Vanessa van Uden's first meeting as the new mayor of the Queenstown Lakes district took just under 30 minutes beside a picture-perfect Lake Hayes near Arrowtown last night.
Being elected mayor of the Queenstown Lakes District Council last weekend was a dream come true for Vanessa van Uden, who talks to Tracey Roxburgh about her life and her rapid rise to the Wakatipu's top job.
Arrowtown hairdresser Rosemary Chalmers - whose business is helping her clients look and feel good about themselves, and encouraging her staff to achieve their goals, has just completed a make-over on a very special "person" - her salon.
Parents of prospective pupils at Remarkables Primary School, which officially opened in August, are invited to the school's open day this Sunday.
Reducing the Queenstown-Lakes District Council's debt - estimated to reach $400 million by 2019 - is at the top of new mayor Vanessa van Uden's priority list, she said yesterday.
A three to five-day High Court hearing about the strategic alliance between Queenstown Airport Corporation and Auckland International Airport Ltd is likely to take place next year.
About 100 possums have been caught in the Lake Hayes area over the past three weeks through an Animal Health Board exercise designed to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (Tb).
The 14th and final bridge on the Gibbston River Trail was carefully lowered into place yesterday.
At 5pm Clive Geddes will walk out of the council offices on Gorge Rd for the last time as mayor of the Queenstown Lakes district - and resume a private life which has been on the back burner for the past nine years.
The Lakes District Museum is hoping to host an international exhibition next year, but to do so the museum needs to find a sponsor.
Arrowtown resident Don Spary says the Queenstown Lakes District Council's decision this week to adopt commissioners' recommendations and create a boundary around the town would not get "to the root of the problem".
Queenstown-based actor Sam Neill has called for calm in the dispute over Sir Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and says he is "dismayed" by controversy surrounding the film.
Lakes Leisure and Alpine Health & Fitness are getting behind the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, with three special events this month.
Proposed alterations to a building within the Arrowtown town centre precinct and the construction of a commercial building will be discussed at a resource consent hearing in Queenstown next month.
Potentially dangerous wilding pines, crack willows and unstable poplar trees will be in for the chop during clean-up work at Lake Hayes and Arrowtown over the next month.
One of Queenstown's environment-conscious holiday parks has been rewarded for its efforts, becoming an "EarthCheck certified destination" after registration from the global sustainability and environmental auditors.
A nationwide biodiesel-fuelled road show, organised by the Otago Polytechnic Centre for Sustainable Practice and supported by Biodiesel New Zealand and Queenstown's Nomad Safaris and Ziptrek Ecotours, will be launched in Auckland on Saturday.
There was "a collective sigh of relief" in Arrowtown yesterday with the news independent commissioners had decided "enough is enough".
A plan change enabling Wanaka's new Industrial B Zone to come into effect was adopted by the Queenstown Lakes District Council at an extraordinary meeting in Queenstown yesterday.
The next Queenstown Lakes District Council could consider consolidating all camp facilities at the Hawea side of the Albert Town Recreation Reserve and retaining the Clutha/Mata-Au side as a day use area only.
