A Queenstown film technician has dismissed criticisms of the Government's $34 million tax write-off deal with The Hobbit producers Warner Brothers, saying the bargain has made New Zealand's film industry "stronger than ever".
From Monday Queenstown drivers will have fewer options for free parking as Queenstown Lakes District Council looks to slash its $1.1 million parking debt and encourage tourists and shoppers into the CBD.
Under the impromptu banner "Queenstown for Peter Jackson", about 20 film, tourism and theatre lobbyists gathered on the resort's village green yesterday to rally support to keep threatened multimillion-dollar production The Hobbit in New Zealand.
Dunedin businessman Sir Clifford Skeggs' bid for a Queenstown-Mt Nicholas boat link has been welcomed as "complementary" by the developers of the proposed $150 million FiordlandLink Experience, which plans to chart a similar course across Lake Wakatipu and on to the Von Valley.
Dunedin businessman Sir Clifford Skeggs wants to "open up" Lake Wakatipu's tourism potential with daily boat trips to Mt Nicholas Station offering cycling to the Von Valley and Mavora Lakes .
The first submission supporting brothels in Queenstown and Wanaka suggests Frankton's industrial zone as the ideal site for brothels, as it would keep them "away from the tourists and public eye."
Queenstown farmer Peter Davenport is angry that an unidentified speeding driver "didn't have the decency to stop" after killing two of his sheep and maiming two others in a hit-and-run incident last Saturday.
A "family-flavoured" proposal for a four-block rural residential development at "the Triangle", Speargrass Flat, was heard by a Queenstown Lakes District Council resource consent commission recently.
Roughly 70 cyclists, runners and walkers braved blustery conditions yesterday morning to take part in the Queenstown Hill/Te Tapanui Challenge to raise money for the Branches Charitable Trust, which helps keep costs down for Wakatipu High School's annual year 10 camp at Skippers Canyon.
Queenstown's newest primary school was swamped with prospective parents and pupils yesterday - all there to glimpse the future of education.
A torch symbolically lit in New York in April arrived in Queenstown via Wanaka on Saturday as World Harmony runners travelled en route from Christchurch to Dunedin offering hope for a more peaceful world.
Le Sud, which played at Queenstown Memorial Theatre on Saturday night, is a lucid, uproarious lampoon of Kiwi culture.
Vodafone New Zealand says customer demand for increased cellphone coverage at Glenorchy prompted its application for resource consents to build communications towers at Greenstone Station Rd on Mt Nicholas on the western side of Lake Wakatipu.
In just five years, Queenstown's burgeoning tourism sector has doubled the workload of Frankton-based St John Wakatipu paramedics, who this ski season attended more than 1000 people.
Te Papa national services museum development manager Victoria Esson, Lakes District Museum director David Clarke, In Touch Design Wellington exhibition designer Juliet Cooke and Whakatane District Council arts and culture manager Wayne P.
"What seems like a bright idea at 3am after a few bevvies may not seem so bright in the cold light of day," St John Wakatipu operations team manager Alana Reid says.
The chairwoman of Queenstown's alcohol action lobby has criticised the Government for "smoothing over" recommendations on alcohol law reform and is urging the community to make submissions on the Alcohol Reform Bill at a public forum on October 20.
Five Mile developer Tony Gapes said yesterday he was "hopeful" work on the proposed $125 million Frankton Flats shopping and entertainment complex would begin in the New Year.
Wolfing down a lamb testicle, a sheep's eye and huhu grub-topped pastry was just one of many hardships endured by intrepid Queenstown pair Michelle Caron and Angela Knafl as they made their way to Auckland at the weekend, raising $7000 for charity Cure Kids.
Constable Sean Drader, intelligence analyst in Queenstown, says ski season property damage caused by tourists is not a "trend that police have noticed".
