5 town activities to do in Queenstown

Queenstown is definitely way more vibrant than Christchurch, but the weather seems less predictable. It could be sunny in the morning, but cloudy and even rainy in the afternoon. So if you want to appreciate the turquoise lakes and do adventurous sports, you’ll need some luck.

Table of Contents

• Parking tips

• Town activities

  • 1. The Ferg’s

  • 2. Steamer Wharf

  • 3. Lookout point Queenstown

  • 4. Skyline Queenstown

  • 5. Adventurous sports

Parking tips

When you arrive at the town, you’ll find there are quite a few cars. My recommendation is that you park somewhere not super close like Recreation Ground Carpark or Wilson Parking, and walk 5 minutes to the center.

Some tips:

1. Get yourself familiar with the parking sign.

   The parking signs there are sometimes confusing. For example, you’ll see “P10 free parking”, which actually means parking for 10 minutes is free. So if you park there more than 10 minutes, you’ll get a ticket.

2. Pay the parking fee in advance.

   You’ll need to pay the parking fee via the machine in advance and put the proof on the dashboard of your car. Otherwise, you’ll get ticket like I did 🥲

Town activities

1. The Ferg’s

Fergburger by its name is selling burgers. They are once featured in CNN and other famous media outlet, so it becomes a must-eat when you visit Queenstown. I tried their “Codfather” burger, which is sooooo good! It’s juicy and the fish is just fried right with the meat being soft still. AND it’s good portion as well. Very worth it 😋

Fergbaker, you probably guess it right, it’s a bakery. I didn’t try many of their options, but their Boston Cream Donut is definitely worth a recommendation! I personally think their cream is better than the one I had in Boston. It’s not too sweet, and the smell of the vanilla and the cool temperature of the cream make it very refreshing!

Mrs Ferg, this is harder to guess. It’s actually a ice cream store. I tried their kiwi flavor and love it! It’s very refreshing especially when it’s a bit hot in the morning.

2. Steamer Wharf

There are many stores and restaurants in this area. It’s nice to take a walk here, and do window shopping. If you aim for buying honey in New Zealand, I’d say this is NOT the best place to buy. You will see lots of stores selling a kind of pricy honey - Mānuka honey, which is produced from a kind of tree growing in NZ and is said to contain anti-bacteria substance. For buying honey either regular kind or Mānuka honey, I’d recommend you to go to local stores in small towns like Jackson Orchards (on the way to famous Wanaka Lake), you’ll get better deal there.

3. Lookout point Queenstown

Keep walking towards south from Steamer Wharf, you’ll arrive at Lookout point Queenstown. This is where you can take picturesque photos of Lake Wakatipu of Queenstown. I really enjoyed walking here while eating Fergbaker’s Boston cream donut 😄

4. Skyline Queenstown

This is the place where you can take the gondola and oversee Queenstown. I didn’t do this because I was satisfied with taking Christchurch gondola. If you are interested, you can check out their website here.

5. Adventurous sports

Queenstown is famous for all kind of adventurous sports. They have everything from exciting skydiving to chill zipride. All you need to do is to decide what activity you want to do, choose a service provider and book a ticket. Initially I was thinking maybe just taking zipride since it’s the cheapest activity (USD 30/person) among them, but I ended up doing paragliding.

Some adventurous sports to consider:

a. Shotover Jet

b. Bungee jump

b. Zipride

c. Skydive

d. Parasailing

e. Paragliding

f. Hang gliding

Stay tuned, I’ll share more about my paragliding experience next week 😊