Eely Point Reserve
Wānaka · Otago
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. Queenstown Lakes District Council’s own wording: “Queenstown Lakes District Council, Dog Control Bylaw 2020, clause 5(1): "All Reserves are designated as dog exercise areas except -" followed by seven named sites, all of them in Queenstown (Earnslaw Park, Marine Parade, Marine Parade Reserve, Matakauri Park, Queenstown Bay, Queenstown Gardens, Queenstown Hill Reserve and Queenstown Hill Walkway). Eely Point Recreation Reserve is not among them, so it is a dog exercise area and dogs may be off lead. Off lead is not no rules: clause 4(4) requires the owner to "keep that dog under effective control by voice, or signal while that dog is in any public place" and to "immediately leash and bring the dog under control if the dog causes a nuisance to any person or animal". Watch the northern boundary. Clause 5(2) says "Bremner Bay is not designated as a dog exercise area", and the bylaw defines Bremner Bay as "that land from the Eely Point Reserve entrance road along to the northern side of 42 Aubrey Road, Wanaka, between GPS co-ordinates -44.680472, 169.124004 to -44.679193, 169.125449". That line begins at this reserve's entrance road and runs away north-east, so Eely Point is off lead and the bay next door is on lead. Note the bylaw passed its five-year review date on 25 June 2025 and must be replaced before 4 June 2027, and the council's June 2026 options report records submitters asking for more on-lead rules on busy trails, so this is correct today and under active review”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Eely Point Reserve
Eely Point Reserve is a short walk of 1.1 km, near Wānaka in Otago.
A flat lakefront kilometre on the Wānaka side of the lake, running from the Eely Point reserve entrance out along the water to the marina end. Gravel the whole way, no climbing, and the lake is beside you for most of it. It is an out and back unless you loop home on Eely Point Access road, so call it 2.2 km all up. Inge, who sent this one in, said the trees are the reason to come here in summer, and she is right in a way we could actually check: QLDC's own tree layer records 257 trees in this reserve and 112 of them are logged as very large, over 20 m. That is real shade on a hot Central Otago afternoon, which is not something every lakefront walk can offer. She also said to keep dogs on a lead because it is a popular bike track, and this is where we have to split the difference honestly. The bylaw does not require a lead here. Every reserve in the district is a dog exercise area unless the bylaw names it, and it names seven, all of them in Queenstown. So Eely Point is off lead as a matter of law. But Inge's point stands as advice: QLDC records this as a shared cycle path, and the council's own report on the reserve describes the unsealed road as used by vehicles and pedestrians with no separate cycle facility around the end of the point, creating conflict between user groups. A recall that works, or a lead when you can hear wheels, is the difference between a good morning and a bad one. One boundary is worth knowing before you go, because there is nothing on the ground to show it. Bremner Bay, immediately north-east, is specifically excluded from the off lead rule, and the bylaw draws its line at this reserve's own entrance road. Walk south-east along the water and you are in a dog exercise area. Carry on north-east past the entrance and you are on lead. Same lakefront, same gravel, different rule.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 17 m, and takes about 14 min to walk.
Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
