Looking for panoramic views? Make sure you head up the Queenstown Gondola, the steepest cable car lift in the Southern Hemisphere!

About the Skyline Queenstown Gondola

The Skyline Queenstown Gondola is the steepest cable car lift in the Southern Hemisphere. But don’t worry, we felt perfectly safe and the views are worth it!

Elevated 450m and with 220-degree views, this is a great way to take in the natural beauty of what Queenstown has to offer. You could spend hours enjoying the view over Lake Wakatipu and enjoying the view of the majestic mountains surrounding the city, including Coronet Peak, The Remarkables and Walter & Cecil Peak.

You can also enjoy watching the people go around the Luge track – it can be quite entertaining!!

Gondola opening hours

Open every day from 9 am – 9 pm with the last departure from the top generally soon after the restaurant closes. For more details on the opening hours, click here.

About the Skyline Luge

This was on our list (ok, well Jenna’s list) of must do things in Queenstown. We ran out of time during our first trip as we were very much looking for adventure and wrongly assumed this wouldn’t be worth it- was I wrong! The luge track is around 800m and you can think of it like go-karting.

There are corners, tunnels and dippers which all keep you entertained. All of this whilst having an incredible view.

Once you’ve enjoyed the views from the observation deck, you head outside along a short path which takes you to a second chairlift- this takes you all the way to the top where the fun starts! The track runs along the edge of the mountain back down towards the observation deck where you can easily hop straight back onto the chairlift and do it all over again!

There are two tracks to choose from. The blue track is for your first run, quick introduction of how the luge works, it’s somewhat important to understand how to slow down and turn, it’s fair to say this is a relatively gentle ride, less of a gradient, easy bends tunnels and dips. Once you’re comfortable, you can try your luck on the red track. I loved the red track, it has a steeper gradient and far more adventurous with banked corners, tunnels, dippers and cuttings!

We absolutely recommend doing at least 3 laps, no doubt you will want to do more. It was way more fun than I thought it would be!

You can do the track as many times as you like – you can purchase different packages to suit what you’re after. See below for pricing.

Luge opening hours

The opening hours for the luge are different to the gondola. They open at 10 am, however, the closing time depends on the season. Click here for current opening hours.

Pricing

There are a number of different options you can choose from. There is the gondola price on its own, or you can mix and match it with the luge, lunch, dinner or stargazing. Click here for a current list of prices. You can pre-purchase online and possibly even save a few $$. However, pre-purchasing your tickets doesn’t seem to save time when you get there as you still need to line up with everyone else!

Gondola and Luge Video

Check out our short video with highlights from our time up the top!

Do you have travel insurance?

Before travelling, make sure you get a travel insurance policy – you never know when you might need it! Click here for information on travel insurance, what company we recommend and a link to get an instant quote.

Here are some other pictures from our time up the top!

“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” – Anna Quindlen