Queenstown (pop. 15,450) is a town on the South Island of New Zealand. It is built on an inlet of Lake Wakatipu. Queenstown is surrounded by mountain formations including Ben Lomond, Cecil Peak, Queenstown Hill, the Remarkables range, and Walter Peak. The town lies about 110 miles (180 kilometers) northwest of Dunedin and about 110 miles north of Invercargill. Queenstown has become known for its adventure tourism and ski resorts.
The Queenstown area was occupied by the Indigenous (native) Māori people until European settlers arrived in the area in the 1850’s. The Māori name for Queenstown is Tāhuna, meaning shallow bay. The European settlers William Gilbert Rees and Nicholas von Tunzelmann established a settlement at Queenstown in about 1860. More settlers traveled to Queenstown after the discovery of gold in the nearby Arrow River. Residents named the town in 1863. The residents, many of whom were Irish, probably named the town for Queen Victoria, following a similar renaming of the town of Cobh in Ireland.
