QUEENSTOWN

Queenstown is a stunning holiday destination with great quality food options. Despite having a reputation for thrill-seeking adventure and snow sports, it is actually quite family friendly, even for toddlers and young school-aged children, particularly in the warmer months.

FLIGHTS

As Queenstown is only a few hours from Sydney, the length of the flight wasn’t too much of a concern from an allergy perspective. We flew Qantas, who have a kids’ menu that was nut and seed free, a gluten-free option (that is often dairy-free; best to check at the time of making your advanced meal selection to ensure they haven’t changed this!), and fruit platters (which is generally safe unless you have to consider fruit allergies). We also brought lots of snacks for the kids, as we usually do.

WHERE TO STAY

We booked a serviced apartment with Lakeridge Queenstown via Booking.com. As always, having a kitchen is important when your little ones have allergies, and the apartment we stayed in had beautiful views of the Remarkables and was also in a great location, being about 15 minutes walk from the centre of town. We hired a car that we picked up at the airport as this made it easier to get around (or gave us an alternative if the weather was too wet to walk into town).

PLACES TO VISIT

TSS Earnslaw Cruise

One of the quintessential day trips when visiting Queenstown, is the cruise on the TSS Earnslaw which takes you to a farm where you can opt to watch a sheep-shearing demonstration, have the kids feed some farm animals (be sure to ask what’s in the animal feed in case your little ones are allergic to it), and have lunch or morning tea. The company that runs the tours (Real Journeys) were AMAZING in catering for the kids’ allergies. I e-mailed them ahead of time and also spoke to them on the day; we opted for the lunch-time menu.

Meeting point: Steamer Wharf - 88 Beach St, Queenstown 9197, New Zealand.

https://www.realjourneys.co.nz

ARROWTOWN

Another favourite place to visit was Arrowtown, which was an old mining town about 25 minutes’ drive from Queenstown itself, where you can rent bikes and explore the beautiful local scenery. Food options here were pretty good as well, despite being a small town.

GROCERY SHOPPING / SHOPPING

The grocery stores in Queenstown had quite a few gluten-free and allergy-friendly options - some that were very tasty! We got most of our allergy-friendly groceries from Fresh Choice which was a short car-ride away from our serviced apartment and also Four Square Alpine in the centre of town.

If you stay in town (or a short walk/drive to town, as we did), the main town centre in Queenstown has some great restaurants and great shopping, including some of the big brands.

WHERE TO EAT

Queenstown has plenty of great options for eating out; for restaurants we went to while we were there, check out my Queenstown restaurant reviews here.