David Jacobs made the move down from Christchurch at Easter with his physiotherapist fiancee Meredith Henderson, and is now re-establishing his business, The Taxidermist Ltd.
With water and sewerage still out at their damaged Avonside house, Mr Jacobs saw an opening in the market to service the Wakatipu area and decided to make the move.
"It was actually in my five-year plan. We were here over Christmas and enjoyed it ... and necessity is the mother of invention ... ," Mr Jacobs said with a grin.
He said a lot of hunting and fishing taxidermy business from the area had previously gone to Christchurch with no local animal artisans and his new Frankton premises meant he was now based where "the majority of the work is".
Mr Jacobs worked part-time as a taxidermist while studying for a bachelor of forestry science degree, and after graduation travelled to North America on a Ottenheimer scholarship where he met many of his family's taxidermy friends and "fell into" the family business.
His great-grandfather John Jacobs emigrated to New Zealand from Britain, where he married Alice Susannah and with their 14 children, established taxidermy businesses in Masterton, Palmerston North, Nelson and in the late 1920s, Dunedin.
During the Great Depression, the family would travel to Hawea by horse and cart, and later, by Model T Ford to collect trophies from the "world-famous" Otago stag herd.
Later, youngest son Ray Jacobs was appointed taxidermist and head of the Canterbury Museum display department, and Ray's youngest son Terry joined his father at the museum, later becoming chief technician at the National Museum of Tanzania and starting his own business.
Mr Jacobs, a keen alpine hunter, enjoys both the "creative" aspect and the business sides of taxidermy and although his commercial premises in Christchurch were unaffected, he is looking forward to establishing a "lifestyle business".
"There's a lot of family history in the area but it's taken us a long time to come back," Mr Jacobs said.
"Part of the appeal is the lifestyle. We had five staff in Christchurch and I wanted to downsize the business a little bit, which wasn't that easy."
Still in the process of setting up, Mr Jacobs had not had a chance to work on any animals in Queenstown yet, but had noticed one particular difference to the town.
"I'm finding there's a bit more on the retail side of things, whether someone wants a stag head to go in their crib, a tahr skin for their floor or an antler chandelier, there's more of a market for that in Queenstown."
