Client News

Thousands of locals and visitors braved winter temperatures to enjoy 38 site-specific installations. The glow of this year’s event had hardly faded before the six-strong creative team was already working on LUMA 2018.

Their goal? To open up an enlightening conversation and improve the creative landscape in Queenstown.

Trust chairman Duncan Forsyth says the LUMA team sees arts and culture as a vital vehicle for improving the future of the resort town.

“We want to appeal to locals with a layer of visitors wrapped around them. Like a village vibe bringing the ‘life’ of the community back into the town centre,” he says.

“We’re an international destination renowned for its adrenalin rush, but we all firmly believe we need to balance that out with culture and creativity.”

LUMA began with a 2015 pilot project as part of the town’s annual Winter Festival. In the two short years following, it has been a runaway success, growing from approximately 10,000 visitors in 2016 to 35,000 this year.

Its location in the iconic Queenstown Gardens has started to spread into the other areas, creating a magical glow around Queenstown Bay.

But the growth, while exciting, brings its own challenges.

“We’ve been so grateful for the event partners that contribute, through cash or cash in kind, to help cover the huge overheads in transporting artwork, creating installations, and projection set-ups,” says Duncan.

“The benefit of LUMA is significant when brings local families and visitors into town to create an energy that doesn’t exist at any other time of the year. The levels of community engagement with the event are simply outstanding, especially when you consider it’s in the middle of winter over a traditionally quiet Queen’s birthday weekend.

“But we need our vibrant business community’s help to ‘chip in’ creatively and financially to make this event sustainable. The oxygen for the event is money.

“The expectation of having such amazing pieces of artwork displayed in ‘our town’ comes at a cost, but we’re not a commercial event. LUMA is a community event which local people can be proud to be a part of.”

The three-year-old project was recently named Supreme Award winner in the Trustpower Queenstown Lakes Community Awards.

LUMA Southern Light Project, and the LUMA Light Festival Trust are supported by local government event funding and sponsors from all over Queenstown and Otago.

Queenstown Chamber of Commerce members are encouraged to come and hear more about the project at the Christmas Business After 5 presentation on December 13.

For a stunning video on this year’s event go here.

Picture caption:

1/ Mirror, Mirror, in the forest – A mirror ball installation was a favourite for crowds attending the 2017 LUMA Southern Light Project in Queenstown. Photo credit: Collab Photography

The Kereru is known for the distinctive sound of its wing beats in flight, precarious landings on branches, and is somewhat famous for getting drunk on berries and dropping out of trees, which inspired the Ziptrek team to name the tour after the Kereru (pronounced ‘care-re-roo’).

The tour is a whole new way to experience Queenstown for those looking for a heightened thrill level of a unique adventure in the shortest amount of time. It includes two existing ziplines through the trees and a 21m drop to the forest floor.

As part of the tour, passionate guides tell the fascinating conservation story of Zealandia’s creation and Ziptrek’s role in the preservation of the natural landscape, removal of invasive species and protection of native wildlife, fauna and flora.

“We’re giving guests the opportunity to ‘find their wings’ and finish with a swooping drop that leaves them a fledgeling no more,” said Ziptrek sales and marketing manager Nicky Busst.

“Over the years we’ve had some feedback from guests who are time-poor but would love to zipline, so we’ve developed a totally innovative tour that enables them to enjoy the best Queenstown experience on offer in just under an hour.

“Having said that, we’re not short-changing them on the fun and adrenalin factor! It’s pretty challenging standing on the launch platform, about to step off before the big drop, even though you know you’re fully harnessed and the fear factor is all in your head!”

Ms Busst said the Kereru Tour would cater not only for new visitors but for Ziptrek’s many repeat customers who wanted to come back and try something different.

She said naming it the Kereru Tour fitted perfectly with Ziptrek’s ongoing conservation ethos and work with the Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust.

“The Kereru is a protected species so we’re also working closely with the nearby Kiwi Birdlife Park which runs a Kereru conservation programme, with wildberry trees planted in the landing area as a ‘kereru garden’ to encourage them to visit a safe natural habitat,” she said.

For a ‘taster’ of the new Kereru Tour go here.

The new tour costs just $95 and is available from February 1 2018 (bookings commence soon by phone, email or through its website www.ziptrek.co.nz.) Minimum age is 10 and tours take a maximum of eight people.

Photo caption:

1/ Enjoy the best of Queenstown in just under an hour – a unique treetop experience with Queenstown’s Ziptrek Ecotours

The company Adrian founded is called WE ARE SNO and this winter is providing a series of courses in the Japanese ski resorts of Niseko and Myoko, with further winter courses to follow in other Northern Hemisphere resorts.

The externally-organised courses will be a ‘first’ in Niseko which is Japan’s biggest and most popular resort (which means the most work as a newly-qualified instructor). Niseko won best Ski Resort in Japan at the 2016 World Ski Awards, is nominated for it again in 2017 and has also previously been nominated for World’s Best Ski Resort.

We Are Sno saw a gap in the snow enthusiasts market for individuals keen to embark on their snowsports career. Many ski schools do not have the marketing reach to attract enough people to courses, but with offices in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, We Are Sno is targeting snow lovers from around the globe.

“Plenty of people want to do these courses but if they’re trying to organise it solo there’s a lot of red tape and organisation with examiners, training staff and resort logistics, often with the added difficulty of language and cultural barriers,” said company director Adrian Gourlay.

“We’ve packaged up everything into one ski or snowboard product offering training and tuition, accommodation and a paid job offer, with avalanche and backcountry training included as standard.

“Once they’re qualified, people get employment in the same resort, for the rest of the season.

“Many of the ski school managers we work with in Japan also work in Southern Hemisphere resorts, so our newly-qualified instructors are also likely to find work in Australia or New Zealand the following season.

“Living and working in Japan for their initial season also means participants experience the unique and wonderfully hospitable culture that Japan still offers in an otherwise increasingly globalised world.”

Mr Gourlay said the new business was “something I’ve wanted to do for years”.

“Now everything’s fallen into place to make my dream a reality. While Japan will be our operations base over the coming winter, we’re working towards applying the concept in several other destinations around the world, and to promote inbound ski tourism by offering the courses here in New Zealand too.”

The ski or snowboard qualification is internationally-recognised and can take instructors to the USA, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere.

Mr Gourlay said We Are Sno was also striving hard to bridge the gender gap in snowsports.

“Currently some 85% of instructors are male, but we’re trying to do everything we can to encourage more females to make their careers in the industry,” he said.

The company is undertaking user-research into the issue, interviewing female instructors to get a better understanding of the market, as well as talking to prospective female clients to understand their objections or fears.

“We’re also looking to develop a series of female-only instructor courses to make women feel more comfortable in the learning environment, something that’s already proved successful in ski improvement training courses.”

Mr Gourlay said We Are Sno had created products that fulfilled demand without making costs too high, thereby making courses only accessible to the wealthy.

“We only work with the best resorts where high standards of training are guaranteed and there’s plenty of work, including additional training qualifications to make our interns more employable, but we keep it reasonable.

“This ensures our courses are not just about the snow, but offer a more enriching cultural experience to our clients.”

Picture caption:

1/ A newly-qualified snowsports instructor giving a lesson

Skydive Southern Alps is part of Australasia’s fastest-growing tourism company, Australian-based publicly listed company ExperienceCo. The company acquired the Glenorchy-based skydive company when it bought sister operation NZONE Skydive two years ago.

“The grandeur of the scenery as guests jump from a plane 15,000ft above the rugged snow-capped Southern Alps, the braided channels of the Dart River, crystal clear Lake Wakatipu and the gorgeous township of Glenorchy makes this a breath-taking experience,” says Marketing Manager Stephen Thompson.

“People who love a sense of discovery are ecstatic about the whole experience, starting with the spectacular 45-minute lake edge drive from Queenstown to the beautiful and remote Glenorchy in the heart of the mountains.

“It’s a very personalised trip for small groups shared with a handful of our friendly and highly-experienced flight and ground crew.

“When they get to the dropzone they love the vibe and the natural environment as they prepare to skydive and then share their skydive experience with our staff and other customers.

“And where else in the world do they get to jump over Tolkein’s magical Middle Earth, with that birds-eye view of Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks?”

Once they’ve made the leap of faith to leave their perfectly good plane, guests have up to 60 seconds of freefall to take in the 360-degree views from above, appreciating the scale of the 500km-long Southern Alps, the backbone of New Zealand’s South Island.

On a clear day they can see as far as Mitre Peak in Milford Sound on the wild West Coast of the island.

For a tempting ‘taster’ of a Skydive Southern Alps trip click here.

Guests wishing to book their skydive adventure of a lifetime can visit the dedicated new Skydive Southern Alps Shop in Queenstown’s Shotover Street.

Picture caption:

1/ Guests on a Skydive Southern Alps jump have up to 60 seconds of freefall to take in stunning mountain, lake and river views

Businesses are assessed on four key sectors — health and safety, sustainable and environmentally friendly practice, social hospitality and the economic operations of the company.

Following the intense evaluation, businesses can be awarded bronze, silver or gold.

Heli Tours Queenstown has been operating in Queenstown for seven years, and Mr Mitchell said they were delighted with the Silver award.

“Qualmark Silver enables us to benchmark our business against other tourism operators throughout the country and continually strive to be the best,” he said.

“When visitors see that Qualmark branding they know that operation is safe, delivers a fantastic customer experience and customer service, and is reliable. They know they’re in good hands.”

“The whole accreditation process makes you look at your business from the outside in, and now we have the assessors report we know we can fine tune it with some very small improvements that can make all the difference.”

Mr Mitchell said he believed a Qualmark accreditation helped secure a long-term sustainable position for the tourism industry by protecting what made New Zealand unique and desired.

The couple say they love to showcase and inspire visitors with their extensive knowledge of, and passion for, their beautiful ‘backyard’.

Currently operating three helicopters, Heli Tours Queenstown has the widest range of landing concessions available to any Queenstown-based helicopter businesses, after being granted an historic 18-year permit multi-conservancy concession for heli landings just two years after setting up in business.

It was the first of its kind permitted by the Department of Conservation and enables the company to make the most of a range of options for helicopter landings throughout Otago, Southland and Canterbury for recreation or tourism activities.

It’s scenic flights and activities on offer include alpine snow and glacier landings, Milford and Dusky Sound trips, wine tours, high and low-adrenaline adventures, relaxing scenic spa and picnic activities, and personalised custom tours.

“More and more of our guests, no matter what country they’re from or their background, want the ‘new luxury’ of an authentic, genuine experience, really engaging with locals and learning about the area,” said Katherine Mitchell.

“That can be anything from seeing the family farm, escaping the crowds, to meeting a winemaker or going for a hike.

“They don’t have to be big trips, but we know we’ve done our job when they leave feeling like they’ve made a friend.”

Heli Tours Queenstown operates from its base at Queenstown International Airport.