Tracey Roxburgh

Conservation Minister Nick Smith is expected to make an announcement about funding to assist with the restoration of the historic Arrowtown Gaol today as part of a visit to the resort.

Consultants are warning the Queenstown Lakes District Council against pruning costs to the point where its proposed convention centre becomes ''a box''.

Fine, warm weather greeted the thousands of people who lined the Queenstown CBD today to take in the action from the Golden Mile and the annual Street Parade, part of the 2014 Queenstown Winter Festival.

Tomorrow's decision by Queenstown Lakes district councillors on a proposed convention centre at Lakeview will not be ''an irreversible commitment'', chief executive Adam Feeley says.

It has taken three years, 10 reports and more than $500,000, but on Thursday the Queenstown Lakes District Council will be asked to approve a recommendation it forge ahead with its proposed convention centre on the Lakeview site.

The 1970s made a comeback in Queenstown on Saturday morning as many dressed to impress during the Queenstown Winter Festival Golden Mile and Street Parade, enjoyed by thousands of visitors and residents.

There have been flares, platforms, afros and jive talking; thrills, spills, calamity and hilarity; shivering birdmen, bleeding runners and soaked spectators - and the best is yet to come.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has been holding public meetings about regulating the sale and supply of psychoactive substances in the district. Tracey Roxburgh talks to a former Queenstown resident about his struggle with the products.

There was action aplenty at Queenstown Bay on Saturday as thousands of people lined the shoreline to watch Queenstown Winter Festival's Day on the Bay.

Thrills, spills, mid-winter swims, splashes, dashes, sprints, hilarity and organised chaos have been par for the course over the past two days, during the Queenstown Winter Festival.

Queenstown police were kept busy over the weekend with drink-drivers and intoxicated people celebrating the Queenstown Winter Festival.

About 45,000 people will inject an estimated $57 million into the Queenstown economy over the next 10 days during the 2014 Queenstown Winter Festival, which opened with a bang last night.

The 2014 Queenstown Winter Festival started last night with a spectacular fireworks display. The $1 million event will draw an estimated 45,000 people and inject about $57 million into the local economy - a far cry from 1975, when the festival was run on $1500 and targeted 5000 local residents who had nothing to do in winter, Tracey Roxburgh reports.

It was not unrealistic that within 40 years Queenstown would be an alpine city with a resident population of up to 65,000, attracting up to 7.5 million visitors a year, primarily from China, former Queenstown Lakes mayor Clive Geddes said yesterday.

Woollen hats, gloves, blankets and hot drinks were not enough to keep the hosts of Australian breakfast show Sunrise warm yesterday morning as they broadcast live from Queenstown Bay.

Queenstown developer Alastair Porter says his company, Remarkables Park Ltd (RPL), has the money to fund a proposed conference centre at Frankton, the company believing it to be the ''optimal site'' and the proposal the one which would deliver the ''greatest economic value to the district''.