Wanaka Tours and Day Trips from Queenstown

What’s included and what’s not

On the shared day trip

• Included: a local driver-guide, an air-conditioned vehicle, the Crown Range stops, free time in Wanaka and Arrowtown, a beer or ginger beer at the Cardrona Hotel and an Arrowtown map
• Not included: lunch, hotel pickup, and Puzzling World or the lavender farm, which the listing says aren’t on this tour

On the private day trips

• Included: private car and driver for up to 4, fuel and parking. Queenstown Panorama Tours adds bottled water and a booster seat; TravelnGo adds door to door pickup
• Not included: meals and coffee. Both drivers will stop where you ask

Where the Wanaka tours differ, and why it matters

Lunch is included on three of them: the 4WD safari (morning or afternoon tea and lunch), Wildwire Level 2 (a sandwich and a sweet) and the packrafting day (a picnic). The water taxi includes landing fees and commentary but no food, and you have about 2 hours on the island to fill.

Gear comes with every activity that needs it: helmets and harness on Wildwire, wetsuits, booties and spray jackets for packrafting, a helmet on the quad bikes.

Transport is the real split. The packrafting day includes hotel transfers in Wanaka. Wildwire meets at a farm gate 20 minutes out of town, so you need your own car. None of the Wanaka activities includes transport from Queenstown.

The Franz Josef transfer includes a sit-down lunch from a set menu, snacks, water and a toilet on board.

The day, hour by hour

The shared tour crosses the Crown Range both ways, with an hour each in Wanaka and Arrowtown. The private tours come back through Cromwell, with shorter stops at more places.

The shared Arrowtown and Wanaka tour

Times below are worked from the stop lengths on the listing, not a timetable from the operator.

9:50am. Check in outside Marmolada Café on the Camp Street side of The Station building in central Queenstown. The listing is blunt: they can’t wait for late arrivals, and there are no hotel pickups.

10:00am. Leave town and climb the Crown Range Road.

About 10:45am. Crown Range lookouts, 30 minutes. This is the high point of the drive, looking back down over the Wakatipu basin.

About 11:30am. Cardrona, 30 minutes. The ticket includes a beer or a non-alcoholic ginger beer at the Cardrona Hotel, the old pub on the valley road.

About 12:30pm. That Wanaka Tree, 20 minutes, on the lakefront walk at the edge of town.

About 1:00pm. Free time in Wanaka, 1 hour. Lunch is on you, and the listing points to the cafes and takeaways on the lakefront. Puzzling World and the lavender farm are not on this tour.

About 2:00pm. Back over the Crown Range.

About 3:00pm. Arrowtown, 1 hour, with a visitor map from the guide. It’s the old gold mining town on the way home. An hour covers the main street and the Chinese settlement, which every traveller we watched who stopped in Arrowtown walked through; Glen And Mado reckoned you can cross the whole town on foot in 10 to 15 minutes. Expect it busy by mid afternoon.

About 4:00pm. Back at Camp Street. The listing runs to about 6 hours in total, although its own overview calls it a half day tour.

One traveller video shows a guided day on this loop, though it doesn’t name the operator. Travel with Lens stopped at the Crown Range summit, 1,076 m up, then the Cardrona Hotel, the bra fence and the tree. Lunch was in Wanaka at a cafe their guide suggested, then the lakefront, where large eels came right up to the jetty. Arrowtown came on the way home.

The private day trips

Both private listings follow almost the same order over about 7 hours, and both say the stops can be changed.

• Morning: pickup in Queenstown, a 5 minute stop at Lake Hayes, then Arrowtown for 45 minutes to an hour including the Chinese Settlement.
• Late morning: quick stops of about 5 minutes each at the Cardrona Hotel, the Cardrona Bra Fence and the Crown Range Road.
• Middle of the day: 45 minutes at Lake Wanaka and 20 at That Wanaka Tree.
• Afternoon: back south on the Cromwell road, an hour in Cromwell between the heritage precinct and the town, then 20 minutes at the Kawarau Suspension Bridge before Queenstown.

The listed stops add up to about 4 hours. The rest is driving, and meals are wherever you ask the driver to stop.

What it looks like if you drive it yourself

Apart from that one, every traveller we watched drove. Sanya Photography and Travel did the closest thing to the tour route: Arrowtown, the Crown Range summit, the Cardrona Hotel and the bra fence, which took nearly 2 hours. Nick and Raychel spent their day climbing Mount Iron and exploring a gorge.

Meeting point and getting there

The day trips start in Queenstown. The activities start in Wanaka, about an hour’s drive away, and most of them meet on Ardmore Street by the lake.

Finding the harder ones

Wildwire’s meeting point is a farm gate, not a building. Drive the Wanaka to Mt Aspiring road for about 20 minutes, look for two big waterfalls on the left and a cattle stop. If you hit gravel, you’ve gone too far.

The quad bikes leave from Cardrona, roughly halfway between Queenstown and Wanaka on the Crown Range road. That makes them one of the few Wanaka activities you can reach easily from a Queenstown base. The listing says they can’t wait for late arrivals and won’t refund them.

At the marina, park on the sealed area only. If it’s full, the water taxi listing says to park on the left of either road 200 m past the marina, where the road splits.

Driving from Queenstown

There are two roads. The Crown Range is the short, steep, scenic one through Cardrona. The other goes round through Cromwell on State Highway 6. Riss Adventures put the Cromwell road at about 70 minutes without stops, and Sanya Photography’s Crown Range day took nearly 2 hours with four stops.

In Wanaka, parking near the lake can be hard on a busy day. Nick and Raychel struggled in autumn.

If you’re running late

Call the operator, using the number on your Viator confirmation. Two listings on this page say outright that they won’t wait: the shared day trip and the quad bikes. The Franz Josef transfer says the same about its pickups.

What to bring

For the day trips, the list is short. For the activities, the operators set it, and several ask for details when you book.

• Lunch money. No day trip on this page includes a meal. The shared tour gives you an hour in Wanaka to buy one.
• Sun protection and water for the stops. CJ Explores found the climbs around Wanaka dry and already hot in late March, and both Mount Iron and Roys Peak have almost no shade.
• A warm layer. The Crown Range lookout is high and exposed, and the quad bike listing asks for warm clothing.
• Closed shoes for the quad bikes, and walking shoes with grip for Mou Waho Island. The water taxi listing calls it 20 to 30 minutes uphill, and Joy Through The Globe found the last stretch rocky and steeper.
• Swimwear and confidence in the water for packrafting. The operator asks your weight, height, shoe size and how confident you are in water when you book.
• Insect repellent for anything near a river. Nick and Raychel met sandflies at their gorge.
• One large and one small bag if you’re taking the Franz Josef transfer. That’s the luggage limit on the listing.

Leave hot food and open hot drinks behind for the shared day trip. They’re not allowed on board.

How to choose

First decide where you’re sleeping. From Queenstown, the choice is between the shared day trip and a private car. From Wanaka, it’s which half day you want on the lake or in the hills.

What the private trips add

The private listings visit the same places as the shared tour plus Cromwell and the Kawarau Bridge, and come back by a different road, so you don’t climb the Crown Range twice. You choose the start time. You also get less time at each stop on the default plan: 45 minutes at the lake against an hour on the shared tour. Both private operators say they’ll change the stops, so ask for longer in Wanaka if that’s the point of your day.

The two Wanaka trips travellers filmed

Mou Waho is mostly boat and walk. Joy Through The Globe spent about 40 minutes on the water taxi each way, with the skipper talking about the lake’s birds and the island’s history. Signs put Arethusa Pool, a lake about 150 m above Lake Wanaka, at 1 km and 30 minutes, and the lookout at 1.3 km and 40 minutes.

Wildwire is harder than it looks from the road. Bella’s Odd Fins did Level 1 with family after a safety briefing, crossing the bridges in pairs; at the top, the next level would have been about another 3 hours. NZ Pocket Guide, a travel guide channel, took the middle level: over 2 hours of ladders, wire bridges and crossings over the falls, snacks at the top, then a steep track down.

Pick this if

• You’re in Queenstown for a few days and want Wanaka without driving the Crown Range: the shared day trip, as long as your date is fixed.
• You’re travelling with children under 6, or need a later start: a private trip.
• You’re staying in Wanaka and want the lake from the water: the Mou Waho water taxi.

Skip it if

• You have a car and a free day. Nearly every traveller in the videos we watched drove it themselves, and the main stops are free. Our guide to things to do in Wanaka covers the tree, the lake walk and Mount Iron.
• You want time in Wanaka more than a tour of the road there. An hour in town is enough for lunch and the tree, not for Roys Peak or the island.

Season and timing

The day trips run all year. What changes is the colour of the hills and, in winter, the Crown Range itself.

The tree at the right time of day

Three of the four Wanaka videos said to see That Wanaka Tree at sunrise or early morning, for still water and fewer people. CJ Explores and Riss Adventures both found people photographing it whenever they went, and CJ Explores watched tour buses turn up.

That matters for the day trips. The shared tour reaches the tree around the middle of the day, and the private trips at a similar hour on their default plan. If the photo is the point, stay a night in Wanaka and walk there at dawn instead.

Which day to book

The shared tour runs in all weather, and it’s non-refundable, so a clear forecast is luck rather than a choice. The private trips can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead, which lets you wait for a fine day on the Crown Range. In winter, check the road before you go: the Cromwell road is the lower, easier way round when the range is icy.

FAQ