Iron Blow Lookout

On top of Gormanston Hill on the Lyell Hwy, just before the final descent along hairpin bends west into Queenstown, is a sealed side road leading 900m to an utterly spectacular lookout over the geological wound of Iron Blow. This awesomely deep decommissioned open-cut mine, where Queenstown’s illustrious mining career began, is now filled with emerald water. You can get an eagle’s-eye view from the ‘springboard’ walkway projecting out into thin air above the mine pit.