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by Jeff Hylton

It never ceases to amaze me, the ‘original’ ideas people come up with to fix or advance Queenstown into a new and modern world.

I’m writing this from Breckenridge, Colorado, that sees millions of visitors and thousands upon thousands per day, summer and winter. The car parking is everywhere. I mean everywhere!

It’s 50 cents an hour on the Main Street, which has parking both sides of the entire street. $28 a day in the many parking lots and structures. Free buses that go everywhere and often. The buses also have the right of way. For the uninformed in New Zealand, that means stop and let the bus go first.

I love reading the local news from back home in Queenstown and I’m still shaking my head and chuckling at the latest crazy scheme to put a gondola to transport, if I remember correctly, 2000 people an hour, from Frankton to Queenstown.

Ok. First off #1 Doh! It’s not an original idea. #2 Why? There have been so many wild ideas over the years. Bridges over the Frankton Arm to get all those Kelvin Heights residents into town. Maybe so they can get on the gondola to go to Frankton. Who knows. We have had steam trains going around Queenstown Hill. Bringing the Kingston Flyer up to the Wakatipu Basin to go from Queenstown to Arrowtown. We have had a potential airport on the top of Queenstown Hill and monorails along the Frankton track moving people from Frankton to Queenstown.

It’s always fun coming up with great ideas with someone else’s money. Quick question though, where do they all come from these gondola passengers, and where did they park their cars?

These ideas, though I love the entertainment, are up there with ostrich farming, stoat and ferret fur farming or tulip propagation. I’m all for the crazy ideas we Kiwis love to come up with, like putting a $100m road to nowhere, or should I say a road to move the vehicle access point to Queenstown 400 metres from the Stanley and Ballarat Street corner to the Henry Street and Gorge Road corner. So, the people can park in non-existent parking structures and catch a gondola to Frankton and back to collect that same car from the handy non-existent car park. Or build more hotels so they can stay the night and go shopping and buy a TAG Heuer watch which you can only buy in Queenstown (not true, available worldwide).

Anyway, don’t stop dreaming Queenstown. This is pure unadulterated entertainment. And you never know, one day someone will say something totally new that actually can work. I eagerly await the day.