Queenstown is open, accessible and ready for visitors after being hammered by heavy rain that caused mudslides and debris to flow down Bob’s Peak from the Skyline gondola on Friday 22 September 2023, prompting a state of emergency and evacuations.
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers terminated the state of emergency on Saturday 23 September after high rainfall impacted a localised area of the CBD over 24 hours.
As for the rest of the town, he told Stuff NZ: “She’s all cleaned up, she’s ready to go.”
Two ski areas have benefitted from the recent weather with The Remarkables Ski Area and Cardrona Ski Area receiving 30cm and 46cm of snow respectively – an excellent top-up for spring skiing.
School holidays are already underway in Queensland and Victoria with ACT, NSW and WA joining them this week followed by SA and Tasmania on 30 September. NZ schools are also on spring break.
Over last year’s spring school holiday period, the Queenstown region hosted 400,000-plus visitor days.
The region looks forward to welcoming a similar number this year as one of New Zealand’s most popular holiday spots. Queenstown is also the most popular destination on the Air New Zealand network.
Queenstown International expects to welcome more than 40,000 international and domestic arrivals over the next two weeks.
Mr Lewers said he is looking forward to welcoming holidaymakers into Queenstown.
“Guests to our town can be confident they will have a true Queenstown experience, despite the recent bump in the road.”
For more info, head to queenstownnz.co.nz
