Cooking up a storm

Wakatipu Community Church volunteers (from left) Fraser Ronald, Neil Logan, Eve Lilly, Jenny Logan and Bill Moers work in the kitchen of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, to keep the Pasta Cafe serving hundreds of free dinners on Friday night.

Lesley Malthus (right) and fellow volunteers serve some of about 200 people who tucked into spaghetti bolognese, fresh vegetables and cookies when the Queenstown cafe reopened on Friday night.

Cafe co-ordinator Jo Clark said on Saturday there were usually 100 to 150 patrons, so she and fellow Wakatipu Community Church volunteers were delighted.

''There were a lot of ski workers, a few language students and their families and a few Brazilian families, but there weren't a lot of Queenstown families, which we'd like to see more of,'' Mrs Clark said.

The cafe is open to all on Fridays from 6pm to 8pm, until August 30, in St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Stanley St, Queenstown.