Wave Passage is a hotel and entertainment resort at 31 Marine Parade, on the Queenstown waterfront. Fifty-eight rooms and suites, a restaurant, a bar, a bath house, three event spaces, and one gaming room for adults aged 20 and over.
The building opened in 1968 as a lakefront lodge of eleven units, was rebuilt over two winters and reopened in 2017 at its present size. Reception is staffed twenty-four hours. Check-in from 3pm, checkout 11am.
The lake sits at 310 m above sea level and rises and falls about twelve centimetres every twenty-seven minutes, which is where the hotel takes its name. You can watch it against the piles of the jetty from the terrace.
Rates below are the lowest published for the year and apply in May, June and September. They cover two guests, breakfast, parking on request and the bath house. Full rates, seasons and inclusions are on the rates sheet.
| Brecon Room | from NZ$239 | 15 rooms · 23 m² · Queen · sleeps 2. Our entry room. Queen bed, shower room, no lake outlook, and the lowest rate we publish. |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Room | from NZ$312 | 22 rooms · 29 m² · King, or two singles · sleeps 2. The room most guests stay in. West-facing over Queenstown Bay to Cecil Peak and Walter Peak. |
| Jetty Room | from NZ$408 | 12 rooms · 36 m² · King and a sofa bed · sleeps 3. Corner room with a 6 m² balcony, two chairs and a table that takes two dinner plates. |
| Sunshine Bay Suite | from NZ$586 | 6 rooms · 51 m² · King, sofa bed for two · sleeps 4. Two rooms and a door between them. Booked most often by families and by guests staying a week. |
| The Closeburn Suite | from NZ$925 | 3 rooms · 76 m² · King · sleeps 4. Three of them, each with an 18 m² terrace and a bath set at the window. |
Cecil & Walter takes its name from the two peaks across the water. It seats 68. Breakfast runs 6.30am to 10am and dinner 5.30pm to 9.30pm, seven days. The five-course set menu is rewritten every Tuesday around what the growers at Cromwell and the boats at Bluff have sent.
The Boatshed Bar is the smaller room off the lobby, open 11am to half past midnight. Thirty-eight Central Otago wines by the bottle, fourteen by the glass, and a short list of whisky kept for guests who come off the mountain late.
Room service runs 6.30am to 10.30pm from a shorter card. Dietary requirements go to the kitchen at the time of booking, not at the table.
One room on the ground floor, 26 gaming machines and 7 tables. Blackjack and roulette from 11am, baccarat from 6pm, and a dealer-run hold’em table Thursday to Sunday from 7pm. The Kelvin Room is the high-limit room behind the door at the back, booked through the duty manager.
The gaming room is for guests and visitors aged 20 and over. Photo identification is checked at the door every time, including for guests of the hotel and for people the staff know by name. Open 11am to 2.30am, seven days.
There are no cash machines in the gaming room or in the corridor outside it, a clock is visible from every table, and the room closes at 2.30am whether or not it is busy.
- Breakfast in Cecil & Walter, 6.30am to 10am
- The Shotover Bath House: pool, hot tubs and steam room
- Wired and wireless internet, no device limit
- Ski, board and bike storage, racked and locked
- Bags held at reception either side of your stay
- Local calls and the daily paper at the desk
- Covered parking on request, NZ$26 a night
- Laundry from four nights in a Sunshine Bay Suite
The bath house is on the lower ground floor: an 18 m salt pool, two hot tubs on the north terrace, a steam room and four treatment rooms. Open 7am to 9pm. Included for guests. Visitors pay NZ$52 a day and numbers are capped at forty.
The three event rooms are listed below with the numbers that decide whether a room works: floor area, and how many people fit in it three different ways. All three have daylight and all three are on the lake side.
| The Steamer Hall | 128 m² | 130 standing, 96 seated for dinner, 80 in rows. Ground floor, opening onto the lake terrace. Blackout blinds, a 4 m ceiling and a service corridor so the kitchen never crosses the room. |
|---|---|---|
| The Bob’s Cove Room | 54 m² | 30 in rows, 22 in a U, 16 around one table. Level 1, east light until midday. This is the room we put training days in. |
| The Moke Room | 24 m² | 12 around the table. Level 2. One table, twelve chairs, a 75-inch screen and a door that shuts on the corridor. |
Each package is a room plus something the hotel already runs. Prices are for the package, not per person per night. The other three, including the day delegate rate, are on the packages page.
Two Nights on the Bay
Two nights, two guestsTwo nights in a Marine Room with breakfast in Cecil & Walter both mornings and a return sailing on the TSS Earnslaw from Steamer Wharf, four minutes from the front door.
Bath House Break
Two nights, two guestsTwo nights with full use of The Shotover Bath House and one 55-minute treatment each, booked at the time you choose when you check in.
Dinner and a Night
One night, two guestsOne night with the five-course set menu for two in Cecil & Walter. Available Sunday to Thursday. The kitchen writes the menu every Tuesday around what the growers and the fishing boats have sent.
| Queenstown Gardens, main gate | 220 m | Three minutes on the waterfront path. The frisbee golf course is inside the gate on the left. |
|---|---|---|
| Shotover Street and the mall | 300 m | Four minutes. Supermarket, pharmacy and the bus hub are all on the same block. |
| Steamer Wharf and the TSS Earnslaw | 400 m | Five minutes along Marine Parade. The 1912 steamer sails four times a day in summer. |
| Skyline Gondola, Brecon Street | 850 m | Eleven minutes on foot, uphill for the last two. |
Host Responsibility at Wave Passage
The gaming room operates under the Gambling Act 2003 and a venue licence held with the Department of Internal Affairs. Entry is 20 and over with photo identification. Self-exclusion is arranged in writing at reception or by email to [email protected], takes about ten minutes and is confidential.
- NZ Gambling Helpline 0800 654 655, free, 24 hours
- Need to Talk? call or text 1737
- Problem Gambling Foundation 0800 664 262
- Text 8006 · choicenotchance.org.nz
How do I book a room?
Send the enquiry form on this site, phone reservations on +64 3 409 0628 between 7am and 8pm, or write to [email protected]. There is no booking engine here. A person reads every enquiry and answers with a rate and a hold on the room.
Who may enter The Earnslaw Room?
Guests and visitors aged 20 and over, with photo identification, every time. The rest of the hotel is open to all ages. Gaming happens on the premises only; there is nothing to play on this website.
