Times are tough, but Queenstown will survive

IN 1965, Queenstown had five pubs and the Earnslaw still transported sheep from the many stations around the lake.

I moved back 20 years later to a completely different Queenstown. Buildings that were under construction in 1965 were being pulled down or converted into retail outlets.

Queenstown was booming. New restaurants opened almost weekly and investment opportunities abounded for moneyed investors from Auckland. Rents were high and businessmen bemoaned the fact that they were paying Queen St rental without the foot traffic.

Rogernomics ruled. Money was easy to borrow and the sharemarket was soaring. What could go wrong?

We found the answer to that question over the third weekend in October 1987. Wall Street crashed and tourist numbers dropped to zero. Rents, however, stayed as they were and bankruptcies became the order of the day.

Over the next year, many people departed Queenstown; those who remained, struggled.

Assistance of any kind was unavailable. There was no government wage subsidy nor any other form of financial help.

However, some businesses rolled with the punches and faced up to reality. One upmarket motel became a budget backpackers overnight and young independent travellers flocked to it.

Another wellknown hotel lowered its room rate by almost 75% to attract young backpackers. Groups even slept on trundle beds and the hotel sometimes had an occupancy rate exceeding 100% while nearby hotels barely reached 20%.

These were difficult times but Queenstown survived and came back stronger and more vibrant without handouts.

While I sympathise with the businesses operating in the Wakatipu Basin, I think they should harden up. If you can’t stand the heat, maybe the kitchen is not for you.

Les Tubman Oamaru

Diesel on roads

WE are constantly told that we must do everything for the climate emergency such as removing car parking spaces to stop the people of Dunedin being able to use their preferred mode of transport.

Pity the same doesn’t apply to the workings of the council with roading, where thousands of litres of diesel are still being sprayed on gravel roads in the suburbs like Waikouaiti to stop the clouds of dust going over the residences.

A sensible fix would be to seal the roads rather the continual spraying of diesel.

One would have thought that this type of action that continues to be standard practice for the Dunedin City Council would have ranked highly in overcoming whatever the socalled emergency is, or is this too hard to rectify so it doesn’t count?

N. MacKenzie

Waikouaiti

Councils

SOMETIMES I have cause to wonder how it is that we have allowed ourselves to come to this.

I write of two reports regarding local authorities (ODT, 26.1.21).

Firstly, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, which lavished $630,000 of contracts on a local consultancy firm.

It did so by making a series of contracts for under the $50,000 threshold that does not require public tendering.

So, according to the QLDC chief executive, everything is OK, but is it?

The second report concerned the Invercargill City Council. The comments of the councillors speak for themselves, as does having two independent observers to advise them at $900 a day.

My end conclusion is that I regard all of the above concerned people as fatuous and arrogant. I ask myself: where are all the good people?

Peter Ashby

Alexandra