Skippers Canyon

Description

Skippers Canyon is a historic and scenic gorge, some 22 kilometres in length, several kilometres north of Queenstown, New Zealand.

Today accessed from Queenstown via the same road that leads to the Coronet Peak skifield, Skippers Canyon is carved out by the Shotover River. The Shotover, one of New Zealand's richest gold-bearing rivers, was named by William Gilbert Rees who with his wife Frances and brother-in-law Nicholas von Tunzelmann were the first European settlers in and near where Queenstown is now.

Once a busy goldmining area, Skippers Canyon was accessed by Skippers Road, which is today one of New Zealand's better known scenic roads.

The main New Zealand road where rental car insurance is not honoured, Skippers Road is mostly one-lane, narrow and steep with sheer drops of several hundred metres. In 1886, Skippers Canyon was also the first site where hydroelectricity was generated to power goldmining.