Queenstown Gardens

Queenstown Gardens fill the small peninsula that separates Queenstown Bay from the Frankton Arm, a few minutes' walk from the town centre. They cover 14.75 hectares and are run by the Queenstown Lakes District Council, open all year and free to enter. Before European settlement the peninsula was the site of a Kāti Māmoe settlement. The first two trees, English oaks, were planted in 1866 by James W. Robertson, the town's first mayor, to mark the incorporation of the borough, and the gardens were officially opened in 1867, when serious planting began.

That early planting gives the gardens their character today. Tall Douglas firs form a sheltering belt around much of the peninsula, and the heritage trees planted under Robertson include black and red oaks, grand and Algerian firs, a monkey puzzle, western hemlock and a Wellingtonia. In the centre is a formal rose garden established in the 1960s with around 850 bushes. The paths that loop around the edge give views over Lake Wakatipu, the Frankton Arm, the town and the surrounding mountains.

Two memorials are worth finding. The Scott Memorial, unveiled in 1913, honours Robert Falcon Scott and the men who died on his 1912 Antarctic expedition. The Rees Memorial, built in 1978, commemorates William Gilbert Rees, who arrived in 1860 as the area's first European settler and whose woolshed, the town's first building, stood on the site now occupied by Eichardt's Private Hotel.

The gardens are also Queenstown's main outdoor playground. New Zealand's first permanently marked disc golf course winds through the trees, and there is a children's playground, tennis courts, lawn bowls, a skate park, BMX riding and an ice rink used for skating and ice hockey. Parkrun also uses the paths. It suits families who need a break from paid activities, runners, and anyone wanting a quiet picnic close to town.

Allow an hour for a relaxed loop, longer if you are playing disc golf. The gardens are a short walk from the town centre. The Bathhouse, a café in an Edwardian building from 1911, sits on the lakeside within the gardens, so you can combine a walk with coffee or lunch.