Queenstown's steamship still runs on coal, not diesel

The TSS Earnslaw was built in Dunedin, then disassembled and shipped by rail to Kingston at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu, where she was riveted back together and launched in 1912. Nicknamed the 'Lady of the Lake,' she was originally built to carry supplies and passengers to remote sheep stations before roads existed around the lake, and remarkably she still burns coal today rather than having been converted to diesel like almost every other vessel of her era.

Crew still hand-shovel coal into her boilers throughout the journey, and visitors can walk down into the engine room to watch the century-old machinery at work — a rare, living piece of industrial heritage rather than a museum piece. She now carries tourists across the lake to Walter Peak High Country Farm year-round, weather permitting.

For visitors, the Earnslaw is a genuine time-machine experience: the same coal-fired engines, the same brass fittings, and largely the same route that supplied Wakatipu Basin farms over a century ago.

**Q: How old is the TSS Earnslaw steamship in Queenstown?** A: The TSS Earnslaw was launched in 1912, making it over 110 years old, and it remains one of the few coal-fired passenger steamships still operating commercially in the Southern Hemisphere.

**Q: Can you go inside the engine room on the Earnslaw?** A: Yes, passengers can descend into the engine room to see the original steam engines running and watch crew shovelling coal into the boilers during the roughly hour-long crossing of Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Farm.