‘High country grandeur’ for sale across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Cecil Peak station includes 13,087ha of high-country pastoral lease and 329ha of freehold title land.

It’s “tough country”, much of which can only be accessed on foot or by horseback, and “completely off-grid”. But it’s also “only 10 minutes by boat” from Queenstown, with many waterways to fish in and multiple late 1800s stone buildings “waiting for restoration”.

Cecil Peak station, immediately across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, is on the market after being in Singaporean ownership for more than 30 years, and having only been owned by three parties since the mid-1800s.

Bayleys, which is marketing the station, is calling it “probably one of the most photographed properties in New Zealand” as the backdrop to many Queenstown holiday snapshots.

It was among an “elite group” of stations with “high-country grandeur” in the Wakatipu area, Bayleys said in a media release.

Cecil Peak station has multiple stone buildings dating from the 1800s that could be restored for tourists to use, Bayleys says.

Cecil Peak had a rating valuation of $33 million, and the most recent similar property sold in the area was the 18,000-hectare Halfway Bay station - sold in 2022 for an estimated $30 million-plus, Bayleys said.

Cecil Peak station included access to 13,087ha of high-country pastoral lease and 329ha of freehold title land that extended across the bulk of the station’s flat country.

The station was completely off-grid, having its own small hydroelectric station delivering power to all buildings

The station is just a 10-minute boat ride from Queenstown, Bayleys says.

“Realistically the farm operation covers its costs. There are challenges in the vast majority of the country that forms Cecil Peak, it’s tough country and much of it can only be accessed on foot or horseback,” Bayleys salesperson John Greenwood said.

“The real untapped potential for Cecil Peak lies in its tourism opportunities.”

Dozens of fallow deer were regularly culled in the station’s back country, partly to keep them off the station’s valuable grassland country.

Cecil Peak station is now operating at between 3500-5000 sheep and up to 500 cattle.

Keen fishers would find plenty of opportunity within the station’s many waterways that drained into Lake Wakatipu, the release said.

“The tourism opportunities could be developed through the restoration of the station’s multiple late 1800s stone buildings.”

The opportunity presented by Cecil Peak was a “chance to claim a unique part of what really is part of the country’s most recognised landscapes”, Greenwood said.

The property extended up two main valleys running from the edge of Lake Wakatipu, and included 23km of lake frontage and country soaring to 1978 metres high.

The pastoral lease provided a right to run 14,000 head of sheep, with the station now operating at between 3500-5000 sheep and up to 500 cattle.

Alongside the stone buildings, Cecil Peak included a farm manager’s three-bedroom home, and two homes used by staff, along with two cabins, Bayleys said.

Other facilities included woolsheds, covered sheep yards and shearers’ quarters with kitchen facilities.