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4 minutes read
Posted 25 June, 2025

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.

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Posted 18 June, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 11 June, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 4 June, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 28 May, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 8 May, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 30 April, 2025

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.

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4 minutes read
Posted 23 April, 2025

She may come from Japan, but Queenstown’s Yasuko Joll sure has plenty of ‘Kiwi can do’ attitude. If New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister asks for a toothbrush from hotel reception late at night you improvise.

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4 minutes read
Posted 16 April, 2025

He’s probably transported more people than a New York City bus driver. The only difference is most of Brian Ramsey’s passengers are not off to work but play.

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4 minutes read
Posted 9 April, 2025

Now author of multiple fiction novels – one that almost made it to the big screen, Ray Drayton was once best known as Queenstown’s very own restaurant front-of-house, Fawlty Towers funnyman.

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4 minutes read
Posted 2 April, 2025

His name may be synonymous with opulence and lavish luxury lodges in this country, but Kenyan-born Brit Philip Jenkins certainly did the hard grind to get there.

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4 minutes read
Posted 26 March, 2025

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4 minutes read
Posted 19 March, 2025

An early baby boomer, born in 1945, the daughter of a World War I Passchendaele vet and bank manager, Tish Glasson has lived on the edge in the great outdoors.

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4 minutes read
Posted 12 March, 2025

He specialised in fine wines, outlandish promotions and good times, from lavish Auckland lunches, oysters and Bollinger flowing in the 80s to mystery feasts atop The Remarkables. Danny Carson knew how to throw a party.

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4 minutes read
Posted 5 March, 2025

He’s played in more than 60 bands in 60 years in New Zealand, USA, Solomon Islands and Queenstown where the sultry tones of Nigel Hirst’s saxophone have even spontaneously jammed with back-up guitarists for Joe Cocker and Paul McCartney. He’s performed with Kenny Rogers and toured with Billy T. James.

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4 minutes read
Posted 26 February, 2025

His name may have been synonymous with Queenstown’s renowned Gourmet Express Restaurant for 25 years, but Richard Hanning also worked his way up through the ranks as a teenage apprentice for leading national hotel chains.

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3 minutes read
Posted 19 February, 2025

One of the country’s most successful young hairstylists, David Bradford failed two attempts at School Cert but went on to become New Zealand’s first timeshare innovator and Mayor of the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

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4 minutes read
Posted 12 February, 2025

He’s helped guide thousands of aircraft safely in and out of Queenstown, even the US President’s Air Force One, and faced the heat helping fight hundreds of local fires, clocking an impressive track record of protecting and saving lives over 40 years.

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4 minutes read
Posted 5 February, 2025

The daughter of an Olympic skier-high country farmer father, and artist mother, Brigit van der Kaag was bound to be adventurous, resourceful and headed for the snow.

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4 minutes read
Posted 29 January, 2025

A great, great nephew of one of Queenstown’s first two doctors, his mother also one of the Wakatipu’s renowned Dagg farming family, Bruce Douglas was born to work the land.

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The Lakes Weekly is part of Queenstown Media Group (QMG).

QMG is Queenstown’s leading locally owned and operated media company with print, online and social platforms that engage locals with what they care about — everything local!

The Lakes Weekly delivers stories and news that connects with local so they come away each week better connected to their community. Advertising sits within this curated content environment, and it’s a trusted relationship between readers and the Lakes Weekly. Advertisers benefit from the association with the LWB brand values.

The Lakes Weekly is hand delivered to every business in Queenstown, Arrowtown, Frankton, Five Mile Remarkables Park and Glenda Drive on Tuesday. Copies are available in service stations, libraries and drop boxes throughout the region and every supermarket throughout the Queenstown basin and Wanaka.

Online the issue is available Monday afternoon, on lwb.co.nz and the Qtn App.

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