The colourful businesswoman started seaside restaurant Fleurs Place in 2002 and it has since become a popular stop and destination in itself for visitors to the town.
Sitting in the unusually empty restaurant, its walls covered in signatures and scrawls from thousands of visitors, Ms Sullivan is acutely aware of the impact her business has had on the town.
New Zealanders are still heading there in their hundreds each day, she says.
"The restaurant has made a difference, and it’s been invasive, and I never really intended it to be invasive," she said.
"The culture’s changed."
A holidaymaker boom has also brought with it positives such as increased property values and, until recently, a steady Airbnb industry.
Since the restaurant reopened after lockdown, she had noticed a change in customers’ priorities, Ms Sullivan said.
"[Customers are] aware of the economy, but it’s not their primary concern ... It used to be health, wealth and wellbeing, but their wellbeing is everything to them.
"Whatever our life might change to ... we all know it will be different — everyone’s pretty happy."
If New Zealanders "have got all that money they saved in lockdown and they do all travel in New Zealand, the industry will be fine".
She’s definitely happy with the way the outbreak has been handled so far.
"I think we’re being led really well. The major thing for me was the wage subsidy. If we hadn’t got a wage subsidy, for every industry, we would be in tatters.
"But we’ve got the subsidy to allow us to breath and think positively, and tweak things and change direction.
She’d be "bitterly, bitterly disappointed" if Labour didn’t win re-election, she said.
"What I find from listening to people, Labour is the one they trust."
