Since the beginning of February, residents have gone about their business and rarely batted an eyelid when a shop or street corner was colonised by dozens of people and film equipment, or when the Ballarat St car park and Glenorchy Town Hall were occasionally turned into their unit base.
Location filming for the international six-part television mini-series ended last week after "a very long shoot, a lot of hard and very rewarding work", producer Philippa Campbell, of Auckland-based Escapade Pictures, told the Queenstown Times.
The shoot wrapped the previous Thursday and the production base constructed at the end of November was being taken down.
Top of the Lake has moved into post-production in Sydney until the end of the year.
"I think everyone deserves a pat on the back for being involved in the project, from our supporters in the community right through to the crew and the cast," Ms Campbell said.
"From what I have seen of the material in rushes, it's going to be a very, very distinctive and exciting piece of television."
The project stars three-time Emmy-nominated actress Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, On the Road) and Holly Hunter, who won an Academy award for best actress in The Piano, which was directed by the driving force behind Top of the Lake, Jane Campion.
There were 97 characters in the series. The cast included Bafta nominee Peter Mullan (War Horse, Trainspotting), AFI award-winning actor David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Australia), Jacek Koman (Defiance, Moulin Rouge), Matt Whelan (Go Girls, The Most Fun You Can Have Dying) and Cohen Holloway (Good for Nothing).
Lucy Lawless (Spartacus, Xena: Warrior Princess) and Robyn Malcolm (Outrageous Fortune, Shortland Street) have guest roles.
A daily contingent of about 65 cast and crew ballooned to 200 people when extras were involved, Ms Campbell said.
"When you are on a location shoot, that's one of the real pleasures of it. One of the extraordinary pleasures of working in the Wakatipu Basin for all of us has been the fact we have been working in some of the most spectacular scenery in the country.
"It's just such a joy to be in the Dart Valley, or in the Rees Valley, or Skipper's Canyon.
"Towards the end of the shoot we had a night in Glenorchy where, yet again, we had to get some of our actors wet in the lake, which is quite cold, and we were standing around on this little delta, there was not a breath of wind and there was a bit of snow on the mountains - it doesn't get much better."
Mrs Campbell said Hunter knew New Zealand quite well by working on The Piano and travelled through the South Island she loved.
"She also revelled in the opportunity to get in touch with the wilderness of New Zealand in a very special way."
The film-makers worked with the support of the Queenstown Lakes District Council, Queenstown-based Film Otago Southland, the Department of Conservation and private landowners.
Cast and crew gave each other tips on where to go for adventure activities, massages, spas, bars, restaurants and wine on their days off and brought family members to Queenstown to join them.
The company worked in and out of Queenstown, using a real cafe, souvenir shop and streets, as well as Glenorchy. A set near Moke Lake, off the Glenorchy-Queenstown road, was built.
Asked if Queenstown starred as itself in the show, Ms Campbell said yes, but it was not a social-realist documentary of the resort.
"It's a piece of fictional storytelling and our little village in our story is called Lake Top.
It's heightened, yet very real in its own terms. It's something that has come out of Jane and Gerry's [Lee, co-writers] imagination, inspired by the area and by their life experiences.
"This landscape provided a really extraordinary crucible for the story to take place."
Coming attraction
Top of the Lake is expected to premiere on BBC Two in January 2013.
An airing on New Zealand television was likely afterwards, but it was too early to say if the first screening would be held in Queenstown, producer Philippa Campbell said.
The programme was described by BBC Worldwide as a "powerful and haunting mystery about the search for happiness in a paradise where honest work is hard to find.
"Set in the remote mountains of New Zealand, the story follows the disappearance of a five months pregnant 12-year-old named Tui who was last seen standing chest deep in a frozen lake. In this classic mythic struggle, investigating detective Robin Griffin (Elizabeth Moss) must lose herself in order to find the missing girl.
"During the investigation, she collides with Matt Mitcham (Peter Mullan), Tui's father, a local drug lord, and G.J. (Holly Hunter), a guru at a local women's camp.
"Robin will find this the case that tests her limits and sends her on a journey of self-discovery."
