Queenstown - city that did not impressed much. But is spreads on nice place - waterside of Wakatipu Lake. City is the most commercial center on southern island and in new Zealand at all. You can choose from long list of sport activities. Prices are incredible high. I spent a night at large un personal camp just a few minutes walk from town centre. Nicer and cheaper camps could be find further from the centre.
Among tourist attraction belongs also TSS Earnslaw - steam boat which has been used since 1912 as a ferry across the lake.
At Queenstown was first time used bungee jumping as a commercial attraction. The idea of bungee jumping is from Vanuatu island in Pacific Ocean. "Gkol" - ritual as a rite of passage to prove their manhood. Man jump from tower circa 27 meters tall. According to the legend in the village Bunlap a man called Tamalie had a quarrel with his wife and she ran away and climbed a Banyan tree where she wrapped her ankles with liana vines. When Tamalie came up to her, the woman jumped from the tree and so did her husband not knowing what had his wife done. So he died but the woman survived. The men of Bunlap were very impressed by this performance and they began to practise such jumps. This practice transformed into a ritual for rich yam harvest and also for proving manhood.
Modern bungee jumping as we know it today actually started on the 1st of April ( Fools' Day ) 1979 when group of people from the Oxford University Dangerous Sport Club, impressed by a film about "vine jumpers", jumped from 245-Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England.