Otago Regional Council

By MATTHEW MCKEW Limited opportunities for tour bus drivers could prove just the ticket for Orbus contractor Ritchies. Although fully staffed right now, there’s been a history of driver shortages for the $2 flat-fare public service across the Whakatipu basin. In 2019,...

By GUY WILLIAMS A masterplanned 12-section residential subdivision proposed for a Ladies Mile site has received a unanimous thumbs-down from affected parties. The unnamed proposal was lodged by Queenstown Commercial Ltd in October for the roughly one-hectare site, which backs on...

By PHILIP CHANDLER Queenstown rural landowners are on high alert over arsenic poisoning in their drinking water. Regional medical officer of health Susan Jack last month warned about 200 householders not to drink their bore water till it’s tested, as ‘‘elevated...

By GUY WILLIAMS As Rachel Hunter might say, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. That’s the word from the Otago Regional Council, which tells Mountain Scene the long-awaited trial of a subsidised ferry service on Lake Whakatipu will happen,...

By PHILIP CHANDLER Highly-respected Ngai Tahu elder Sir Tipene O’Regan says it’s time Queenstowners put an ‘h’ in ‘Wakatipu’. ‘Whakatipu’ is the undisputed traditional Maori spelling, however ‘Wakatipu’ has been employed since early European days and pops up in everything from...

By GUY WILLIAMS Queenstown's Tourism Workforce Alliance has reached the end of the road, with no immediate prospect of more work in the offing. Since June, the group involved about 50 tourism workers, who had lost their jobs or were on...

By PHILIP CHANDLER Otago Regional Council’s investigating a major sewage spill into Lake Wakatipu last Friday. It’s believed tens of thousands of litres of raw, untreated sewage poured into the lake after a bung ‘‘let go’’ in a pipeline above the Frankton...

LAST week I moved to Fernhill, and the walk from Mountain Scene HQ to my new home’s been a perfect reminder of why I left London. Long gone are the smelly, hot days of the tube and now, thankfully, so...

By TRACEY ROXBURGH While it could be a decade before a new two-lane bridge’s built at Arthurs Point, a group of transport and council boffins hope another bridge, just for cyclists and pedestrians, will be in place much sooner. The Way to...

By TRACEY ROXBURGH While Otago Regional Council’s started ‘‘flood resilience’’ work in Glenorchy, the town’s community association chair says there’s more to be done. ORC’s carrying out vegetation clearance and channel realignment to improve drainage from Lagoon Creek and the Rees...

By GUY WILLIAMS Jon Mitchell is that rare thing in Queenstown these days — a bona fide local. The Labour Party candidate for Southland was born in the former maternity hospital in Sydney Street, and spent his early childhood in an...

By MATTHEW MCKEW Plans to increase housing in Ladies Mile and Frankton by up to 4000 units rely on Kiwis ditching cars in favour of bus and ferry networks. That’s according to the growing list of consultant-produced and council-commissioned plans for...