• Auckland’s Metro magazine publishes Queenstown – Amusement Arcade in Heaven, written by a former Mountain Scene editor. Several Queenstowners write to the magazine to complain and the article also sparks a war of (unpublished) words between Mountain Scene’s publisher, who was slagged in the magazine article, and Metro editor Warwick Roger. The Scene publisher tells Roger his magazine is a "drooping organ" and the former Mountain Scene editor "a troubled man – first he lost his lover, then I fired him". Roger replies by calling the paper’s publisher "an objectionable bastard" , adding he doesn’t need "a former pest eradication and ad salesman to tell me how to do my job". (Wounds are later healed, however – Roger, widely regarded as the most influential figure in New Zealand journalism, subsequently includes minnow Mountain Scene in his Top 10 Newspapers list, see 1995.)
• Mountain Scene’s application for membership of the NZ Community Newspapers Association is accepted. CNA tells its members the paper is "a fierce champion of the people and a hard-hitting critic on important affairs".
• Beer brand Speight’s offers Mountain Scene reporters "a few trays of beer" to kill a story about a brewery blooper which saw 10 kegs consigned to Queenstown full of water instead of amber liquid. The story runs – including the rejected offer of an inducement.

Inside the timeshare lair
The year 1991 sees Mountain Scene launch the paper’s biggest campaign to date. A slick United States-led company is duping hundreds of ordinary, hardworking and unsuspecting Otago/Southland couples into buying timeshare weeks at the then-Remarkables Resort Hotel in Frankton – under false pretences.

As if high-pressure sales pitches aren’t enough, completely false promises are also thrown in – such as non-existent cheap airfares, a year-round heated pool and free drinks weekly for 40 years.

• The community-owned tennis courts on the adjacent Frankton Beach reserve were also promoted as belonging to the resort.
  
  But the two worst cons were fictitious pricing, in which purchasers were lured by ‘buy today’ prices of up to $18,000 – well above the real price of $6000-$8000 per timeshare week. timeshare week.
  
  Worse, buyers were also assured of a freehold title when all they really got was a 40-year licence to occupy.
  
  Mountain Scene first exposed the scam in a six-page special report called Timeshare Lair, the first in a continuous 14-week expose.
  
  Authorities were slow to act but the series prompts the Securities Commission to eventually ban sales activity because the promoters hadn’t issued a prospectus. The commission finally orders the timeshare touts to either refund purchasers or grant full legal title – remedies which cost the promoters about $2.5 million.
  
  The Commerce Commission also investigates but by the time conclusions are reached, the chief con artists have fled the country – only a middle-rank sales manager is charged and found guilty.
  
  1992
  
  Then-mayor David Bradford writes to Mountain Scene’s publisher saying: "I believe your pursuit of sensationalism is continuing to cause much conflict within our community, and bring Queenstown into disrepute throughout the country. I feel it is my responsibility to express what a large majority of this community feels about your newspaper."
• TV’s high-rating Holmes show follows Mountain Scene’s "cigarette sting" story, where several local retailers sell cigarettes to a 13-year-old boy and unwittingly break a relatively unpublicised new law. The paper criticises the Ministry of Health for not providing adequate information to retailers.
• Over 1000 readers sign a petition protesting at Mountain Scene coverage of a young Arrowtowner’s suicide bid while in custody – which police kept under wraps for a week. The paper holds its position but acknowledges the impact of the controversial story could have been softened.
  Mountain Scene’s 20th anniversary is celebrated in November with a garden party at the now-demolished Mountain View Lodge. Former shareholders and editors join current staff and invited residents, advertisers and newsmakers.

Telecom takes us to task
A novel milestone of 1992 is Telecom’s directory division complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about a campaign of Mountain Scene-created ads.The series of ads urge Queenstown businesses to support the local Jaycees phone directory, produced as a valuable fundraiser for Wakatipu primary schools for several years.

The telecommunications giant complains about the ads under the Decency and Denigration provisions of the Advertising Standards Code. The campaign, having run its course, ceased before a decision was handed down.