Eichardt's Private Hotel

In November 1862 two shearers working for the runholder William Rees found gold in the Shotover River, and within weeks the sheep station on the shore of Lake Wakatipu had become a boom town. Rees's woolshed by the lake was turned into a hotel for the miners. Eichardt's Private Hotel stands on that corner of the Queenstown waterfront, at the foot of the Mall, and its name has been attached to the site for more than 150 years.

History

Rees had taken up land at the head of the lake in 1860 and built his homestead and woolshed close to the water, on the bay where the town now stands. When the rush arrived he could not hold back the miners, and the woolshed became the Queen's Arms, one of the first licensed houses in the district. Albert Eichardt took it over in the late 1860s and gave it his name, and the hotel he ran became a meeting place for the young town: miners, traders, surveyors and, later, the farmers and visitors who came in on the lake steamers. The stone building that now stands on the corner replaced the original timber woolshed in the nineteenth century.

For much of the twentieth century Eichardt's was a public house with rooms above. In 1999 Lake Wakatipu rose to flood levels and the water came into the waterfront streets, damaging the building. The restoration that followed turned the upper floors into a small private hotel, which opened in 2001, while the ground floor kept its bar.

Architecture and design

The building is low and built of stone, which is much of its appeal. It reads as nineteenth-century Queenstown among the newer blocks of the waterfront, and it is one of the few reminders in the centre of the town that this was a gold-rush settlement before it was a resort. Inside, the restoration mixed antiques with contemporary furniture, open fires, deep sofas and plain colours, and the effect is closer to a private house than to a hotel.

Rooms and suites

The private hotel is very small. A handful of suites in the historic building look over the lake or the Mall, and the owners later added lakefront apartments and a penthouse residence close by for guests who want more space or a longer stay. Rooms are individually furnished and bathrooms are generous for a building of this age.

Dining

Eichardt's Bar, on the ground floor, is one of the town's longest-established drinking rooms, with a fire in winter and tables looking onto the lake. It serves food through the day, and on a cold evening it fills with locals as much as with visitors. Breakfast for hotel guests is served privately, and the restaurants of central Queenstown are all within a few minutes on foot.

Location

Eichardt's sits on Marine Parade where the Queenstown Mall meets the lake. The Steamer Wharf, where the TSS Earnslaw has carried passengers across Lake Wakatipu since 1912, lies along the waterfront. Across the water rise Cecil Peak and Walter Peak, and the long serrated ridge of The Remarkables closes the view to the east. The gondola up Bob's Peak, the lakeside Queenstown Gardens and the jetties for lake cruises are all close.

This luxury hotel in Queenstown suits travellers who want to be in the middle of things rather than in a lodge in the hills. The bars and restaurants of the town centre are steps away, and Queenstown Airport is about fifteen minutes by car. Day trips run to Arrowtown, itself a gold-rush town, to the Gibbston wineries and to Milford Sound, and in winter the ski fields of Coronet Peak and The Remarkables are within easy reach of the lakefront.