A small Town with big Visitor Numbers by Kakapo2
-Queenstown might be a town but it is far from being a city. You will be surprised how small the town centre is.
The main roads ? SH 6A from Cromwell and the airport to Arrowtown/Arthur?s Point, and the road to Glenorchy enclose a little area of just six streets leading to the lakefront and three or four streets that run parallel to the lake?s town side. Really tiny. If you have accommodation in the town centre, you are in the middle of it all, and nothing is further away than a five minute walk.
Also adjoining areas can be reached by walking. Just be aware that it goes uphill around the town centre, with the easiest walks towards Arthur?s Point. Accommodation at Fernhill is a longish walk along the road I would not do at night.
As small as Queenstown is, it has more than 120 restaurants, cafés and bars, and also the offices for most of the 400 possible activies located in the centre, you can well get the idea that you will not get what you would call local flair in other cities. Everything in Queenstown is directed at tourists and how to pull the money out of their pockets.
On the other hand, you can leave the tourist hub behind you within a 10 minute walking distance and find peace and quiet. Drive 10 minutes, are you are far away from it all ? if you do not go to the Bungy Jump or the Shotover Jet ;-)
A place I like within the reach of the very centre are the Queenstown Gardens. A walkway leads through this shady green area between the main lake and the so-called Frankton arm of Lake Wakatipu. Along this walkway you will see some very desirable residential apartments in totally quiet surroundings so close to the lake and the very town centre.
The whole Queenstown/Lakes District which covers an area of more than 9000 square kilometres and includes Wanaka, had about 23,000 permanent residents in the 2006 Census. More than 50% of the dwellings are not owned by permanent residents in some very desirable locations (like Queenstown Bay) the percentage is between 60 and 80%.
The district?s population grew by 35% between 2001 and 2006. This is more than anywhere else in the country and over four times the national average. Queenstown itself has under 10,000 permanent residents, but welcomes 1.2 million visitors per year. In the summer and winter peak seasons it feels very crowded and a bit too much affected by too many adrenaline rushes...