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It’s been a month since we’ve come home from Queenstown and I don’t think I’ve ever felt a crash from the high of a holiday as I have this time round. The sign of a good trip I guess? Definitely a sign that we need to do more of these. My husband and I were only away for five nights, and Queenstown isn’t that much of a trek from Sydney, but it felt worlds away from our everyday routine. It was also our first proper trip without kids to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, which made it feel extra special.
We’ve both been absolutely under the pump with work in the lead-up, so the timing couldn’t have been better. We floated a few possible destinations – Hamilton Island, Bali and even Europe (lol we only secured 6 days of leave) but given neither of us had visited NZ’s South Island, we booked in Queenstown. (Or more accurately, my husband organised and booked everything because he is, quite frankly, a legend.)
And we absolutely fell in love with it. The scenery is spectacular, there’s no shortage of excellent food and there’s plenty of things to do.
In this post I share what we did, ate and loved. If you want to read about everything I packed and all the outfits I wore, here’s Part 2 of this short Queenstown series.
Where to stay
We stayed at Hulbert House, a beautifully restored 1887 villa that now operates as a boutique lodge just a five minute walk from the centre of town. Our stay was exceptional and easily one of the top three hotels we’ve ever stayed at. The rooms were beautifully appointed with a subtle nod to the property’s Victorian heritage, the service was personal and attentive (without feeling overbearing), and our stay included breakfast as well as nightly drinks and canapés. What we didn’t expect, however, was how social the experience would be.
Over the course of our stay, we got to know a wonderful mix of fellow guests and enjoyed everyone’s company – a retired couple from Canada, honeymooners from Scotland, another couple from Sydney (the conversation started after spotting a Swans scarf, naturally), and 60 year old twin sisters from the US who were absolutely fascinating. One was a Democrat and the other a staunch Trump supporter, which made for some very interesting conversations over pre-dinner drinks.
We’ve never really been the type to socialise with other hotel guests, but there was something about the atmosphere at Hulbert House that encouraged it. It ended up being one of the highlights of our stay and made the experience feel far more personal than a traditional hotel.
Our view of Lake Wakatipu from our room
Location wise, I’d highly recommend staying within walking distance of the centre of town if you can. It made it incredibly easy to wander down for meals, stroll along the lakefront, and slot ourselves back into town between activities.
A lot of the tours and attractions either depart directly from the centre of town or use it as a meeting point, so being able to walk everywhere made things very convenient. You’ll come across plenty of accommodation options around Frankton, closer to the airport, which may make more sense if you’re visiting primarily for the ski season. But for the kind of trip we were doing – eating, exploring, cycling and wandering – staying close to town worked perfectly.
Stuff we did (and would recommend)
Cycling
There are so many amazing cycling trails in and around Queenstown. We hired e-bikes from Around The Basin who have been in operation for a while and came highly recommended, and booked their full day self-guided winery tour. They coordinate all the logistics for you depending on which route you choose. For ours, we were dropped off in Arrowtown and then picked up at the end of the day in Gibbston, where the wineries are located.
Our amazing day cycling the wineries (+ our delicious lunch at Mt Rosa Winery)
The full-day ride through the wineries was one of the highlights of our trip and something I would recommend without hesitation. The e-bikes certainly make things easier (the terrain is gently undulating, with a few hills thrown in for good measure), but the scenery is what really steals the show. We rode through rolling countryside, followed riverside trails along the Shotover River and crossed some epic swing bridges. It took us around two hours to reach the wine region from Arrowtown, where we made a beeline for Mt Rosa and rewarded ourselves with an excellent lunch.
We enjoyed the experience so much that we ended up spending another full day on bikes exploring Queenstown and the surrounding area. Hulbert House has a couple of e-bikes available for guests, which my husband happily made use of. Unfortunately, they were a little too big for me, so I went back to Around The Basin to hire another bike for the day.
E-biking us
Hiking
There are a heap of hikes in the area, but we opted for a short-ish one and did the Queenstown Hill walk. Calling it a ‘hill’ is deceptive in my opinion. This is not a cutesy little frolic. While the summit elevation of 903m is modest by Queenstown standards, the hike itself involves a ~500m elevation gain and it is relentlessly uphill for most of the climb. That said, the views at the top were incredible and we asked Hulbert House to pack us a picnic lunch which we enjoyed after summitting.
L: Incredible views on the Queenstown Hill walk; R: Our picnic lunch after reaching the top
Skyline Gondola and Luge
This was SO much fun! The gondola ride itself offers incredible views across Queenstown and once you get to the top, there’s actually quite a bit to do. There’s a fairly swanky cafe/restaurant with arguably some of the best views in town, but if you’re trying to decide where to spend your time, I’d prioritise the luge.
We pre-booked 3 rides each and very quickly realised we’d underestimated how entertaining it would be. The track stretches for around 1.6km and there are two different routes – a gentler track with softer turns, and another one with dips, banked corners and a bit more speed. Unsurprisingly, we MUCH preferred the latter. Had we known how much we’d enjoy it, we probably would have booked more rides from the outset. It’s one of those activities that sounds super touristy but ends up being an absolute blast.
Hop on a boat of some sort
There are heaps of ways to get out on the lake – jet boats, scenic cruises, and the very kitschy but iconic TSS Earnslaw which is more than 100 years old.
We didn’t have enough time to properly explore all of the lake options, but we did manage to hop on the local ferry. You’ll need a Bee Card which is the public transport card system. You top it up and tap on, much like the transport cards most of us are already familiar with.
L: The luge! R: Looking back towards Queenstown on the ferry
Everywhere we ate (and our honest thoughts)
In order of preference:
Blue Kanu – fusion Asian and Pacific food – it was really festive here, service was great and the food was delicious and well priced for the generous portion sizes. The cocktails were also 5 stars.
The birria tacos from the street food cart beside the lake – there are several food carts that line the lake near Patagonia Ice Creamery but the birria tacos from Taco’s Land were freaking awesome. We visited twice and would have happily gone back a third (and fourth) time had we not run out of days. You have to be careful of your clothes while eating these – they’re supremely juicy (and served with a delicious consomme).
L: Birria tacos from Taco’s Land; R: An early course from our dinner at Toast & Oak
Pedro’s House of Lamb – for our first night in Queenstown, we were keen for a quiet evening in, and Hulbert House recommended Pedro’s. They set us up in the dining room and beautifully plated everything for us, which made it feel far more special than a standard takeaway meal. The menu is really simple – lamb and a handful of sides – but when you do one thing that well, you don’t need much else. The lamb was delicious and it was the perfect meal after a day of travelling.
FOGO – this South American restaurant came highly recommended and while the atmosphere wasn’t quite as lively as we expected, the food itself was fantastic. It’s an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ restaurant which I find quite intense as a dining concept, so we opted for one of the platters for two instead. It was excellent.
Patagonia Ice Creamery – this place was always busy but deservedly so. The ice cream is delicious and serving sizes are very generous.
Fergburger / Fergbaker / Mrs Ferg – there is effectively a Ferg precinct on Shotover St and if you fall into a rabbit hole of researching places to eat, Fergburger is one of those viral places that will inevitably appear. We arrived sceptical but we really enjoyed our burgers. The queue looked long but moved quickly – it only took about 20 minutes all up from joining the line to collecting our food. We then took everything down to the lake and ate overlooking the water.
On another day, we tried the pork belly and apple pie from Fergbaker, which was delicious. Mrs Ferg gelato, however, didn’t blow me away. I’d personally skip it and head straight to Patagonia instead.
L: Our Fergburgers; R: A glorious cross-section of the pork belly and apple pie from Fergbaker
Soda – a new-ish and bougier restaurant overlooking the lake with Mediterranean cuisine. My husband and I shared the paella and it was delicious.
Toast & Oak – at the bottom of my list sits the most expensive meal of the trip and unfortunately our least favourite. This was our designated “fancy dinner” where we opted for the tasting menu. And look – I think you perhaps need to be in a very particular mood for this style of dining and we probably weren’t.
It was exactly what you expect of a fine dining place: very small portions, deceptively simple dish names, and lengthy menu explanations delivered with much seriousness by the wait staff. The food was nice, but we didn’t feel the overall experience justified the price point.
The restaurant was also very quiet when we visited, and our waiter was working particularly hard on the upselling, which didn’t really help with the vibes. The confusing part is that Toast & Oak has phenomenal Google reviews, so my husband and I left feeling slightly gaslit by the experience.
Other miscellaneous things
Shopping – We didn’t browse the shops very much but there are plenty of outdoorsy type stores around town, including New Zealand’s only Patagonia store, which I thought was a fun fact to share lol. There’s also a Mecca (and they don’t recognise your Beauty Loop membership from Australia btw), and lots of other household Australian names like R.M. Williams etc. But honestly, you’re in Queenstown. Don’t go shopping – go outside and do one of the things I’ve recommended in this post!
Airport transfers – we flew in and out of Queenstown Airport (where it felt like every flight was arriving from or departing to Sydney). We simply booked an Uber to and from our accommodation and it was all very straightforward.
I hope you found my Queenstown bits helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by!
P.S. Check out everything I packed and all the outfits for this trip here.
Like this guide? I’ve prepared a similar post of our recommendations from our two-week trip to Japan – have a read here.
