A delegation from a high school in Aspen will visit during next month's Queenstown Winter Festival in a renewal of a relationship with Wakatipu High School.
Wakatipu High School deputy principal Grant Adolph said the exchange, in which six high school pupils and two chaperones would visit for 10 days, was part of Queenstown's "sister city" relationship.
The exchange had been happening for "some time". It had not for the past three years, for various reasons, but it was planned for Wakatipu High School pupils to go to Aspen in January or February 2012 for the resort town's annual Winter X Games. Aspen, in Colorado, is high in the Rocky Mountains and is renowned worldwide as a skiing destination. Similar to Queenstown, it has a tourism-based economy with backgrounds in mining and farming.
Queenstown entered into a sister city agreement with Aspen in 1992, and sent its first delegation to visit the resort for a sister cities festival in September 1995.
The principals of the middle and high schools would also visit "and we are looking for the community to ... help us host our sister city guests in regard to the adventure tourism around the town," Mr Adolph said.
