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M.V.Yvalda is a beautiful, 48 foot classic twin screw, ketch rigged motor launch, designed by GL Watson, and built in Scotland in 1936 by the renowned boat builders McGruer and Co.

She is a solid, wooden boat of teak and oak and powered by her original Gardner engines. She has spacious decks and wheelhouse, and a cosy comfortable saloon.

Built for a Scottish gentleman, Yvalda was once owned by the British Royal Navy and used by Sir Winston Churchill during World War Two.

Lion (kauri planking over kauri/kowhai ribs) was built in 1912 by Dunedin’s James McPherson for Queenstown’s Hugh MacKenzie – one of the region’s most innovative farmers – for getting around Lake Wakatipu.

MacKenzie ran sheep on the nearby Walter Peak, Fernhill and Mt Nicholas stations and, among other duties, the boat would carry supplies/materials between these outposts and Queenstown. 

She was fitted with a three-cylinder, 21hp Clifton engine and her canoe-stern hull was designed for the lake’s choppy and unpredictable waters.

Meteor III was brought to Queenstown from England by pioneering tourism operator Frank Howarth in 1966. 

The 10m boat carries 17 passengers, has a top speed of 70kmh, cruises at 55kmh and is renowned for its smooth ride on the water.

Meteor III was one of the first tourist boats operating on the lake and carried 19,600 passengers in its first year of service. The distinctive hydrofoil craft cruised Lake Wakatipu until the 1990s.