Featured Activities
Hellooo to our Australian and international visitors! We are so excited to welcome you back to Wānaka and the Southern Alps.
In Winter of 2021, Cardrona Alpine Resort finally opened up Willows Basin, the first new major section of skiable terrain in New Zealand since they put in Valley View. Willows is located in the Soho Ski Area on the Southern face of Cardrona, overlooking Queenstown. It’s accessible via the Willows Quad chair and McDougall’s chondola.
What was once an old police station at 28 Helwick Street is now a modern shopping complex with a big city vibe called The Precinct Wānaka.
A beautiful creative concept, the Precinct aims to nurture community, industry, big ideas and boundary pushing. This is evident in the eclectic mix of shops and services housed there.
Hospitality might’ve undergone the most updates since we’ve welcomed international visitors.
Kicking off with our craft breweries b. effect brewing co. opened their brewing location and eatery, b.social, shortly before the border closure and since then, have expanded to include more seating and an upstairs events area. Similarly, Ground Up Brewing has opened a vibrant and funky tasting room and has the Wānaka ‘Wich Project food truck located on-site for American-style sandwiches to go with your tasting flights!
In the time since borders were open, there’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to ensure that, when New Zealand did open its borders, we were ready to welcome back visitors with a strong sense of Our Why. With a renewed focus on our vision that will help protect this place for future generations, we’re excited to embark a new chapter of tourism and leaving this place even better than we found it.
For those who are visiting soon and would like help take action on our vision, we’ve created a guide to being a good traveller here. Our guide includes information about the Tiaki Promise, how you can join initiatives like Plastic-Free Wanaka and Single-Use Cup Free Wānaka while you’re visiting, ways to care for the outdoors while you’re exploring and how you can contribute to our community organisations and projects.
