Christina McDonald

Easy access to ''quite serious drugs'' means Queenstown children, some as young as 13, are going on weekend benders.

Maintaining the single-lane Kawarau Falls Bridge so cyclists, pedestrians and utility services can continue using it once the new bridge is built could cost $50,000 annually and the Queenstown Lakes District Council could be responsible if it decides to take ownership.

Help and advice continues to be provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau Queenstown, with 4827 inquiries in the past year, ranging from helping a visitor locate a shop which sold fluro ankle socks, to volunteers spending an hour listening to someone with suicidal feelings.

People living in cabins with cheap rents are nervous about where they will find similar priced accommodation in Queenstown if a convention centre is built on the land the cabins occupy above the resort.

The arrival of Queenstown's only competition standard pool table has heightened the hopes of a group of Queenstown pool players ahead of a national tournament.

What do the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics and the Arrowtown Autumn Festival have in common?

Ticket sales for this year's Gay Ski Week are up 50% on this time last year, co-organiser Sally Whitewoods says, and, with New Zealand's first gay weddings held last week, ''quite a few weddings'' are expected to be held during the annual celebration.

The third biennial Winter Games ended last night and event chief executive Arthur Klap says he was proud to have delivered 19 of the 20 scheduled events.

The wind picked up and Sir Clifford Skeggs nervously remarked ''we should have another boat here'' to help shelter the airborne catamaran.

Even with a huge truck, 16 men and perfect conditions, Spirit of Queenstown did not quite make it from Bluff to Kingston yesterday.

A family of four from Hong Kong were lucky their rental van did not roll further than 40m down a gully after it came off the Remarkables access road yesterday, and rolled ''several times'', ripping a door off.

At least eight months after popular nightclub Subculture's mysterious demise, a new venture will open within the next week in the underground Church St venue.

Arrowtown's newly re-elected second-term councillor Lex Perkins is ''more than grateful'' to again represent the village, but says the lack of opposition is ''one of those awkward situations''.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council is embarking on a review of its library services and one of the ''big challenges'' for the district, the council's chief executive claims, is that 80% of people do not use or regularly use the seven libraries.

The Remarkables and Coronet Peak were once again linked by a string of skiers, snowboarders, downhill cyclists, kayakers, runners and uphill cyclists in the annual Peak to Peak multisport race.

A decision about the proposed $50 million convention centre will be made by current elected representatives at the Queenstown Lakes District Council before local government elections in October.