Unique things to do in Queenstown

While Queenstown’s world-famous thrills are bucket list icons, there’s another side to discover - where you connect with the people and stories of the region, and head home with a fresh perspective (and a few new tales to tell).

Hidden gems in Queenstown’s Arts & Culture Scene

Over the years Queenstown’s phenomenal natural setting and welcoming culture has attracted a diverse community of artists, photographers, and storytellers. Explore your own creativity with these Queenstown cultural experiences.

Creative Workshops at Te Atamira

The local arts and culture centre in Frankton, Te Atamira has a busy programme of exhibitions, performances, talks, and workshops with local artists and makers. Try your hand at making pottery or jewellery, painting or prints. Right now, you can do a masterclass with New Zealand’s Poet Laureate, learn the traditional art of Māori flax weaving, or create woven adornments inspired by our southern constellations. Check out the Te Atamira programme and book a class to create a unique keepsake of your stay.

Tour Queenstown Galleries & Artist’s Studios

Queenstown galleries include painting, sculpture, and ceramics from contemporary artists at Milford Galleries, and New Zealand and international contemporary art at Artbay Gallery, Virut Flagship Gallery, and Lightworx Gallery.

Arrowtown has a cluster of galleries and artists’ studios including local artists, contemporary New Zealand artists, emerging artists, photographers and sculptures. This guide to Arrowtown galleries and studios also includes hidden gems on the way to Arrowtown.

If you only have a short time, head to School House Studios at Country Lane in Frankton. Here you’ll find seven working studios used by local potters, painters, and jewellers, as well as urban contemporary art gallery Arts Hole.  You can also book a workshop with hands-on classes in macrame and pottery, screen printing, and life drawing – to name a few.

If you like a guided tour experience, Art Adventures NZ offer a Queenstown gallery and studio tour where you’ll get to meet local artists, ask questions, and learn about the inspirations behind their work. They’ll even customise the tour to your artistic tastes.

Head off on a Painting Adventure

Set off on a full day painting tour. You’ll visit inspiring mountain landscapes, mighty alpine rivers, and the primeval green of the native beech forests, all with paint brush in hand. Artist and teacher Raquel Carter will be your guide. She’ll take you to several stunning locations, before you settle in to create your memento of your stay.

Try Astrophotography

Explore the Whakatipu Basin at night, marvel at the beauty of the night skies, and try your hand at astrophotography. A Starry Nights Queenstown photography tour with astrophotographer Simon Williams includes a tour of spectacular local locations in a Land Rover Defender, stargazing with a telescope to get a close-up view of the night sky, a starlit photo session complete with hot chocolate and cookies, and astrophotography tips.

After feeding your creative side, it’s time to feed your taste buds with some of Queenstown’s most unique food and wine experiences.

Queenstown’s Unique Food & Wine Experiences

Queenstown is a celebrated destination for food and wine experiences. Here are some uniquely local food experiences, where you’ll connect with local producers, taste the terroir of, and hear stories of the local food and wine scene.

Spin Your Own Honey

If you’ve ever fantasised about owning bees and drizzling your own honey on your toast, head to Buzzstop in Frankton for their hands-on honey spinning experience.

A beekeeper will tell you all about beehives and how bee colonies make honey. You’ll be given a frame of honey fresh from a hive. The Buzzstop crew will show you how to uncap the wax cells to reveal the honey, before extracting the honey in a centrifugal extractor. Finally, you’ll filter your honey, bottle it, and apply your own personalised honey label. This is a brilliant activity of families and gourmands of local produce alike.

Distil Your Own Gin 

If you’re keen to get hands-on with Queenstown’s craft spirit scene, a gin-making workshop at Cargo Brew Hall is a memorable way to spend an afternoon. Guided by local experts, you’ll explore aromatic botanicals, learn the stories behind classic and contemporary gins, and build your own recipe from scratch. Over the three hour session, enjoy tastings and small bites as you refine your blend, then shake up a signature cocktail created to match your gin. To finish, you’ll take home a personalised bottle of your small batch creation, a flavour of Queenstown you crafted yourself.

Foraging Tours

Private chef Thomas Barta can curate a personalised dinner for you where he’ll explore the vibrant Māori food culture, and you can learn about traditional dishes, native ingredients, and the best local foraging spots. In summer, Forage and Feast in Wanaka run guided food adventures where you’ll meet local producers and foragers and taste local produce.

If you want to try your own hand at foraging, there’s a map of Central Otago foraging locations here. If you’re keen to taste locally foraged food but don’t have the time to take to the hills, Amisfield, Sherwood, and Rātā are restaurants known for foraged ingredients.

Explore Sustainable Queenstown Wineries

The Peregrine Winery team manage their vineyards on organic principles and are devoted to sustainability and conservation. Weeds amongst the vines are dealt to by their flock of sheep, while free roaming chooks put paid to any pesky bugs. Peregrine offers an estate tour starting in their organic vines and finishing with a tasting of their exceptional pinot.

Kinross is in the process of becoming fully organic, working on biodiversity, planting natives, regenerating the soil, and doing all they can to be good custodians of the land. Their Behind The Vines tour takes you behind the scenes to learn about the vines, soil, and local climate conditions, before tasting a selection of six wines showcasing Central Otago sub regions. 

Amisfield is a single estate, certified organic vineyard. They won the New Zealand Organic Wine Awards sustainable vineyard of the year award in 2023. At their cellar door you can discover a selection of Pinot Noir vintages and white varietals. Book a bespoke tasting to sample rare wines and older vintages from their library.

Altitude Wine Tours are happy to customise their popular wine tour to focus on boutique vineyards run on sustainable principles such as Coal Pit and Chard Farm.

Once you’ve sampled the flavours of the region, slow down with family-friendly adventures that swap adrenaline for connection.

Family-Friendly Experiences off Queenstown’s Beaten Track

Queenstown is full of high adrenaline adventures but you don’t have to go far to have the amphitheatre of the mountains all to yourself. If you’re looking for an intimate adventure or something a bit out of the ordinary, here are some serene experiences to have with the kids.

Book a Private Tour of Kiwi Park

Kiwi Park isn’t exactly a secret, but it definitely has that hidden sanctuary vibe about it. It’s a magical moment when you step into this 5-acre forest oasis full of birdsong in the heart of bustling Queenstown. Book a private tour with one of the park’s friendly wildlife experts and get up close with endangered New Zealand species. Your guide can customise your tour to fit your interests, and you’ll enjoy a private Kiwi and Tuatara Encounter as part of your visit.

Go for a Glenorchy Nature Walk

The Glenorchy Lagoon walkway is a gentle boardwalk running through wetlands beside the Rees River and Lagoon Creek with wonderful views of Mt Earnslaw and the Humboldt Mountain Range. You’ll see plenty of bird life including black swans and paradise ducks.

The Routeburn Nature Walk is another short easy walk, this one through New Zealand beech forest full of native forest birds. The loop track crosses a swing bridge before entering the trees. There are plenty of interesting interpretation panels along the way.

Explore Locals’ Favourite Hiking Trails

Invincible Goldmine Track is for families with older kids as it’s a 3-hour return walk and a moderate climb. This track built by goldminers in the 1880s is a great way to discover the mining heritage of the area. You’ll see remains of a water wheel and a set of berdans – large cast iron bowls for grinding ore, as well as views of Rees Valley and Mt Earnslaw.

The Mt Crichton Loop Track is an easy 2.5-hour loop through forests, over rivers, and past a waterfall, with views of lakes on the way. At the halfway point of the track, you’ll find  the Sam Summers hut. Sam built the hut on the site of a Chinese goldminers camp in the 1930s and lived here with his family while prospecting for gold. 

The Mt Judah Track to Bonnie Jean Hut is an intermediate hike that takes 2-3-hours one way, so this is a full day adventure in open hill country with big views.. It starts with an easy climb up the old Mt Judah Road. You’ll pass the Glenorchy Scheelite Battery and the State Mine before the track gets steeper up to Bonnie Jean Hut.

If you’re still craving a hit of adventure, there are plenty of ways to experience Queenstown’s wild side.

Quintessential Queenstown Adventures for Those in the Know

Treat yourself to some lesser-known Queenstown adventures, from off-the-beaten-path experiences that immerse you in the majestic local landscape, to an over-the-top luxury thrill.

Experience the New Shotover Gorge Trail

Hire an e-bike and head to the new Shotover Gorge Trail. This spectacular new section of the Queenstown Trail starts from Arthur’s Point and runs through the Lower Shotover Gorge. You’ll pass through the historic Hugo Tunnel – a 108m long tunnel bult in 1962 as part of a failed hydroelectric scheme. The trail is 6km one way and is Grade 3 with a Grade 4 climb up to the lip of the gorge on the Lyttle’s Ladder section of the trail.

Go Canyoning, Climbing, or Ziplining

Queenstown is known for great climbing spots with wonderful views. Book a privately guided rock-climbing trip for a full day climbing in the local area, with routes for every level from beginner through to advanced. You’ll be with a professionally qualified mountain guide who specialises in climbing, and you’ll be given full instructions and safety briefing, so even if you’ve never climbed before, this adventure can work for you.

This canyoning adventure is a genuinely thrilling day with epic abseils beside waterfalls and leaps into whitewater pools, all in the remarkable setting of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mt Aspiring National Park. You need to be fit, a strong swimmer, and not afraid of heights.

Paradise Ziplines near Glenorchy is an exhilarating course of eight ziplines through native beech forest with panoramic views of the surrounding valley and mountains. After training and a pretty stroll through the forest, you’ll launch yourself off a cliff, cross a fast-flowing alpine stream, and ride the hair-raising Orc Chasm which rockets through a canyon.

Treat Yourself to the Full Bond Experience

Indulge your wildest 007 childhood fantasies with a tour of Queenstown’s exhilarating mountain roads in the Aston Martin Vantage 007 Edition. There are only 100 of these sleek beauties in the world and most of them are in private hands.

This isn’t just an unforgettable drive though. Along the way you’ll stop for adventures curated to your personal taste. Examples include a Vesper Martini on a mountain side, a visit to a private cellar, or a helicopter ride. This is the zenith of luxury touring.

Plan your Queenstown Adventure off the Beaten path

Whether you’re chasing hidden gems, must-do adventures, or the most unique things to do in Queenstown, stay a little longer and take the time to explore beyond the obvious.

For more inspiration, visit our Things to Do guide and start planning your own off-the-beaten-path adventure.