Ziptrek tours are an inherently environmentally friendly activity. Photo / Supplied
On a recent winter visit to Queenstown Lakes, Anna King Shahab sought businesses passionately working to offer guests a remarkable experience with a lower impact on the planet.
It's our "home of adventure" – and as well as hooning down slopes and rivers, it can also mean discovering a wealth of cuisine inspired by the local landscape and its bounty of produce, and exploring the landscape in ways that have a gentle – or even a positive – impact. Here's what I found in Queenstown Lakes.
Queenstown
I didn’t know much about ziplining until rocking up at the starting point for my Ziptrek Kea Tour. I didn’t know, for example, that this can – depending on the design and day-to-day operation – be an inherently environmentally friendly activity – but learning from my guides, the two Jameses, as we progressed from line to line and chatting to co-founder Trent Yeo enlightened me on just what goes into making this a carbon-neutral business, Queenstown’s first, no less.
Yeo’s background in sustainable architecture meant the build was low-impact – existing douglas fir trees were the base, and sustainable local macrocarpa was used to build platforms that attached to the trees in such a way that, if ever needed, they could simply be cut off and removed leaving no trace. The ride is all thanks to gravity. The small amount of power the operation needs to operate the safety gates on the platforms is generated by solar panels, its one vehicle runs on biodiesel, and it engages in various programmes to improve the health of the local ecosystem. All of which have seen it win a plethora of awards and inspire so many others.
And the ride? This first-timer is hooked after the series of six lines – including the world's steepest tree-to-tree zipline – descending a good portion of the peak (the last of the slope is ticked off with a lovely walk through beech forest). Each line is cleverly designed to take in the view – cue my awkward aerial doggy paddling every time I swung around to turn my back on it. I'm not amazing with heights but once I had the first line under my belt, each takeoff was less scary and more exhilarating.
Handily located close to the foot of Bobs Peak, the gondola station, and right across the road from where I emerged from the forest following my Ziptrek tour, Bespoke Kitchen was on my radar because I always see it mentioned when people are seeking great food recommendations for the area.
My lunch was a vegan take on an eggs benedict: a kūmara, agria, nori rösti came topped with sesame-crusted tofu and a beautiful hazelnut-based hollandaise, plus a load of veg in attendance – sauteed brussels sprouts, broccoli, leek, and zucchini. Owner Michelle Freeman has decades of experience in the local cafe scene and one of her secrets is that every dish comes out looking and tasting even better than the menu description promises – that, and the baking and raw sweet treats here are excellent.
Sherwood has built a reputation for eco-conscious accommodation and cuisine. No matter the season, the menu always showcases a host of ingredients from the extensive onsite permaculture garden as well as things grown, raised, and collected locally. Part of the charm lies in what hasn't been done – the 1980s mock Tudor motel buildings were minimally refurbished to avoid waste and the production of more emissions, and their quirky-cool comfiness is just right. Solar power, recycling all organic kitchen waste through the compost, bottling wine in-house – being as self-sufficient as possible is the goal here.
A much larger and newer build, the Rees Hotel is also a great pick for a more conscious lakefront stay, with its strong commitment to practices that support both the environment and local community. Knowing that made sinking into the bath while gazing over Lake Wakatipu feel even nicer. The Rees boasts four free-to-use EV charging stations – very impressive considering many large shopping malls in NZ don't even have a single pay-to-use EV charger.
Arrowtown
What did we do before e-bikes? Rode the unassisted way, obviously – but the rise of e-biking has opened up two-wheel exploration of such ludicrously scenic areas as Central Otago to a wider audience, and surely got plenty of folks out of cars. Better By Bike is right by the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement, a good chance to experience that before or after getting on yer bike. After being fitted to a bike and helmet, I hit the Arrow River Bridges Trail en route to Gibbston (just shy of 14km). The ride was easy, with plenty of photo opps, including crossing the Southern Discoveries and Kawarau suspension bridges. Onwards into wine country – there are any number of cellar doors you can visit in the area.
Royalburn Shop is a gorgeous country store packed with things both delicious and beautiful to look at – and at its heart are matters both environmental and ethical. The shop shelves and chillers feature the bounty from Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie's farm up on Crown Terrace; fresh vegetables and fruit from the market garden as well as eggs, lamb, and sunflower oil. I visited Nadia on the farm to see things at the source – the chooks - we're talking thousands of them – are as free-ranging as it gets; the lamb is raised and slaughtered in the onsite micro-abattoir in a way that avoids stress, with the waste heading off across the paddock into a composting system in a circular approach.
Glenorchy and Kinloch
Having arrived at my private chalet at Headwaters Eco Lodge at Camp Glenorchy late at night, my head soon hit the pillow for a blissfully uninterrupted sleep. Upon waking, I became acquainted with the very cool toilet – a little breezy on the bottom perhaps, but this throne belies a clever, completely odourless composting system. Stepping out into the energising chill, the view was all snowy mountains – white with iridescent pink tips reflecting the dawn sky. Over breakfast in the communal building with lodge director Katherine Schuitemaker, I told her I'd really like to take that toilet home with me. I'm not the only one, she says – one of the thrills of showcasing sustainable solutions is having guests leave with a head full of ideas on how they could improve their footprint in daily, non-holiday life.
Headwaters is a poster child for regenerative design – certified according to the Living Building Challenge, its construction utilised the skills of local craftspeople and specialists, and the lodge is an integral part of the Glenorchy community. In construction when I visited was a large garden with irrigated raised beds and a Scandinavian-style greenhouse sunk into the ground, taking advantage of full sun. It'll be a boon for the lodge's executive chef Peter Gawron (former owner of acclaimed Arrowtown restaurant Saffron), who has always been driven by a garden-to-plate philosophy. I picked up some goodies from Mrs Woolly's General Store to take on a tramp. The cabinet is loaded with hearty food, plus there are shelves and chillers for campers, long-haul trampers and other travellers stocking up on supplies.
A solo walk up to the first swing bridge and back offered a restorative forest bath and a good reminder to me to make time for a multi-day attempt at the Routeburn Track. Arriving at Kinloch Wilderness Retreat in the late afternoon, the timing was perfect for a soak in the hot tub, taking in the incredible backdrop of Lake Wakatipu, Glenorchy on the other side, and the mountains behind. That view persists throughout my stay in one of the property's two EcoScape cabins thanks to the clever design. The cabins – a glassy, modern contrast to the 1868 heritage lodge adjacent – have been built "around the view"; they blend in with the landscape and are passive in energy thanks to green building technology, yet as soon as I stepped inside I was enveloped in comfort and the joy of simple luxuries – warmth, good lighting, lovely materials, and more of that view. When the sun sets and the outlook is snuffed out, the remote-control blind became a projector screen with a simple voice command to Google – movie night ahoy.
But not before dinner, a three-course affair cooked and served by proprietor Toni Glover in the dining room all cosy with a fire and a vintage piano in the corner. Leek and potato soup served with Glover's delicious bread and seriously wild Fiordland venison slow-cooked in red wine were followed by a baked cheesecake with blueberries – comfort food, excellent without being ostentatious, much like my entire stay in the region.
QUEENSTOWN & SURROUNDS
GETTING THERE Air New Zealand flies direct from Auckland to Queenstown multiple times per day. Airnz.co.nz GETTING AROUND I clocked up a fair few miles covering the region in a Tesla Model 3 from GO Rentals. If you haven't driven a Tesla before, renting one when on holiday is a great way to test the pedals and, if you're an EV driver, it's great to see them being added to fleets. Charging infrastructure in the region is good: not just in public places, also the number of private businesses that have installed them is impressive. All four accommodation providers I stayed with: Sherwood, The Rees, Headwaters Eco Lodge, and Kinloch Wilderness Retreat had chargers available for guests.
DETAILS Ziptrek Kea Tour offers six zipline adventures, taking between 2.5 - 3 hours and includes the steepest zipline in the world. ziptrek.co.nz/tours/kea. Better By Bike now has two bike hire bases in both Arrowtown and Queenstown. There are seven trails to choose from and optional shuttle returns. betterbybike.co.nz/the-trails. The award-winning Headwaters Eco Lodge has 14 elegantly appointed private chalets, dining room and includes a hot breakfast the following morning. theheadwatersecolodge.co.nz. Kinloch Wilderness Retreat offers four distinct accommodations, from a wilderness lakeside setting at Kinloch to a B&B on Glenorchy lakefront. kinlochlodge.co.nz
For more, see queenstownnz.co.nz
We check into a multimillion-dollar property on Waiheke.