Lindis Pass - New Zealand's most beautiful drive..?

And hiking Double Peak Mountain.

Elevation: 1323 meters, 4340 ft
Hiking time 45-60 minutes
Elevation gain: 352 meters, 1154 ft

Lindis Pass mountains. The mountains behind LIndis Pass that you want to hike for a better view. — Looking up towards the peak.

Lindis Pass, the most beautiful drive in New Zealand? That is a huge call I know and while it is highly arguable in terms of photos I feel like we got the best photos of our entire trip while driving this short section of road.

Lindas Pass is one of those incredibly beautiful places that requires very little effort to enjoy. When you’re looking up things to do in New Zealand, especially if you’re looking on Instagram it is highly likely you will see photos of the famed Lindis Pass. The landscape is beautiful and incredibly unique, with its snow tussock grassland and its steep peaks, often snow-covered sticking straight into the air.

The view is magical from the side of the road but, due to a few factors, one being we didn’t have a wide enough lens to actually get the photo we wanted, we started climbing towards the top of Double Peak mountain aka the closest mountain to the carpark to try and get a view. What we saw when we reached the top though completely blew our minds.

You’re obviously looking for hikes so check out this list of some of the best hikes in New Zealand.

At no extra cost to you, some of the links in this article are affiliate links and by using them Sara and I receive a small commission. This goes towards helping us continue to explore and write articles like this. 😁

The view looking down from half way up the hike behind Lindis Pass — About halfway up and the steepest and most slippery section of the hike.

Lindis Pass to Queenstown

Lindis Pass is an amazing little stop that most people visit on their way between Queenstown to Mt Cook or Wanaka to Lake Tekapo, the exact same drive basically.

Driving from Lindis Pass to Queenstown or Queenstown to Lindis Pass is actually a fairly short drive, so even if you don’t have plans to make it to Mt Cook it is still an awesome little day or half-day trip from Queenstown.

To get there all you need to do is take highway 8 out of Queenstown heading NE, follow that road and after an hour and a half of driving(this does not include pulling over for photos) you will arrive there and the parking lot for Lindis Pass will be on your right.

The track for the hike is almost directly south from the pin.

Getting there from Mt Cook

Driving from Mt Cook or Lake Tekapo to Lindis Pass is about the same process, you head south from Mt Cook on the 80 until you hit Highway 8 and continue south from there until you reach the parking lot on your left. The drive again is only an hour and a half. I will say at this time that it took us 3 days to drive from Queenstown to Mt Cook because we stopped so many times.
From Lake Tekapo, you literally just follow the 8 south and you will arrive in an hour and a half and the parking lot will again be on your left.

Lindis Pass Summit Scenic Lookout

So the drive was incredible, there are so many things to see and do along the way but for us, the highlight of the whole drive was hiking to the top of Double Peak Mountain. I cannot be 100% positive of the name, but after looking at the topographic maps of New Zealand it seems to be the logical conclusion.

The hike starts directly from the car park, you will need to pass through a little bit of fencing to get to the trail but from there you follow the trail on your left up the first hill, from here you want to follow the ridgeline to your right, after a few more minutes of this you will get to a steep section of the hill where it is a lot of loose rocks and becomes more of a scramble. This section took about another 5 or 10 minutes.

Once you reach the top of this hill you will have a fairly incredible view over Lindis Peak. I would recommend going further though. If you decide to hike for another 10 to 15 minutes you will reach another lookout looking the opposite direction to the lookout for Lindis Pass. The views here are almost as incredible and if it was not for Lindis Pass itself I fell this would be a far more popular destination and hie along this road.

Lindis Pass and Double Peak Mountain lookout. — Sara on the top of Double Peak.

How High is Lindis Pass

Lindis Pass itself sits at 971 meters above sea level. Double Peak, however, sits at 1323 meters so that is an elevation gain of 352 meters. Which is not that crazy, but it is also not to be laughed at. If you have not been hitting the stair master as much as you should have been.

Where to stay close to Lindis Pass

So Queenstown is probably the most popular tourist destination in all of New Zealand and as a result, there is a huge range of places to stay at however here are a few recommendations anyway.

Sir Cedrics Tahuna Pod Hostel was a pretty amazing hostel. One thing for me is the fact that Sara and I travel as a couple and often we are on a budget so most of the time the only option for sleeping in the same bed is if we get a private room however Tahuna Pod Hostel offers dorms with double beds and still a maximum amount of privacy because everyone sleeps in their own pod.

Adventure Queenstown Hostel is located in the center of Queenstown and is by far the highest-rated hostel in the area. Dorms and private rooms are pretty standard but the common areas and vibe of the whole place is incredible so if you’re looking for a super fun time this might be for you.

The Rees Hotel & Luxury Apartments is not for budget travelers but if you’re not on a budget then maybe you want to check this place out, it has some breathtaking views and is rated 9/10 after over 1500 reviews which means they must be doing something right.

The view from Double Peak Mountain looking away from Lindis Peak — This is the view looking away from the car park at the top of Double Peak mountain.

If you’re coming from Mt Cook or Heading to Mt Cook you might want to check out a few of these places.

YHA Mount Cook While not really that cheap for a hostel it is in an amazing location and with not that many budget options in the area this is one of your best bets for staying at Mt Cook on a budget.

Overall

Overall driving through Lindis Pass in Winter was incredible. The hike was an incredibly delightful little hike and for the amount of effort. It was probably some of the most incredible views we had in New Zealand also.

This hike is fairly easy although there are a few sections that are quite steep. When we did it in winter there were a few sections that were a little icy and we really needed to watch our footing but most of it was just steep walking over fairly easy terrain.

As you can see from the photos though I am sure that you will agree with the effort of straying a little further from the car park was completely worth the reward! Not only this we saw a few dozen people below us hike up to the top of the first little peak but no one seemed to dare to venture further.

What Camera Gear We Use.

Digital Camera: Sony A7riii
Drone: Mavic Pro 2
Landscape Lens: Sony 16-35mm F2.8
GoPro: GoPro Hero 7 Black Would upgrade to Hero 8 Black though
Favorite Lens: Sony 24-70mm F4
Circular Polarizer: Hoya Digital PRO1
Power Bank: Anker PowerCore 20100 (A little heavy but amazing especially for multiday adventures)
Tripod: Vanguard VEO 2 265AB

Tips on how to hike sustainably

We try and push this every hiking article and this is something we think about every time we go anywhere and it ranges from things as simple as buying a banana and making a sandwich instead of buying plastic-wrapped products to buying clothing from companies that support sustainable business practices. The practices don’t always apply especially on hikes this short and close to a car park but they are good practices to pick up on for spending time outside also.

Here are a few little tips to help you hike more sustainably.

If you travel and hike often one of the things I would suggest investing in is a Water bladder. Osprey makes a nice series of them that range from 1.5 liters to 3 liters. I use one of these every hike unless it is below negative 5 then the water tends to get really cold and or freeze. The benefit for me is that as you drink the packaging gets smaller and you end up with more room in your pack for a jacket or something else you might take off later and you never actually have to take your bag off to get a drink, just hang the straw over your shoulder and drink as you see fit.

A reusable non-plastic water bottle is also something that will cut a crazy amount of plastic waste out of your life. Hydro Flask is one super popular company and they make a massive range of sizes and shapes.

Food, food is almost always wrapped in plastic when you buy it but this has been a surprisingly easy one to get around. It may be a little harder if you are backpacking but we’re traveling in our van so we have a small kitchen. We have started to make everything and package it in reusable containers that we just take on the next hike. Sara has been perfecting making these protein balls that are a mix of oats, peanut butter, cranberries, almonds and whatever else we have lying around. Also fruit! But if you buy fruit do not throw the peel along the track. These things can take forever to break down especially if they are not regional fruits and no one really wants to see someone’s old orange or banana peel lying around on the track.