Queenstown we were warned against from the start. If you go there, you will fall in love. You will never want to leave. New Zealand cities will pale in comparison to Queenstown. But there is no affordable housing. No affordable groceries. You will be doomed to live in a house share with 5 of your closest acquaintances. Such is the price of popularity. Alas, you will pay the cost for love. 

Queenstown’s beauty is only paralleled by New Zealand’s national parks, which are, of course, uninhabited. Therefore, tourists and nationals alike flock to Queenstown to work and live. Queenstown has an allure that has long reached across the eastern continents, pulling in wealthy patrons who purchase the city’s most unaffordable properties as holiday houses. For this reason, more and more of these grandiose properties are built. 

This is an ethical struggle that we sidestepped as long-term tourists by living in our van. New Zealand’s van life culture can be seen openly in Queenstown, with multiple Department of Conservation campgrounds and freedom camping initiatives. But whilst we found Queenstown highly receptive to the short-term visitor, long-term camping was much more problematic. We were very lucky to be able to live in Queenstown by letting a coworker’s driveway. But without this generosity, we would too be victims and simultaneously abettors (as non-locals) of Queenstown’s housing crisis. 

But now that any rose-tinted glasses have been thoroughly removed, Queenstown and its larger district are undoubtedly the most beautiful suburban area in New Zealand. This is why we chose it as the area to work in for 6 months. It is a ‘city’ that perfectly balances the metropolitan and the natural. We would relax at a beautiful lakeside reserve and, less than 10 minutes later, go for dinner in a beautifully built-up town centre, which boasts many luxury shops and restaurants. 

Queenstown is widely known as ‘the adventure capital of the world’ and for good reason. It is home to two major ski resorts, Coronet Peak and the Remarkables. Alongside this, it hosts a plethora of activities like mountain biking, jet boating, hiking, bungy jumping, golf, white-water rafting, and skydiving, to name a few. You will walk through town and see above your heads a sky full of paragliders and hear the shouts of racers on the luge at the top of the skyline gondola. Even the most insatiable thrill seeker could never be bored in Queenstown. 

We spent many days exploring Queenstown’s extensive hiking trail network, which commonly included panoramic views over Lake Wakatipu and the mountains that envelope it. The most famous of these mountain vistas are the Remarkables, which tower 2300 metres over the city and are visible from almost every point in town. Whether you are doing laundry or the food shop, you are treated to the remarkable view. The Remarkables are unfathomably steep and rocky. Multiple craggy points stick out like turrets, reminiscent of the Dolomites. 

Queenstown should be credited for its mountain biking trail network, which features some of the most well-built and maintained tracks we have seen in all of New Zealand. There is a trail for every ability group, ranging from radical downward tracks on mountain faces to longer rides around beautiful lakes or vineyards. Even the city centre of Queenstown can be biked and would not be anything out of the regular. We bought mountain bikes and sampled many different trails, all of which sent us to different areas of the district and confirmed no corner of Queenstown is less beautiful than the rest. 

Queenstown is a diverse area that will leave you spoilt for choice. You can go to a brewery that overlooks Kawarau Gorge, visit one of the many vineyards, relax at a lakeside reserve, or meander along the distinct curves of Shotover River. Some areas are full of green pastures and sheep that remind us sorely of home, whilst others have rocky terrain and wild goats. The natural life in Queenstown is refreshing for a large urban area; you will scarcely go anywhere without seeing rabbits, goats, paradise shell ducks, Canadian geese or pūkeko. As New Zealand has no large indigenous predators, these smaller mammals and birds live happily in protected areas within the city. 

In essence, Queenstown is the unmissable destination in New Zealand, as attested by its tourism figures. However, it is not an area that should be visited in a one-stop tour and then used as precedence for assumptions about New Zealand cities or towns. It is a special place unlike anywhere else in New Zealand. Other metropolitan areas we visited, like Auckland or Christchurch, whilst beautiful, did not compare to Queenstown. But Queenstown, likely due to the influx of tourists and seasonal settlers, does feel more like a globalised city than an authentic New Zealand town. Alongside Queenstown, New Zealand should be experienced through smaller towns.