Autumn is well and truly upon us. There's a wide variety of golden leaves brilliantly colouring the Wakatipu Basin, and we also got the first real snowfall of the year. In this week's edition, I highlight the mini-media battle that has emerged between the Mountain Scene and the Lakes Weekly Bulletin, who have both recently expanded their operations. Some of us eagerly await this week's Mountain Scene to see if they apologise over their main headline last week, and I announce the zero waste award winners and detail the compost subsidy offered by the QLDC. And lastly, as we head towards $2 a litre petrol, one can only speculate on the affect it will have on local tourism operators and the outlook for Queenstown's future.
Well, as I said, it's Autumn which means that the Arrowtown Autumn Festival must be near. For those that will be around, the festival kicks off this Thursday (April 24th) and goes for 12 days. The festival features:
- The 24th Arrowtown Autumn Festival Art Exhibition
- Anzac Day Commemorations
- Vintage Car Display
- Festival Street Parade
- 75th Jubilee celebrations of the Arrowtown Volunteer Fire Brigade
- And many more...
Check out this website for more information on the Autumn Festival.
From our online media viewpoint, there's a mini-media battle going on right now in our district. The loved and loathed local media 'giant' Mountain Scene have expanded into Dunedin with their 'D Scene', and the Lakes Weekly Bulletin have collaborated with the Otago Daily times to bring us the 'Queenstown Times'. So, when you add The Southland Times, The Mirror, The News, and a handful of websites like ours who dabble in the media, it looks as though the basin is well covered, but not without the odd bit of controversy.
Speaking of controversy, last week the Mountain Scene run a story titled 'Over rated', which contained the following quote:
A Mountain Scene analysis shows Queenstown Lakes District Council has consistently underestimated how much it would be collecting in rates revenue and user charges over the past five years.
This obviously rattled someone as the following day, the council issued this press release stating:
"The front page article 'Over rated' by Frank Marvin in yesterday's edition of the Mountain Scene was so alarmingly inaccurate that we could not with all conscience allow our community to go for an entire week before the paper had an opportunity to make a correction,' Mr Burns said.
So, all eyes this week are pointed towards what kind of response will come off the Mountain Scene's editors desk on Thursday. Tomorrow, I'm releasing an article that targets the Queenstown Times, specifically the views of some of those interviewed and their thoughts on Queenstown's future. Quite a few of the answers given in the paper's debut lead story take no account of the current global energy situation, although one or two perhaps have an inkling. Check back tomorrow for my opinion.
On a positive note, Friday night saw the award presentation for the Zero Waste awards in front of 100 Wasteminz (Waste Minimisation Institute of New Zealand) delegates. Congratulations to the kids at the Glenorchy School for your fantastic ideas, you truly deserved the prize. This followed the news from QLDC and their subsidising of the Bokashi compost machine. For those that don't know, the following are the benefits of composting like this:
- Reduce organic waste in volume
- Enhance soil condition
- Reduce smelly odours
- Speed up the rate of decomposition
- Enable organic matter to be reused to promote the growth of other plants and animals.
As we head towards $2 per litre of petrol, I will speculate that when the Winter edition of the itag trade manual is published, it will herald quite a few prices hikes from local tourism operators in regards to their products. This will be due to the ever increasing cost of crude oil and it's refined products, as crude oil is the cornerstone of the modern global economy. The rising cost of oil affects almost everything, especially food and transport. The race towards biofuels has already produced food riots in a number of countries, some of which are not third world. I end this weeks edition with this question: "Can Queenstown withstand the ever-increasing cost of petrol?"
Nathan - Queenstown.com Editor.
