Day hiking the Southern Lakes: How far you can get without a tent

There’s a version of experiencing New Zealand’s Southern Lakes that involves booking a guided walk, staying in huts for a few nights and arriving at the other end with abundant photos of spectacular vistas and some very good stories. This isn’t that. This is about what’s accessible as a day hike from a warm house, a proper breakfast and a car, and the answer turns out to be quite a lot. The trails around Queenstown, Wānaka and Arrowtown reach genuinely serious terrain within an hour of leaving town. What makes this corner of New Zealand unusual is the combination: mountains that would be a destination in their own right elsewhere in the world, accessible without multi-day logistics, with a good dinner waiting at the other end. Lingo tip: New Zealanders call hiking ‘tramping’. Roys Peak, Wānaka This is probably the most photographed trail in the Southern Lakes and possibly the most recognisable viewpoint in New Zealand. Although, until now, you may not have known quite where it is. The track climbs steeply from close to the lake’s edge to a ridge above Wānaka that gives you the lake, the surrounding ranges and, on a clear day, Mount Aspiring to the northwest. It’s a long day out, ar...