QUEENSTOWN INFORMATION

Queenstown is the New Zealand destination for international visitors. Its natural beauty changes with the seasons, the lake gleans in the summer sun, and snow clad mountains tower above the township in winter. Queenstown is a great place to visit all year round. Nestled in beside the mysterious Lake Wakatipu, in the Southern Lakes district of New Zealand, Queenstown is a cosmopolitan haven, offering a limitless adventure, southern wine and cuisine, and breathtaking alpine scenery.

Queenstown doesn't earn its title of Adventure Capital of the World for nothing. Here, you can bungy jump, ski or snowboard, paraglide, jet boat, white water raft, skydive, hang glide, jetski, and drive quadbikes to your heart's content.

Although Queenstown receives over one million tourists a year, it can hardly be described as a city, having just 9,000 permanent inhabitants. Indeed it has grown little since its establishment in the early 1860s as first a pastoral settlement and then a gold rush town.

For its remoteness, Queenstown is one the busiest little towns in the country, sporting the equivalent to around half the population of New Zealand in tourists in 2006, who came to experience the unique "Adventure Capital of the World", and to relax on the scenic walks, flights, and cruises, taking in the vast lakes, rushing rivers, and awe-inspiring mountains.

The Queenstown-Lakes District has a land area of 8,704.97 km² (3,361.01 sq mi) not counting its inland lakes (Lake Hawea, Lake Wakatipu, and Lake Wanaka). It has an estimated resident population of 26,400 (June 2008 estimate)