At a function on Friday, trust chairman Terry Stevens said the "hard part" was coming to an end and it was fitting the first part of "phase two" - the celebrations - honoured those who had made the trail network possible.
"Without the landowners, none of this would have happened. It's particularly important to honour you tonight."
Deputy prime minister and Clutha-Southland MP Bill English recalled the moment Prime Minister John Key had a "rush of blood to the head" and raised the idea of the New Zealand Cycle Trail project.
"[It was at an] employment summit ... I'd spent a bit of time with the Prime Minister making sure he was sticking to the script ... he went out and on the spot made up this idea.
"He did create this sense that actually it needed to happen, as he has explained to me many times, starting that day.
"My role was very simply to spend about a month fighting the whole thing, because it was $50 million when we were going down the toilet.
"He won and I lost."
Despite his initial trepidation, Mr English said he felt "a real personal satisfaction" seeing the Queenstown Trail nearing completion in his electorate and acknowledged the generosity of the landowners who, by granting easements over their land, had enabled an asset to be created for the community at large.
"There's a real tendency for some people to want to give away what other people have ... often, people who want to improve our environment ...
it's a majority saying 'we want a minority to give something up so the community can be better off'.
"Often, those who are most vociferous in advocating it are those who aren't giving up anything.
"That's why it [the Queenstown Trail] is so special.
"Thinking of the landowners ... they are the people who have given something up."
Mr English said it was appropriate to acknowledge what he described as a "very rare occasion" - landowners giving up their clear ownership and allowing public on their land in the interests of helping the trust realise its dream.
"We owe a real debt of gratitude to the people who have made that possible.
"That real generosity of giving up something ... puts a responsibility on the rest of the community to make sure that that generosity is respected - as people pass along those trails they respect the ...
generosity of the landowners who enabled it to happen."
Trust chief executive Kaye Parker said because of the landowners the community had a Queenstown Trail "as none of us have ever experienced it before".
"It's absolutely wonderful.
"We've got the trail going over the most picturesque parts of the Wakatipu ... it's because of you."
Included in the trail network, which traverses more than 110km, are bridges and tunnels, picnic and fishing spots, cafes, three international golf courses and tourism attractions.
It connects central Queenstown, Arrowtown and Gibbston, crosses the Shotover, Kawarau and Arrow Rivers and includes Lake Wakatipu and Lake Hayes.
Eight bridges, of which five were newly constructed, are included on the trail, as well as a tunnel beneath State Highway 6.
"We believe the Queenstown Trail will be an important catalyst for tourism and economic development in the area," Mrs Parker said.
"The opportunities it offers are outstanding and Queenstown is expected to become a biking Mecca for both locals and visitors."
To mark their generosity the trust would erect a "Wall of Recognition" on the trail, listing every landowner who had granted an easement to the trust.
"The landowners are going to be there forever.
"You are the people who allowed it to happen. Forever your names are going to be recognised by this community for the wonderful thing you have given us."
The $5.4 million Queenstown Trail is due to be officially opened on October 18 and is a joint initiative of the trust, the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the NZCT, funding by national and local government, community trusts, private sponsorship and community fundraising.
Mrs Parker said the trust was now raising the final $195,000 required to complete the trail. It hoped to achieve the target by the official opening.
