Changes ‘astounding’ in Queenstown
Ihave just experienced a headshaking, breath-taking, enlightening and somewhat frightening few days. The saying ‘‘Don’t leave home till you’ve seen the country’’ is a good message as it’s so easy to settle comfortably in our own space and be unaware of the rest of New Zealand.
A friend’s wedding was the reason I went back to Queenstown. When I guided for a season on the Routeburn track over 30 years ago it was certainly a holiday destination, but still had a small town feel. The changes are astounding.
The roads branch further leading off the many roundabouts to streets, schools, shops and suburbs spreading over valleys and terraces. They were paddocks a few years ago.
Shopping centres have sprouted and more are still germinating with cranes, scaffolding and building sites. Garrisons of vines line up on hillsides as wineries expand. Fleets of buses of all sizes, vans, and cars travel the narrow roads then try to find parks, which are scarce enough for their numbers.
In the air an assortment of craft constantly passes as passenger flights, sightseeing planes and helicopters fly over back and forth and parachutes fall downwards. On the water jet boats roar and donut, the steamer steams, jetskis buzz, various vessels noisily tow skiers, kites, paragliders, and wetsuited people flying on water jets.
People still enjoy the beaches and kayakers quietly paddle by. A hitch-hiker accidently left a Guide to NZ book in my car which I read with interest. Queenstown promoters would have been disappointed at the recommendation that the best thing to do there was buy a loaf of bread, sit by the lake, admire the beautiful scenery and feed the ducks. The town would be a lot calmer, and wildlife a lot fatter.
Farming is expected to become ‘‘sustainable’’ and we are under pressure with changing expectations and the demands of the public to manage resources sustainably. Waterways, runoff, soils, stock welfare, fertiliser use, effluent disposal are all under scrutiny.
I wonder how those measures apply to a place like Queenstown and how continually increasing tourism impacts our ‘‘clean and green image’’. Admittedly, I was one extra added to many visitors.
At Easter I will be a tourist in Auckland which no doubt will be even more eye opening as I haven’t been there for decades either. Travellers obviously travel, which involves planes, cars, buses, helicopters, boats and jets to first get to our country. All consume fuel, most of it non-renewable fossil variety. Not to mention biosecurity issues of thousands of tourists moving through airports.
Large mobile populations create rubbish and effluent to dispose of. Bigger building footprint demands resources and changes landscapes. Acres of tarseal and concrete create storm water runoff. Plus there are social sustainability issues with the high price of housing and rents compounded often by lower paying jobs in the service industry.
Perusing the local paper, Mountain Scene, was interesting with letters to the editor from residents concerned that the town had reached ‘‘peak tourist’’ and asking for consideration how to protect the goose that is still laying golden eggs.
The best part of a holiday for me is coming home again ... back to our green hills with only mobs of sheep and cows instead of people.
That’s Rural NZ, just like Queenstown was not long ago.
Joyce Wyllie lives on a sheep and beef farm at Kaihoka, on the west coast of Golden Bay.