My Life Story

She’s been investing in the development of hundreds of curious little Arrowtown minds during almost 40 years at the helm of the popular and flourishing Arrowtown Preschool.

Growing up under strict Communist rule in Poland, highly respected Queenstown osteopath Kasia (Katrina) Lukaszewicz saved £900 waitressing in London to marry a random Irishman in a bid to escape.

Peter Norris is what you’d call ‘old school Queenstown’, born just before World War II broke out in 1939, in a town of just over 1500 people, the solo local cop never far behind him and his mates and their boyhood antics.

Legendary Queenstown award-winning architect Michael Wyatt doesn’t just love drawing. He’s pretty keen on cars, now the proud owner of seven classy classics, including a 1968 4.9-litre V8 Maserati - his “babies”.

She’s been trailblazing for women since bravely setting off on her OE from Britain, riding solo around part of Australia on her 125cc Suzuki motorbike.

Pete Yarrell may have interviewed Louis Armstrong for TV, hit Sir Cliff Richard in the face with a tennis ball and almost toppled a former Prime Minister off his political perch, even received a QSM. But you won’t find this 81-year-old from Lake Hayes boasting about any of that.

Queenstown’s queen of cat care and one of the resort’s most renowned art dealers, Invercargill-born Julia Milley has had strong ties with this area since she was four.

He may have climbed dozens of mountains around the world, done hundreds of climbs at home, and been part of some of this country’s most notorious search and rescue operations, but you won’t find this humble, Kiwi guy boasting about them.

One of New Zealand’s most renowned rugby writers throughout his successful 66-year career, Arrowtown’s Bob Howitt has notched the names of many of New Zealand’s most famous All Blacks into his belt, also writing the biographies of many.

He’s been selling overseas holidays for about 50 years, around in the days when agents had to ring airlines ‘collect’ to book flights and write letters to Europe to book hotel rooms.

His distinctive, handcrafted silver jewellery has celebrated many a special occasion around the world – a creative gifting discovered in 1968 in desperation for money to get home from his OE.

While he admits he comes close, having launched multiple businesses mostly with very little know-how, Guy Hughes insists he’s not “a serial entrepreneur”.

She may be small in stature but even the tallest and bulkiest of Wakatipu High School Year 7 boys knew not to mess with wee Mrs Gazzard.

She raised six kids single-handedly, among them a best-selling children’s author, even co-writing her own best-seller with him. But Maureen Smith is famous in her own right as a solo ‘Supermum’ of the 70s.

He tried farming and the freezing works before the lure of ‘good fun’ landed Ross Lawrence his dream job as a liftie at Whakapapa in 1984.

She’s full of life and laughs – a caring, compassionate heart on legs, legs that travel around this district helping others at a fair rate of knots.

They bred country girls tough on the Crown Terrace in the 1960s. Helen Jeffery’s life of global adventure, courage and resilience is testament to that.

She’s watched the hair on the principal’s legs catch fire, had a parapenter land on the library roof while teaching and been reprimanded for putting beer in the fish batter on an alcohol-free school camp.

She grew up with an idyllic childhood, the envy of many, roaming barefoot through snow covered tussock lands and riding her horse through the swift currents of the Shotover River up into spectacular mountainous terrain.

Brought up on Aussie Rules in a small rural town on the Murray River, Simon Hayes had no clue about rugby when he arrived in New Zealand at 21, fresh from a trainee manager’s role at Myers Food and Catering in 1974.