We briefly visited Queenstown back in ’05, and from the moment we began the descent at the end of our 3.5 hour flight from Brisbane, were reminded just what a stunning location this town occupies. Overlooked by steep rocky mountains on every side (often snow-capped, even in mid-summer), and hugging one of two south-facing shorelines on the obscenely picturesque Lake Wakitipu, airlines could really cash-in by charging a window-seat supplement for all flights landing here!
Strangely though, Queenstown is – after Dunedin – the second-largest town in the Otago region, yet only the 27th largest in the whole of New Zealand.
Presumably, this lowly ranking in terms of resident population can be explained by so much of Queenstown’s real-estate being in some way dedicated to tourism. With such an enviable location – not only having the lake, rivers and mountains on its doorstep, but being the gateway to New Zealand’s “must visit” fjordland region – there are literally dozens (if not hundreds) of agencies in town offering every active tourist pursuit you can imagine: sky-diving, bungee jumping, jet boat riding, paragliding, mountain biking, fishing, hiking, snow-boarding, helicopter and balloon rides. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that if it can be done outside, there’ll be a 9am coach leaving from Queenstown each day to go do it!
Since our visit more than 10 years ago, tourist numbers have grown significantly. There are hotels, motels, back-packer hostels, and holiday parks everywhere and real-estate prices continue to rise. The average property price is now more than one million NZ dollars (over £500,000), causing quite a problem for the local population when you consider than nearly all of the jobs in town in some way relate to tourism and pay minimum wage. The result is that many of the town’s residents are out-of-towners who work and play hard, staying only as long as their money lasts.
Lake Wakitipu (wok-a-tea-pooh) is the third-largest in New Zealand, although its unusual shape means the only place where you can see quite how big it is is from the sky. It is 80km long and very thin, yet, despite this, is more than 300m deep in places, meaning that parts of the lake-bed lie below sea level.
Though we will be in the Queenstown area for five days, we’ll be spending most of that time out-of-town, cycling.
For our one free afternoon in town, we joined a cruise across the lake on the TSS Earnshaw, a 100-year old steam ship which ferries passengers between Queenstown and Walter Peak High Country Farm, a sheep-station on the opposite bank which now (quelle surprise) serves almost exclusively as a tourist-attraction.
At Walter Peak, we were served a very tasty BBQ dinner buffet, including some delicious local lamb … and of course, a glass or two of New Zealand wine to celebrate our first evening in New Zealand!
Before our moonlit return sailing to Queenstown, we walked over to the woolshed to watch a demonstration of sheep-herding and shearing.
For the herding demo, three dogs were used: two New Zealand Heading dogs and one Huntaway.
Bred from border collies, Heading dogs are long-legged and smooth-haired. Discouraged from barking, their job is to “head” the stock which means holding groups of sheep together by circling and eye-balling them! When called for, they use their speed and quick-reactions to perform close-quarters work, catching sheep who have broken from the pack, or sometimes “shedding” (separating) a group which has become too large.
Huntaways are big, strong and versatile dogs. They are used for a variety of purposes: heading, hunting, forcing sheep into pens and occasionally backing (jumping on their backs). Huntaways are bred for their loud, deep bark.
During the shearing demonstration, our host explained that shearers work in teams, and may visit as many as three different farms in the same day. They are typically paid per-animal, and hence they work extremely quickly, with each member of the team able to shear up to 400 sheep in a single day!
The Earnshaw is a beautiful old ship. As recently as 1968, she was used to transport sheep and cargo to and from Walter Peak Farm which, at that time, had no connecting road. She is the only coal-powered ship still in operation in the southern hemisphere, and has been used in several films including playing a cameo role as an Amazon river boat in one of the Indiana Jones movies! Through a opening in the passenger deck, you can look down into the engine room and watch the crew stoking the engine throughout the 40-minute lake crossing. Being a cool and blustery evening, the heat from the engine room was certainly welcome during our cruise back to Queenstown.
