It has been a year since Steve Hall was appointed Wakatipu High School principal after former principal Lyn Cooper resigned, was reinstated, then resigned again.
Mr Hall gave a stark account of what living in Queenstown meant for some pupils.
Mr Hall was the guest speaker at the Queenstown Citizens Advice Bureau's annual meeting.
In the 1990s, he was head of department for outdoor recreation at Wakatipu High School, year 11 dean and taught English and economics before leaving the resort.
Back then, Queenstown had party-town issues, he said.
''This is not just now, this has been going on forever.''
The easy access to drugs ''exists for kids in our school as it exists to others in the community''.
''We get kids who are sent here to relatives ... we have kids who go AWOL for whole weekends - and I'm talking about 13-year-olds.
''Some of them lead huge lives and really, really big stuff goes on for them.''
To counter this, the school has put ''a really big focus'' on NCEA level 2, especially for boys, as research has shown the longer males stay in education the better their outcomes in life will be, including health.
There was also a focus on Maori and Pasifika pupils and children of temporary migrants.
The diversity of life in Queenstown means while some pupils spend parts of the year skiing, the school buys shoes for their classmates whose parents are struggling financially.
''We definitely have some parents of considerable means ... and we really have the opposite. We have families here who might be working on close to the minimum wage, paying Queenstown prices.''
''There is no money to buy a $30 polo shirt. We buy kids [a] uniform.''
At the other end of the scale ''we have not said anything about bringing a device [electronic] but if you walk into a senior classroom, about 80%-100% of the kids have got a device''.
He said the high decile school needed as much revenue as it could get just to run the school well, and this included asking families to pay the school donation, ''but we know that for some families this is a genuine issue''.
''This year, we have encouraged those families to engage with us. Sometimes the kids do it on the family's behalf.''
Wakatipu Youth Trust team leader Poppie Gerber said the Queenstown youth community faced challenges and the trust was there to support and advocate.
''We fully support Wakatipu High School and their desire to find solutions to the challenges they face.
"There are a number of specialist agencies in the community that are dedicated towards helping youth and by working together we can foster strengths and positive attitudes to address those challenges that affect our youth and create lasting change.''
