Oxenbridge Tunnel Track & Morningstar Beach
Most visitors race straight to the jet boat base and never notice the short walking track that starts from the same Shotover public car park — one that leads to a forgotten piece of gold-rush engineering and a quiet river beach that feels like a secret.
A Tunnel That Never Was
The Oxenbridge Tunnel was a 19th-century miner's gamble: divert the Shotover River through a hand-cut tunnel so the exposed riverbed could be sluiced for gold. The scheme failed, and the unfinished tunnel mouth still sits in the gorge wall as a mossy monument to ambition.
A short, clearly marked return walk from the Shotover public car park brings you to a lookout over the tunnel and the river below. It takes around 30 minutes and involves almost no elevation gain — making it accessible for all fitness levels.
Morningstar Beach: Queenstown's Quietest Riverside Spot
Continue a few minutes further along the Morningstar Track and you'll reach a small sandy beach beside the Shotover River — one of the very few sandy spots in the entire Queenstown basin. Spread a towel, watch the jet boats arc past on the opposite channel, and listen to the river.
Almost nobody who isn't a local knows this beach exists. Come mid-morning on a weekday and you may well have it entirely to yourself.
Oxenbridge Tunnel Track & Morningstar Beach on video
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