Tracey Maclaren - From managing the masses to mountaintop marriage

She’s managed and partied with tour loads of young Contiki travellers in Europe and Queenstown, helped save the Earnslaw in a record flood and officiated at over 1,000 local weddings, declining an unusual photo request at one.

In some 35 years Tracey Maclaren has made her mark on Queenstown’s visitor industry – working her way up through the ranks from then Fiordland Travel’s Queenstown branch assistant manager in 1994 to general manager of its rebranded Real Journeys in 2012.

Tracey was well positioned for the role having cut her tourism and hospo teeth with Contiki Travel – four summer seasons of experience initially in Carnarvon, Wales, then overseeing coach stop sites in Europe, her final stint managing the last stop hotel in Amsterdam. “Here they’d party like never before. I managed the hotel staff, road crew and guests, never a dull moment, but what an amazing experience.”

She knew how to party with the best of them too, frequenting Chico’s once settling back in Queenstown as The Queenstown Lodge manager in the early 90s. “The staff became like extended family; those were wonderful early Queenstown days. It was quiet in winter, but you knew everybody and all the locals had so much fun.”

Maintaining professionalism at all times, Tracey adopted her own ‘partying persona’ – ‘Sabrina’, when out with staff. “She was my twin sister-alter ego, loved to drink, party and dance but was never sure how she got home,” she grins.

Born in Wellington, Tracey – one of four children, moved south with the family, aged five, to Invercargill for her dad’s job in 1965, starting at Waihopai School.

Mum Daphne, from the North Island, sent the kids to speech and drama to ensure those strong southern accents didn’t break through, and as a national competitive swimmer and coach her kids all grew up around the pool.

The drama inspired a love of musical theatre for Tracey who’s played numerous roles in Showbiz shows locally, including a hooker luring German soldiers into bed in Cabaret and a drunken Miss Hannigan in Annie.

Many childhood weekends were spent in Arrowtown, Queenstown or Wānaka ice skating, skiing and boating, those fond memories luring Tracey back “home” after seven years OE which followed a Diploma in Home Science at Otago Uni. “The other students joked that we were just there to learn how to cook, sew and pick up a doctor as a husband. That was not my goal.” She majored in nutrition doing post graduate studies in Wellington where she worked as a dietitian at Wellington Public Hospital for several years, saving for travel.

“I met all my friends there, and we just clustered in London and Europe, initially the Beerfest in Munich, and had so much fun.”

She’d been “sneaking” in and out of Europe on an expired passport in a Contiki vehicle long enough and it was “time to come home to the real world” in 1991.

As manager at Fiordland Travel, Tracey was overseeing everyone from steam engineers, stokers, skippers and farmers to chefs, restaurant and reservations staff, coach drivers and pilots.

She’d be called in early when staff didn’t turn up on New Year’s Day to unlock the Visitor Centre to dispatch the Milford coaches. “Or once the engineer arrived at work inebriated and I had to reschedule staff at short notice and talk my way out of it with guests.”

However, managing their way out of the record 1999 floods was the biggest challenge. “We were wading through waist-deep water to get to the Earnslaw floating above the wharf. It was quite phenomenal trying to evacuate the Visitor Centre while water was flowing in.”

Unfortunately, Tracey was a casualty of major company restructuring under a new board and CEO in 2012, subsequently invited by DQ to take a maternity leave position as Queenstown Convention Bureau manager.

In 2013 she found her passion, becoming a celebrant. “Last year I reached my first milestone – 1,000 weddings, averaging about 100 to 120 a year,” she says. With most clients from overseas, she says Queenstown celebrants outperform those elsewhere in New Zealand, thanks to the stunning, mountaintop wedding backdrops being fed to the world on social media.

Helicopters and snow are usually involved and there have been a few extraordinary ones, like the couple who married then disappeared downhill on their mountain bikes off Rude Rock on Coronet Peak. “I did ask them to remove their helmets for the ceremony.”

Tracey politely declined a request by a US couple who asked her to join them in a ‘naked bum shot’ for a series they were taking around the world, dobbing the helicopter pilot in instead, also a ‘no’.

She’s been a JP for 20 years, works casually for Arrowtown Lifestyle Village, sings with The Songbirds locally, and loves her yoga sessions at Millbrook.

Celebrant work can be seven days a week, but Tracey still fits in a daily walk with her beloved retriever, Betty.