It’s baby kissing time with all the candidates for Mayor and Council now locked and loaded. At least, I hope there will be a few babies kissed, for without political campaigning how do we, the people of the Wakatipu choose our elected representatives in October’s local body elections?

Queenstown Police are at it again releasing statistics for the shock value rather than to give us any meaningful information about criminal offending in the Queenstown area. According to a TV3 news item aired last Sunday night, 96% of all crime in Queenstown in the first two weeks of August after 10pm was alcohol related, with that figure jumping to 100% after 2am. Queenstown’s party culture strikes again it seems. Is the motivation for releasing these statistics to damage our reputation and reduce tourist numbers, therefore reducing drunken crime? If this is the case, then the local police are at odds with the rest of Queenstown which makes a huge effort to attract tourists to the area.

I’ve almost become immune to the hilarious content available on the internet. I get so many requests to click on this and look at that, it needs to be really good before I even think of forwarding a link on. So you know it must be at worth a look for me to encourage you to have a look what the good people at Destination Queenstown sent me: http://filmarchive.org.nz/sellebration/view.php?id=126

The new bus stops are built, the fleet of yellow buses are on the road and thanks to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the Otago Regional Council (ORC), the funding is also in place to give the public transport option a good chance of long term success here in the Wakatipu. Now the only questions left to answer are, will the buses get used, and is a private enterprise business going to continue to offer a full service after the $3.2 million funding subsidy dries up.

For the next few years at least, the outlying residential areas of Arrowtown, Kelvin Heights, Lake Hayes Estate, Quail Rise, Glenda Drive and Arthurs Point will enjoy new services and/or improved frequency on existing bus routes. The long term success of these services will ultimately come down to commercial sustainability. So to answer the second question, if you do not use it, you will lose it. That is the harsh reality of having private commercial interests operate what is an essential public service.

We can be thankful ORC and NZTA have partly funded this attempt at making Connectabus a viable public transport option. It is unlikely residents living on the more economically marginal routes would ever have seen a bus service go past their gate without this funding boost, and the time tables for other routes would probably have been less user friendly.

It is however a distinct possibility the improved services will only last as long as this publicly funded cash injection. No privately owned business will run a loss making service for any length of time and survive. So Connectabus cannot be blamed for scaling back less profitable bus routes when the funding subsidies dry up. Therefore the responsibility for a long term user friendly public transport service in the Wakatipu falls on those who have the most to lose – the residents. If you wait too long to change your habits and start using the buses being provided, the service will fail and disappear before you get the chance to appreciate we had a good thing going.

After years of inaction, the gateway to Queenstown known as ‘Hendo’s Hole’ officially has a new owner. The buyer of Stage One, Queenstown Gateway Ltd, exercised their first right of refusal and purchased Stage Two last week. This is such a high profile site, and it is a relief for the image of Queenstown something is finally happening, now the question is what and when. As a long term resident of the Wakatipu who has seen several fly by night developers leave ugly legacies for the area to deal with long into the future, it is only reasonable to have a certain level of suspicion.

“...Pure, overindulgent fantasisation”,  is how ex-mayor Warren Cooper described Dave Henderson’s original plans for Five Mile and certainly developers flying on the seat of their pants have let this region down in the past. QLDC should be requiring a lot more than resource consents and building permits from major developments that shape our environment. History, character checks and proof of funding need to be an integral part of the process before a developer can attempt such ambitious projects. If you look at the previous history some developers brought with them when entering the Queenstown market, it was little wonder their developments here have ended in tears. Rod Neilson was sometimes known in Auckland as “Leaky Rod” for allegedly building leaky apartments before coming to wreak havoc here in the Wakatipu. Failed Pounamu developer Dan McEwan had instances of non-compliance and business failure before coming to the Southern Lakes with ambitious schemes that have, amongst other things, left the Kingston Flyer to gather cobwebs and face extinction.

Looking on the bright side, there is nothing to suggest Queenstown Gateway Ltd is underfunded and it will be interesting to see what develops over the coming years. I would like to think we have learnt our lesson that courting unscrupulous types leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and an eyesore on the horizon. Enough mistakes have been made and there is no better time than now to start requiring higher quality contributions from our town’s developers.