Chris Morris

Low-cost airline Pacific Blue could soon be winging its way into Queenstown, bringing cheap fares and boosting tourism.

Developers are split over the Queenstown Lakes District Council's new affordable and community housing plan change, submissions received by the council show.

An Australian visitor of a different kind - a spiky-looking marbled scorpion - has been found hiding in Queenstown.

A glowing green object spotted blasting out of the sky over Queenstown's Lake Wakatipu early yesterday was most likely a high-flying meteor burning up in the atmosphere, an astronomer says.

Concerns about access to a planned residential development on a steep section of Potters Hill, Queenstown, have been raised during the second day of a resource consent hearing in the resort.

Glenorchy Air pilot Nathan Dale-Emberton has conceded he would be guilty of carelessness if claims he flew into a ‘‘nightmare'' of thick cloud - as his passengers said he did - while on a Milford Sound scenic flight were true.

Air senior pilot Nathan Dale-Emberton has rejected claims he carelessly flew into clouds while on a tourist flight to Milford Sound as ‘‘ludicrous''.

Twelve corporate multisport teams battled difficult terrain and demanding weather near Queenstown as part of efforts to raise $170,000 for Cure Kids this weekend, organisers say.

A last-ditch attempt to scrap the planned upgrade of the Crown Range Rd between Queenstown and Wanaka, following a $1 million price increase was defeated at a council meeting in Queenstown yesterday.

The Queenstown to Glenorchy road will need significant safety improvements to cope with dozens more tour buses and hundreds more cars and campervans each day, if a proposed train and tunnel link to Milford proceeds.

Allowing two American hunting clients to disembark from a helicopter high in mountainous terrain near Wanaka was the ‘‘biggest hazard'' leading to the death of one of them, an inquest in Queenstown has heard.

A $5 million mini-Winter Olympics attracting 700 athletes from up to 30 countries will be staged across Otago next year.

A giant crane and a handful of workers were back in action at Queenstown's $2 billion Five Mile Village development yesterday.

A small number of developers are sitting on thousands of undeveloped residential sites in Queenstown, even as a shortage of land contributes to the spiralling cost of housing in the resort, new figures show.