The Queenstown Canopy Tour: What Ziptrek's Eco Tour Is Like

The Queenstown canopy tour is Ziptrek Ecotours’ zipline circuit through the forest on Bob’s Peak: you fly between platforms built around the trees, with guides who talk about the forest’s ecology, local history and legends at each stop. The longest version has six lines and twelve platforms and takes about three hours.

The platforms and the lines

The tours start at the Ziptrek Treehouse beside the top of the Skyline Gondola. The platforms are suspended tree-houses; on the six-line tour the highest is 25 metres above the ground. The lines start low and slow and get longer, higher and faster, so you build confidence as you go. The guides launch you from each platform and receive you at the next, and the listing says they show you fun tricks to try on the way.

The eco part

Ziptrek describes its tours as eco-adventures, and the reviews bear that out. Guests repeatedly name the guides and the commentary: “bonus eco information”, one wrote; another said the guides “were knowledgeable and interacted well with all”. Expect stories about the forest and its birds, Queenstown’s history and the legends of the area, told between lines.

The steepest finish, and “longest” claims

The six-line tour walks you 20 minutes downhill through beech forest to its last line, which Ziptrek calls the world’s steepest tree-to-tree zipline, at speeds of up to 70 km/h. We did not find an independent measurement of the line lengths, so we do not rank Queenstown’s ziplines by length. AJ Hackett’s Kawarau Zipride is a different kind of ride, a single seated line over the gorge.

See dates for the six-line canopy tour →

What the weather does

The tours run in most conditions. One guest described a “chilly” day “from the rain and snow” on which the guides handed out extra layers. Ziptrek recommends an extra layer in every season, plus a jacket, hat and gloves.

Before you book

The shorter canopy tours are the same idea with fewer lines: see which Queenstown zipline tour to book.