Long before there was a town here, the shallow, sandy bay at the foot of the mountains had a name, Tāhuna, and the long lake it opens onto was Whakatipu-wai-māori. Ngāi Tahu and the peoples before them came here to gather food, and passed along the lake on the trails to the pounamu, the precious greenstone, found near its head. Then, in the 1860s, came sheep, gold and steamships, and the town that grew up around this bay has never stopped looking at the water. This walk follows the shore of Lake Wakatipu from St Omer Park past the steamer wharf, an old gold-rush hotel and the oldest house in town, then out onto the wooded peninsula of the Queenstown Gardens to finish among the roses. It is about a mile, roughly 1.6 kilometers, flat the whole way, and one of the gentlest self-guided walking tours you will find anywhere with mountains this big in view.

Before you set off

Allow about an hour at an easy stroll, longer if you sit on the beach, take a coffee or wait for the steamship to come in. The walking itself is under half an hour. The route follows paved lakeside paths and the quiet street along the waterfront, with no real climbs, so it works for strollers and anyone who wants an easy day after a big one in the mountains. Queenstown is an alpine town, and its weather turns quickly. A still, warm morning can become a cold wind off the lake by afternoon, so bring a layer in every season, and in winter expect frost on the paths early in the day. The sun here is fierce even when the air feels cool, so wear a hat and sunscreen. Early morning often brings the calmest water and the best reflections, while late afternoon light turns the Remarkables pink and gold. The TSS Earnslaw keeps its own sailing schedule, so if you want to see her leave or arrive, check before you go. On Saturdays a craft market usually fills the lawns near the wharf, which is lively but busier.

St Omer Park

Stand at the edge of the jetty or on the lawn beside it and look across the water. The jagged range straight ahead, to the southeast, is the Remarkables, called Kawarau by Ngāi Tahu, and in winter its summits are white with snow. The lake in front of you is Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand's longest lake at about 80 kilometers, a deep trough carved by glaciers in the last ice age, so deep that its floor lies below sea level. Ngāi Tahu tell a different story of its shape. A giant named Matau carried off a chief's daughter, Manata, and a young man named Matakauri set fire to the giant as he slept. Matau's body burned so fiercely that it left a vast hollow in the ground, which filled with water to become the lake, bent like a sleeping body. Only his heart did not burn, and it still beats. Watch the water closely and you may believe it, because the lake really does rise and fall in a slow, regular rhythm. This park is named after Francis St Omer, a baker from Marseille who chased gold through California and Victoria before arriving here in 1863. That year he planted willows along the bare edge of the bay, and later served many years as mayor. Walk northeast along the lakeside path toward the town, with the water on your right, about four minutes to the wharf.

Steamer Wharf

Sunset over Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown If the TSS Earnslaw is in, you cannot miss her: a long, elegant steamship with a white hull and a tall red funnel, often trailing a plume of black coal smoke. She was built in Dunedin by McGregor and Company, starting in 1911. Then the hull was taken apart, every steel plate numbered, and the pieces sent by rail to Kingston at the southern tip of the lake, where she was put back together and launched in February 1912. She was named after Mount Earnslaw, the great peak at the head of the lake. The Earnslaw was built for New Zealand Railways, and her job was to carry sheep, cattle and passengers between the railhead at Kingston and the high country stations around the shore. For a long time the lake was the main road here, and steamers were how everything moved. She burns roughly a tonne of coal an hour, stoked by hand, and if you look through the windows into the engine room on board you can watch the stokers at work. She is about 51 meters long and is said to be the last coal-fired passenger steamship still working in the Southern Hemisphere. Today she carries visitors across the lake to Walter Peak, a high country farm on the far shore. The wharf buildings around her hold restaurants and booking offices now. From here, follow the waterfront east, past the lawns and the little beach, toward the corner where the pedestrian mall meets the lake, about four minutes.

Eichardt's

The handsome old building on the corner, facing the lake, is Eichardt's, and its story is the story of Queenstown. In 1860 a runholder named William Gilbert Rees came over the hills with Nicholas von Tunzelmann, looking for grazing land, and he set up a sheep station on this shore. Look for the bronze statue nearby of Rees with a ram, because he is the man credited with founding the town. The first building he put up was a woolshed, on this very spot. In November 1862, two of his shearers, Thomas Arthur and Harry Redfern, found gold in the Shotover River just over the hill, and within months thousands of miners poured in. Rees did what any sensible man would do: he gave the woolshed a wooden front and turned it into a hotel, the Queen's Arms. In 1866 he took on a partner, Albert Eichardt, a Prussian who had come here by way of the Australian goldfields. By 1869 Eichardt owned it outright, and in 1871 he rebuilt it in brick and stone. His wife, Julia, ran the hotel for years after his death and is said to have made it the first building in Queenstown with electricity. It is still a hotel, still on the water's edge, and when the lake flooded the town in 1999 it was badly damaged and closed for two years before reopening. Walk southeast along Marine Parade, with the water on your right, about two minutes to the small timber cottage on the corner of Earl Street.