KEY POINTS:
A ghost stalks the varnished cabins and stairways of the vintage Twin Screw Steamship Earnslaw as it chugs across Lake Wakatipu.
Legend has it that this ghost is an unfortunate stoker who was crushed by an avalanche of coal some 75 years ago when the ship was owned by New Zealand Railways. Several staff members have reported feeling some sort of presence or even of seeing a ghostly shape.
Even the no-nonsense skipper Graham Moore-Carter - who is so strongly linked to the ship that he is known as Twinny (for twin-screw steamer) - admits to have felt a presence in the wheelhouse when he was there alone one night.
I have to admit I didn't sense any ghosts when I took a cruise on the old ship but it's hardly surprising that it is said to be haunted. After all, the Earnslaw has been steaming across Lake Wakatipu for 95 years, much has happened in its elegant cabins, and it's very much woven into the area's remarkable history.
Queenstown's image may not be of a town which lays a heavy emphasis on yesterday - it's more of a adrenaline-packed trendy, here-and-now, kind of place - but there are plenty of reminders of the past.
These days when you arrive at Queenstown Airport - after one of the more spectacular and scary landings on the planet - you'll be greeted by towering bronze sculptures of three rangitira representing the tribes of Murihiku and crafted by Mark Hill (son of Michael Hill jeweller and golfer).
In the centre of town you'll also find a sculpture of William Gilbert Rees, the first settler in the Queenstown area, who established a sheep farm there in 1860 and built his home on the lake shore.
He looks a little bemused by the throngs of young adventure-seekers bustling over what was once his home paddock. He probably looked much the same when gold was discovered in the nearby Shotover River in 1862 and his peaceful life changed dramatically.
Thousands of miners poured in, the sheep station became a town and Rees' barn was transformed into a hotel, initially called the Queen's Arms, but following a change of ownership known as Eichardt's Private Hotel. Eichardt's Hotel still presides over the town centre but everything else changed yet again when after a few years the gold ran out, the district once again turned to farming for its wealth and that led in turn to the arrival of the Earnslaw.
Poor roading and the need to move stock and supplies between the railhead at Kingston and the big sheep stations around the lake led to the Government deciding to build a large, modern vessel for the job.
The Earnslaw was built in Dunedin, then taken to bits, with each of the 78 frames and 140 plates being numbered and taken by rail to Kingston, where it was put back together with the aid of 70,000 rivets. Its maiden voyage in 1912 was a gala occasion and for half a century the old ship was the backbone of transport in the district.
But with the building of the road from Queenstown to Glenorchy in 1962, trucks took over most of that work and the Earnslaw faced the scrapheap. In 1968 the ship was purchased by a local tourist operator, now known as Real Journeys, refitted and transformed into the tourist vessel she is today.
We travelled on the old girl on what Real Journeys calls a Heritage cruise. During the first leg of our voyage we got a tour of the ship, including the neat little museum in the forecastle where the crew once lived; the engine room with its coal-fired boilers; the elegant saloon where first class passengers once lounged; and the wheelhouse.
Destination for the Earnslaw's voyages these days is almost always Walter Peak Station, headquarters of what was once a 70,000ha station with 40,000 merino sheep and 50 staff.
It's an appropriate stopping point for a voyage from Queenstown because Walter Peak's first European owner was Nicholas Von Tunzelman who came to the area with Rees. Legend has it that the two shared out the land by tossing a coin, with Rees getting the gentler eastern side while Von Tunzelman ended up with the rugged western side.
Unable to cope with the tough conditions, he walked off the land, and Walter Peak Station ended up with the Mackenzie family, who farmed it for 80 years and created the homestead that is there today.
As part of our heritage tour we were walked round the station, including the impressive main building which now houses a restaurant, a smaller building which was the original farmhouse, the barn (where visitors on other tours can watch sheepdogs and shearers in action or admire highland cattle and red deer) and the beautiful heritage gardens developed by the Mackenzie family.
Then we dropped into the main building for a slideshow on the history of the station followed by a heritage wine tasting session. No, don't laugh, wine is an important part of Central Otago history.
Meggan, who presided over the wine tasting, told us that the first grapes in this part of the world were planted in the 1860s by Jean Desire Feraud who used the proceeds of a gold mining operation to build a winery near where the town of Clyde is today.
The remains of the winery can still be seen, apparently, and Feraud's early foray has been followed more than a century later by an explosion of grape planting.
The Central Otago wine region, the southern most in the world, is thriving ... and it's easy to see why. At our tasting we had a glass of bubbly followed by a Rabbit Ranch pinot gris, a Carrick riesling and a Lake Hayes pinot noir - the variety for which the area is best known - and all were superb.
I'm not sure whether it was the influence of the wine but it was then that we started talking about ghosts.
Meggan, who has to do cleaning duties before the first sailing of the Earnslaw arrives in the morning, said she had several times experienced a ghost while cleaning the homestead's old mahogany toilets.
"I don't know who it is, and it's not a hostile presence or anything like that, but it's definitely there."
Were there any other ghosts around, I wondered.
"Oh, yes," she said, "there's a ghost on the Earnslaw. It's been seen several times. They've even seen the legs walking down the stairs."
Hmm. I decided not to go down the stairs during the voyage back. Instead I sat in the main saloon and admired the scenery.
I don't believe in ghosts ... but you can't be too careful.
* Jim Eagles visited Queenstown as guest of the Novotel Lakeside Queenstown.
Getting There: Qantas flies daily Auckland to Queenstown return from $238 and Christchurch to Queenstown return from $158. For more details visit www.qantas.co.nz
Where to stay: Novotel Queenstown Lakeside offers rooms for just $150 each night for April, May and June. Or enjoy Novotel's Autumn Bed & Breakfast Special: for just $170 per night you'll receive accommodation, breakfast and a $50 voucher to spend on dinner and wine at Elements Restaurant (one voucher a stay). Receive a complimentary upgrade to a premium room subject to availability. Valid until 27 June. Visit www.accorhotels.co.nz or phone 0800 44 44 22.
Further information: For information about things to do in Queenstown see www.queenstownnz.co.nz
