Queenstown indoor activities for rainy days
/You know these people who say that “there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing”? What if you got the good, waterproof clothing but still really don’t feel like doing stuff in the rain today? It happens to the best of us, even if we happen to be in Queenstown one of the most outdoorsy places in New Zealand.
Keep reading to find the best Queenstown indoor activities for rainy days.
The weather in Queenstown varies greatly throughout the year. While it can get hot and dry in summer (we’re talking 30°C | 86°F and up), it can get just as cold, rainy and miserable during the winter months. Fiordland, the region with the most annual rainfall in all of New Zealand is very close by (in linear distance, that is).
You gotta love queenstown on a rainy day
So what if you happen to hit one of these days? What to do on a rainy day in Queenstown? Granted, you could just brave the weather and do that bungy jump or go ziplining in the rain. All these activities are open, no matter the weather. But if you really don’t feel like getting wet today, there’s still plenty of fun to be had as there’s a ton of Queenstown indoor activities waiting for you! And just like the outdoor activities in the Adventure Capital of the World, they are far from boring!
Queenstown indoor activities
iFly Queenstown - indoor skydiving
Feel the rush of a real skydiving experience minus having to jump out of the plane. iFly Queenstown is the only indoor skydiving centre in New Zealand, meaning you won’t ever get wet during your flight if it’s raining outside.
Anyone over the age of five can give iFly Queenstown indoor skydiving a try. You’re fitted out with a helmet and overalls and get all the instructions you need before you take off. When it’s your turn in the air channel, an instructor takes you by the hand and makes sure you’ll be safe at any time. Each flight is 60 seconds long which might not feel like a lot. But believe me, your arms will thank you for the break between flight sessions.
If regular indoor skydiving in Queenstown feels too boring for you, you should definitely give the Virtual Reality skydive a try! Wearing VR goggles in the air channel, you’re virtually soaring through the air over the Swiss Alps (oh, hi old home!), Hawaii, Dubai or Southern California. Doesn’t that sound absolutely awesome??
iFly Indoor Skydiving Queenstown
27 Brecon Street
Queenstown 9300
iFly is one of the best queenstown indoor activities
Go on a wine tour in Gibbston Valley
No visit to Queenstown is complete without a wine tour of Gibbston. Wine tasting is one of the best things to do in Queenstown, rain or shine. Yes, there’s a minimal chance of getting some wet feet but your guides will make sure you stay as dry as possible between the tour bus and the tasting rooms at the wineries. And really, wine always works.
Gibbston Valley’s best-growing varietal is the Pinot Noir. The grape thrives in the valley’s micro-climate of mostly warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights. That’s just one of the many things about the Central Otago wines you’ll learn during the tour. You’ll get to taste the pinots as well as other reds and whites in three different wineries. At Gibbston Valley winery, the biggest vineyard in the area, you visit the famous wine cave and have the possibility to try other local produce like cheese.
Some of the Gibbston Valley wine tours include lunch, others don’t. Lunch usually consists of several tasting dishes perfectly paired with the right wines.
winetasting in the wine cave at gibbston valley winery
Get a fright at Fear Factory
Are you one of these people who love horror movies and a good scare? Then the Queenstown haunted house might be right up your alley. Bring your friends along to see who’s the bravest of you all. Follow the light trail through the ruins of the burnt-down Lockhart Hotel and come face to face with the tormented souls who forever roam the dark hallways of the haunted hotel.
The live actors at Fear Factory Queenstown will try and scare the bejesus out of you throughout this 30-minute nightmare. If it’s all too much and you can’t take it anymore, yell out ‘Chicken!’ and one of the staff comes to your rescue. But really, you do not want to make it onto the Chicken-List.
With this crazy Queenstown indoor activity, you definitely won’t get rained on. But that doesn’t mean I can promise you’ll stay dry.
Fear Factory Queenstown
59 Beach Street, Otago
Queenstown 9300
Drink an ice-ice cold drink
Everyone should’ve experienced an ice bar at least once in their life. While some countries are lucky and cold enough in winter to create outdoor versions, the ice bars in Queenstown are completely indoors.
Did you know there’s not one Queenstown ice bar but TWO? Both Below Zero Ice Bar and Minus 5° Ice Bar are located in the town centre and the experience is pretty much the same.
At the reception, you change into cold-weather gear that’s provided by the bar (so you won’t have to bring your enter clothes to Queenstown in the middle of summer). Once properly clothed, you enter the icy winter wonderland. Literally everything is made from ice: The bar, your bar stools, the walls and the decoration. The glasses for your shots, cocktails and mocktails are frozen water, too, so don’t try and take them home as a souvenir ;-)
Odyssey Sensory Maze
Not your ordinary maze, the Odyssey Sensory Maze Queenstown plays with all your senses. Like with any other maze, you need to find your way through several rooms but this is where ‘normal’ ends.
All rooms come with a different theme that will tickle and confuse all your senses. Touch, feel, smell your way through the optical illusions of the indoor maze. Dive into a sea of balloons or sit on a swing surrounded by mirrors and lights...you won’t know where’s up and where’s down! For some extra confusion, walk through the sensory maze wearing their ‘crazy goggles’!
Odyssey Sensory Maze
57 Shotover Street
Queenstown 9300
SmashIt Room
Got some unresolved anger in you that’s about to explode? Something bad happened at work or did you get dumped recently? Or do you just really like destroying things? Then SmashIt is the perfect place for you!
All you need to do is to choose your preferred theme and you’re good to go and smash things either in a ‘wine cellar’ or a ‘New York back alley’. A range of items for you to destroy as well as the tools are provided but if you have some personal items you can’t stand anymore, you’re welcome to bring them along as well (but you can’t set stuff on fire).
SmashIt Room
57 Shotover Street
Queenstown 9300
Thrillzone Queenstown
If you’re looking for Queenstown indoor activities, you must check out Thrillzone! Located in the heart of the town, Thrillzone has an incredible number of attractions that can keep you busy all day. It’s pretty much a giant indoor playground for adults and kids alike.
Thrillzone Queenstown
53 Shotover Street
Queenstown 9300
Glow in the dark mini golf (putt putt)
Putt n Glow is the only indoor minigolf in Queenstown. The black light illuminates images of things and activities that make Queenstown the unique place it is. A Lake Wakatipu tribute can be found as well as images of famous Fergburger and the Queenstown ski fields.
Laser Tag
What used to be a kids activity has gained more popularity with adults thanks to Barney Stinson (of How I Met Your Mother).
Play different scenarios like Sniper, team deathmatch free for all and more. The same laser tag guns are used for military training and will give you a real feel.
If you don’t like the idea of guns or your kids playing with them, Thrillzone Queenstown has so-called Heroblast gloves that will have you shoot laser beams from your hands like a superhero.
It’s gonna be legen - wait for it - DARY!
Paintless paintball
It’s a paintball without the colourful mess. This just means the paint, though. If a ball hits you from a close enough distance, it can still be painful and leave a colourful bruise.
It’s an indoor paintball arena, which means you can play the game no matter the weather. Popular with stag nights, you can play through several game scenarios that require more or less strategising. Plus, you get to shoot each other with unlimited ammo during your paintball session. It is ON!
Bazooka Ball
The game works pretty much like paintball but it hurts a lot less. If you’ve ever watched the 90s show American Gladiators, the Bazooka Balls will look a bit familiar (I’m showing my age here. Maybe more like a Nerf gun?). The balls used are made of foam. They don’t hurt anyone which means that this game is child-friendly.
Virtual Reality games
If you’ve ever wanted to try a VR game, Thrillzone is your place to visit! Their state of the art VR technology headset allows for an absolute lifelike gaming experience!
Hologate VR is a multiplayer virtual reality room. Up to 4 people can play with and against each other in child-friendly snowball fights. Or, for adults, you can try and save the world from a zombie attack.
Even crazier than ‘just’ VR goggles are Thrillzone’s Omni Virtual Reality games. You might have watched 2018’s movie Ready Player One where people escaped to an alternative reality with the help of VR and treadmills that made VR even more real for the characters.
Thrillzone Queenstown actually has these Omni VR treadmills for you to experience! Strapped into a special harness at your hip, you can safely run in a 360° radius and fully immerse. Gaming doesn’t get any more real than this!
Augmented Reality Escape ‘Rooms’
Now that we know that Thrillzone really likes their tech games, it’s no surprise that they also tackle your average escape room a little differently. In fact, their main escape ‘room’ isn’t even a room but takes place all around Queenstown. Equipped with tablets and other gear, this is more of a scavenger hunt. See things on the street through the camera of your tablet you can’t see otherwise, thanks to augmented reality.
And while the augmented reality game is anything but an indoor activity, you can play the same game within Thrillzone’s premises on a rainy day.
You can also dive into a virtual reality escape room. Put on your VR headset and fall into Alice’s rabbit hole on a journey through Wonderland.
As an additional bonus, if you can’t travel to Queenstown or if your friends are scattered all over the world, Thrillzone’s created an online version of an escape room that you can play from home! Not sure whether the theme was chosen on purpose, but in the story, you are part of a team that needs to find an antidote against a synthetic virus quickly spreading over the world.
Vortex 12D
Forget 3D or even 4D. Thrillzone brings you a whopping 12D ride! To ‘ease’ you into the experience, you’re first taken on a rollercoaster ride. Then you choose two to three ‘movies’ or ‘scenes’, all fitting into a 15-minute slot. The Vortex 12D is a great one to do with kids minus the height of an actual rollercoaster.
Game Over Queenstown
More indoor fun can be had over at Game Over Queenstown.
Play pre-Jurassic laser tag on 250sqm | 2690sqft and hide from your opponents between the dinosaurs. After the game, have a go at one of the cool arcade games. The arcade at Game Over is the largest in Queenstown, so you’re likely to find a favourite.
The most fun, though, is the Queenstown indoor karting race track. Race your friends and family at a speed of up to 45kmh | 28mph on the electric karts. The track is completely indoors, 290m | 820ft long and full of twists, turns and even a 2 level bridge and LED tunnel!
Game Over Queenstown
14 Red Oaks Drive
Frankton
Queenstown 9300
Kingpin Queenstown
Yet another great arcade-style entertainment centre in Queenstown, Kingpin is both kids and kids at heart. Located next to iFly (indoor skydiving), it offers ten pin bowling, escape rooms, karaoke boxes, a Timezone arcade and even good old table tennis.
If you’re into VR and racing games, you’ll especially love Kingpin. Ultra Moto VR and Overtake VR are classic racing games with a twist. You sit on a motorbike or in a racecar, just as you know it, but wearing VR goggles. You’ll feel as if you’re on the racetracks in person. Only the real deal is more real, albeit only just ;-)
Kingpin Queenstown also serves delicious food and drinks. How about a wagyu burger or a Ferrero Rocher dessert pizza? Their cocktail list is pretty amazing too! Drinks that change colour or promise to taste like spring flowers…and some pretty cool non-alcoholic cocktails, too! I usually stick to wine but I would totally order all of these cocktails!
Kingpin Queenstown
35 Brecon Street
Queenstown 9300
Basecamp indoor climbing
A great way of burning excess energy on a rainy day is by indoor climbing. A fact that’s true no matter how old you are or if you’ve been climbing before. Basecamp has climbing challenges for every level. While you might want to climb the walls only with a professional or a buddy who makes sure you’re properly secured, the more novice climbers, as well as kids, can power themselves out in the Clip’n’Climb and the bouldering section.
Clip’n’Climb climbing walls are colourful and come with different challenges. You usually buy a 1-hour session. Race your family or friends up a wall while being timed or take the leap of faith where you’re high up in the air and need to jump and hang on well on the other side to not “fall” (you’re secured properly so you can’t hurt yourself).
In the bouldering section, it’s basically climbing without a harness. Bouldering comes from climbing around boulders (or big rocks), meaning they’re nowhere near as high as the climbing walls for rope climbing. The difficulty ranges from easy to professional (overhanging) so you can just start with whatever you feel comfortable with.
Both bouldering and the climbing walls are day passes, so you can stay all day.
Queenstown Basecamp
Unit 3/15 Red Oaks Drive
Frankton
Queenstown 9371
TSS Earnslaw boat ride and lunch at the station
If you still want to do some sightseeing on a rainy day, a boat cruise on Lake Wakatipu is one of the best Queenstown indoor activities without being stuck indoors, if you get me. TSS Earnslaw is a fantastic steamboat that was built over a hundred years ago and is aptly nicknamed ‘Lady of the Lake’.
Cruising the highly scenic Lake Wakatipu takes 90 minutes. You can combine your cruise with a massive lunch buffet at Walter Peak Station which is located directly on the beach for extra views over the lake.
Onsen Hot Pools
Onsen Queenstown is probably one of the most famous hot pools in New Zealand! It mixes the Japanese onsen hot pools, usually natural hot pools, with Japan’s love for deep soaking tubs. Voila, Onsen Queenstown was born.
The original hot tubs are located in private rooms with the possibility to open the front wall to look out over the magnificent Shotover Canyon. In a bathing session during the day, you see Shotover River and the jetboats racing below you and the mountains towering above. And at night, the stars sparkle in the sky above you while your room is lit with candles. A wonderfully romantic experience.
The newer Onsen pools are located outside and are divided by shrubs, so semi-private. These pools are great to enjoy with friends as well as the partner.
Onsen Hot Pools
162 Arthurs Point Road
Arthurs Point
Queenstown 9371
Bar hopping
Queenstown is the party mecca of New Zealand. Nowhere else in the country can you find this many bars this close to each other. And because they’re all so close, you hardly have the time to get wet between pubs. Start off at the Queenstown wharf and slowly drink your way through town.
Or join an organised bar crawl and let the local guides find the best locales for you.
Cafe hopping
If the bars aren’t your scene, maybe a cafe-hopping session is more up your alley. There are countless cafes in Queenstown just waiting for you to explore all the coffees, milkshakes and pastries on offer.
Ten Pin Bowling
Good old Ten Pin Bowling always gives you a good time. Located at the Swiss-Belresort Coronet Peak, Strike Bowling a few minutes outside Queenstown, near Shotover Jet (who operate rain or shine, just as a by-the-way).
Relive the 50s and try your luck at hitting a strike (or get the ball to at least hit one pin, as it would be the case for me). Drink a milkshake or maybe something a little stronger - it might help your aim.
Strike Bowl
161 Arthurs Point Road
Arthurs Point
Queenstown 9371
Ice skating
Ice skating is one of the Queenstown indoor activities that totally fit a town that’s famous for winter sports. Slip and slide around the large indoor ice field at Queenstown Ice Arena, located in the Queenstown Gardens.
If you’re not a fan of ice skating, maybe the ice bumper cars are more up your alley. While yes, it’s aimed mainly at kids, it doesn’t mean the adults can’t have a go at bumping into each other...
Queenstown Ice Arena
Queenstown Gardens 29 Park Street
Queenstown 9300
SkyCity Casino
We all know there’s a SkyCity casino in Auckland, right next to the SkyTower. The SkyCity casino in Queenstown isn’t talked about nearly as often. It’s probably also because it’s much smaller than its Auckland sibling, but spending some time playing Black Jack or the pokies (slot machines) still is a great distraction on a rainy Queenstown day. And who knows, maybe it’s your lucky day?
SkyCity Queenstown Casino
Stratton House Level 2/16-24 Beach Street
Queenstown 9300
Cinema
Let’s not forget about cinemas! I know you could also stay in your room watching Netflix or go to the cinema at home but watching a movie on the big screen while munching on buttery popcorn is always much more fun. Combine it with dinner and after-movie drinks and you’ve got the perfect date night.
Reading Cinemas
11-14 Mall Street
Queenstown 9197
Best Queenstown accommodation to stay indoors
Hilton Queenstown
Hands-down the best hotel if you don’t feel like going outside on a rainy day. The Hilton Queenstown has big rooms with a gas fire pit in the lounge and a big tub in the bathroom. Everything within the Hilton itself is accessible without ever leaving the house...From the reception, you can get to your rooms, to the hotel restaurant Wakatipu Grill right on the lake’s edge, to Pinot Pit wine bar and the wellness and spa area. There’s even a sports bar and cafe. Those places are only accessible from outside (but you won’t get wet for more than a few seconds)
The Wellness area is seriously amazing and you could easily spend a day there. Swim laps in the indoor pool, soak in the warm spa bath and relax on the comfortable loungers. Upstairs in the changing rooms, you’ll find a sauna and a steam room. These facilities are complimentary to use for Hilton Guests (and charge for guests of the Doubletree next door). efoera: spa is the place for all your spa treatments. You can spend hours getting massages, facials, mani-pedis and more.
By the way: For an extra romantic time, some of the rooms have their own spa baths on the deck and look over the lake.
For a destination that’s so much about the outdoors, there are surprisingly many indoor activities in Queenstown! Have you tried one or some of them yet? What’s your favourite? Let me know!
