by a single-lane gravel road clinging to the Kawarau gorge wall, with a cellar door looking back across the canyon. Small-volume pinot noirs that age well.

A striking architect-designed cellar door with a wing-shaped roof set into the Gibbston hill, doing organic pinot and a tight tasting flight. The good-design stop on the wine trail.

A small native-bird sanctuary at the foot of the gondola, with kiwi enclosures, conservation shows and a short forest loop. The one place in town to actually see a kiwi.

The town-pier jet boat ride that runs three rivers (Wakatipu, Kawarau and Shotover Lower) from a wharf right in central Queenstown. The most convenient jet boat for guests without a car.

The day-spa wing of the Onsen complex, with thermal pools, massages and treatment rooms above the Shotover gorge. The grown-up rainy-day option when you can't ski.

A six-line zipline tour through the beech forest below the Skyline complex, with platforms looking back over the lake. Two-hour tour for the moderately adventurous.

A small-batch distillery and cellar door on the Cardrona Valley road making single-malt whisky, gin and vodka with alpine water. About 45 minutes from town but the distillery tour is the best of its kind in the region.

A 90-minute lake cruise from the town pier with running commentary on the multi-million-dollar lakeside houses and the Wakatipu geography. Easygoing, no athleticism required.

A full-size public ice rink right in the Queenstown Gardens, run by the town since 1979 and open year-round. The wet-weather fallback the kids actually like.

The full-day coach-and-cruise to Milford Sound from Queenstown, run by Real Journeys (now Real NZ). Twelve hours door to door but the only way to see Milford on a day trip from town.

A lift-assisted mountain-bike park on Bob's Peak with 30+ downhill trails fed by the Skyline gondola. Beginner green flow trails through to expert double-black drops.

The 80-kilometre-long, zigzag-shaped lake that defines Queenstown's geography, ringed by the Remarkables and Cecil Peak. The town sits on a bay halfway along its length; almost everything you do here happens within sight of it.

A peninsula of mature pines, rose beds and a frisbee-golf course jutting into Lake Wakatipu right off the town centre. The fifteen-minute waterfront loop is the easiest way to get the lake-and-mountains view without leaving downtown.

A preserved 1860s gold-rush village 20 minutes from Queenstown, with weatherboard cottages, the original Chinese miners' settlement, and a museum on Buckingham Street. The autumn colour through the village is famous nationally.

The restored hut-and-store remains of the Chinese gold-mining community that lived on the edge of Arrowtown from the 1860s. A free, signed riverside walk explains the village and the families who lived there.

A small, sharp local museum on Arrowtown's Buckingham Street covering gold-rush history, the Chinese settlement and Maori connections to the region. Worth half an hour to make sense of what you're walking through.

The 1880 suspension bridge over the Kawarau Gorge that became the world's first commercial bungy jump in 1988. Even if you're not jumping, the viewing platform and the river-cut canyon below are worth the 20-minute drive.

The 450-metre peak directly above town reached by gondola or by hiking the Tiki Trail. The lookout deck is the postcard view of Queenstown, the lake and the Remarkables.

A small, mirror-still lake on the way out to Arrowtown, ringed by an eight-kilometre walking and cycling loop. In autumn the surrounding willows turn gold and the lake doubles as a single yellow ring.

A quiet, road-end lake in the hills 20 minutes from town with a Department of Conservation campground and a forty-minute loop walk. No development, no boats; the contrast with Lake Wakatipu is the point.

The 2,300-metre mountain range that walls off the eastern side of Lake Wakatipu, with a saw-toothed ridgeline that genuinely doesn't look real from town. In summer the access road climbs into alpine walks; in winter it's the local ski field.

The closer of Queenstown's two ski fields, on a south-facing peak 25 minutes from town, with sweeping views over the Wakatipu Basin from the top. In summer the chair lifts close but the road and walking tracks stay open.

The fast, milky-blue river that carved the gorge between Queenstown and Arthur's Point, famous for jet boats, gold history and the bungy bridge downstream. The pedestrian bridge at Arthur's Point is the easiest place to see it close-up.

A working sheep station on the far side of Lake Wakatipu, reached only by the TSS Earnslaw steamship from the town wharf. Sheepdog demos, a sit-down farmstead lunch and the cruise itself make the half-day.

The narrow Kawarau Gorge wine sub-region 25 minutes east of town, lined with pinot noir vineyards built into the schist hills. Half a dozen cellar doors are walkable along the Gibbston wine trail.

The small 1932 stone church on Church Street with stained-glass windows and an unexpected interior of carved wood. Five minutes inside is one of the more peaceful things to do in central Queenstown.