Five Queenstown Viewpoints, in Order of How Much Effort They Take

Every list of Queenstown viewpoints tells you where to go. Almost none tell you what you are signing up for once you park. The Department of Conservation grades two of the five below easy and two of them advanced, and that gap is the difference between an hour before lunch and a day that needs a forecast and a head torch. Here they are in order of effort.

How Much Walking Does a Great Queenstown View Really Take?

Anything from two minutes to four hours, and the view is not proportional to the effort.

The best return on effort in the district is a two minute stroll from a car park. The hardest walk here takes four hours and crosses private land. All but one share the same catch: no bus goes there. Our guide to getting around Queenstown on foot, by bus and by car sets out where the buses do reach, including the trips where you do not need to hire anything.

What Makes Bob's Cove the Easiest Big View Near Queenstown?

Twenty minutes downhill through native bush, graded easy, and the whole thing takes under an hour.

The car park sits on the Glenorchy Queenstown Road, 14 km from town. DOC grades the track easy and puts it at 20 minutes down to Punatapu, or Bobs Cove, where you can swim and fish off the shore. A short steep loop then climbs to Picnic Point at the 30 minute mark, and that is worth the extra ten: the cove below you, the lake, and the mountains stacked behind it.

A lime kiln still stands in the bush here from the 1800s, when the Wakatipu Lime Company quarried and processed limestone off this shoreline. The gum trees around it are neither native nor an accident. They were planted to fuel the kilns, and they outlived them.

The track carries on to Twelve Mile Delta if you would rather keep walking than turn back, and the old bridle track is permanently closed, so use the marked route. The car park fills in summer and the road past it is fast, so parking on the verge is a bad idea. At 14 km out it makes more sense as the first stop on a full day out to Glenorchy than as a trip in its own right.

Is Moke Lake Worth the Gravel Road?

Yes, and it is the best value on this list, because the photograph everyone comes for is two minutes from the car.

You do not have to walk at all. If you want to, DOC grades the loop easy at two to three hours, undulating the whole way round, with a boardwalk at the southern end keeping feet off an important wetland. Either way you get a lake in grassland, mountains on every side, almost nothing built on it.

The road is the part to plan for: ten minutes along the Glenorchy Queenstown Road, then Moke Lake Road, which climbs steeply and winds before turning to gravel for roughly 8 km past Lake Kirkpatrick. An ordinary car handles it in ordinary conditions. Slow down and leave room on the blind corners, because the people coming the other way are looking at the view.

There is a DOC campsite on the lake edge if you would rather wake up there than drive out in the dark for first light. Book ahead. DOC keeps no spaces for people who turn up without one, and the water is off over winter because it freezes.

How Hard Is the Queenstown Hill Time Walk?

It is 1.5 km of climbing, two to three hours return, and it wants medium to high fitness. It is also the one you can reach without a car.

The track starts at a small car park off Belfast Terrace, a short walk from the centre of town, which makes this the honest exception on the list. It climbs through pine forest before breaking out above the treeline, with six information plates along the way covering Maori settlement, the goldrush and how Queenstown grew. The hill is Te Tapunui.

At the top is the Basket of Dreams sculpture and a view over the Remarkables, Cecil Peak, a long stretch of Lake Whakatipu and the Kawarau River. It works all year, though winter puts snow on the upper section and you will want shoes that grip. Driving to the trailhead saves your legs for the climb rather than the approach, which matters if you are staying out in Frankton.

What Should You Know Before Walking to Lake Alta?

That DOC grades it advanced, that it starts at 1,600 metres, and that from May to November it is a mountaineering trip rather than a walk.

The reward is a glacial lake in a rock cirque directly under the Remarkables, one of the most striking places in the district. DOC's route starts behind the ski field buildings, follows a ski field road to the top of the Alta Chairlift, then picks its way up through alpine wetland on cairns and flagstones to the cirque, climbing from about 1,600 to 1,800 metres in around an hour and a half.

It is also, per DOC's own film locations list, Dimrill Dale, the valley the Fellowship staggers into after coming out of Moria. Worth knowing before you stand in it.

Getting up there is a commitment. Turn off State Highway 6 at the signposted Remarkables ski area junction, pay a road toll, and climb a road that is mainly sealed with the last 3 km on gravel and steep drops beside it. It takes far longer than the map suggests. The alpine plants up top are delicate and some are threatened, so stay on the marked route.

From roughly May to November there is deep snow through the area, the route vanishes underneath it, and DOC records an avalanche risk around the lake. It strongly recommends snowshoes and poles, says to check with NZSki first, and lists full alpine gear down to snow glasses and a head torch. Treat it as a summer walk, or go properly equipped. Driving up outside high summer, know how chains work before you need them.

Why Is Wye Creek the Hardest of the Five?

Four hours return, graded advanced, and the first 45 minutes are a zigzag climb beside a pipeline.

The car park is by the Wye Creek Bridge on State Highway 6, about 20 minutes south of Queenstown on the way to Kingston. DOC's description is a 45 minute climb to the hydro dam, where the lake and the Remarkables open up behind you and where most people sensibly stop. Do not cross the dam. The track climbs away from the creek toward the foot of a rock bluff, then runs another hour on a benched track through beech forest into the Lower Wye Creek basin, coming out beside the stream.

The track crosses private land, and the creek is a serious climbing venue with routes up to 50 metres on both sides. Space at the main car park is tight and the upper one needs a four wheel drive, so plan on the lower. DOC calls it a high altitude walk suitable for summer only, warns snow can still be lying, and asks you to take care pulling in and out because the highway is fast.

Which of These Can You Do in One Day?

Three comfortably, if you group them by effort rather than by distance.

A day that works in ordinary weather:

• Early: Moke Lake, while the water is still and the gravel road is empty. Two minutes for the view, two to three hours if you walk the loop
• Late morning: back down to the Glenorchy Queenstown Road for Bob's Cove and Picnic Point, about an hour all in
• Afternoon: Queenstown Hill, or a coffee with a view if the legs have gone

Give Lake Alta and Wye Creek half a day each and do not tack either onto the end of something else. Both are graded advanced for good reason. None of it runs to a timetable, which is the honest argument for your own car: you leave when the cloud lifts, not when the next service is due. Grab a decent coffee on the way out of town and the morning arranges itself.

When Is the Best Time of Year to Do These?

Late spring to autumn covers all five. Winter closes two of them to anyone without alpine gear.

Bob's Cove, Moke Lake and Queenstown Hill are open all year and are at their best on a still morning in any season. Lake Alta and Wye Creek are summer walks. Autumn is the quiet favourite, because the light drops low, the air goes clear and the crowds have gone home. In deep winter, with the high tracks under snow, the scenic drives that need no four wheel drive are the better use of a day.

What Should You Check Before You Drive Out?

Four things, and none of them take long.

• Road surface. Moke Lake Road and the top of the Remarkables access road are gravel. Slow down and expect loose stones on the corners
• Daylight. These are unlit roads with no shoulder in places. Work backwards from sunset rather than forwards from lunch
• Season. Snow and ice reach the Remarkables road and the higher tracks well outside the ski months. Check on the morning, not the week before
• Fuel, food and parking. There is nothing to buy at any of these car parks, and the ones at Bob's Cove and Wye Creek are small. Sort all three in Frankton on the way through

Book Your Car for Queenstown

Four of these five sit at the end of a road no bus goes down. Book with Evolve Rentals and the car comes to your accommodation, or you collect it from our office at 153B Glenda Drive, Frankton. Then you go when the weather says so.

FAQs

Which Queenstown viewpoint is best if you only have an hour?
Bob's Cove. The car park is 14 km from town on the Glenorchy Queenstown Road, and DOC grades the track easy at 20 minutes down to the cove and 30 minutes round to Picnic Point.

Do you need a four wheel drive to reach Moke Lake?
No. DOC describes the road in as steep and windy, then unsealed for about 8 km, and lists no four wheel drive requirement for the reserve. It does list one for the upper Wye Creek car park.

Can you walk to Lake Alta in winter?
Only with alpine experience and the right gear. DOC grades the track advanced, records deep snow through the area from roughly May to November, notes an avalanche risk and recommends snowshoes and poles. It also says to check with NZSki before you go.

Can you reach any of these viewpoints by bus?
Only Queenstown Hill, and only because its car park is in town off Belfast Terrace. The other four sit well outside the Orbus network.

Which of the five is the hardest walk?
The Lower Wye Creek Track, graded advanced at four hours return. Lake Alta is shorter at about an hour and a half but is also graded advanced and carries real winter risk.