Fernhill / Sunshine Bay

Fernhill climbs the hillside above Queenstown's town centre, offering some of the most spectacular residential views in the district — the Remarkables fill the southern sky, Lake Wakatipu stretches below, and on clear days the panorama extends to Walter Peak and Cecil Peak. It is one of the few Queenstown suburbs where you can walk to town — the Town Link Track descends through bush to the CBD in about 20 minutes. The Fernhill Bike Park is hugely popular with locals, offering mountain bike trails that wind through native bush above the town. Additional walking tracks — the Arawata Track and the One Mile-Sunshine Bay route — provide bush immersion and lakeside scenery. Sunshine Bay, further along the lake, has a small beach perfect for summer swimming and a more secluded, residential feel. Property here is the most affordable in Queenstown proper — three-bedroom unit-titled duplexes range from NZD 900,000 to NZD 1.2 million, roughly half the Queenstown average. Fernhill rose 2.5% year-on-year while Sunshine Bay surged 13% over two years — the fastest growth in the district. The trade-off is limited winter sunshine (the hillside faces south) and minimal local amenities beyond Chur fish and chips and a dairy. But for buyers seeking Queenstown at an accessible price point with genuine views and walkable town access, Fernhill and Sunshine Bay are hard to beat.

Fernhill / Sunshine Bay in Queenstown, Otago Region, New Zealand