ADVERTORIAL In High Places The gold rush started a visitor influx to heli-skiing and almost 60 fly people to In the run up to the Queenstown Adventure the region, and in the 1880s Queenstown remote locations for a taste of wilderness. began to blossom into a resort town. Festival on 19 March, we’re celebrating For years Queenstowners talked about Queenstown’s adventurous heart and One of the area’s first guides, Kitty Greig building an attraction to carry visitors from Kinloch was “renowned through all the to the top of Bob’s Peak. The next pioneering history. Today we remember lake country as a daring and accomplished development to bring visitors flocking how the mountains have shaped our spirit. horsewoman … Bred and reared amid came in 1967 when a group of local these rocky pastures and wild solitudes, investors built the Skyline gondola. she knows every foot of the country and is Former chair of Skyline Enterprises, Barry as fearless, and independent as the winds Thomas remembers how the gondola that whistle round Mount Earnslaw.” “virtually put Queenstown on the map, it It seems that Queenstown breeds was the first gondola in New Zealand, the and attracts people like Kitty, tough first in Australasia, there was nothing like it.” adventurers with an entrepreneurial spirit. Now hundreds of visitors ride the gondola One company played a key role in opening up Bob’s Peak every day. They admire the the mountains up for adventure. In 1912 panorama, before climbing into a luge Rodolph Wigley founded the Mount and letting gravity take them for a ride or Cook Tourist Company, offering a weekly plunging down the network of trails on a Cadillac service between Queenstown mountain bike. and Mount Cook. Later he diversified into Mountain biking is a newcomer to the buses, hotels, flights, skiing, and package Queenstown scene. But it’s fast becoming holidays, becoming one of the largest a favourite after work adventure. tourist operations in New Zealand. When Vertigo bikes founder Tim Ceci In 1947 Rodolph’s son Henry Wigley and his rolled into town in 1997 there were no friend Bill Hamilton installed a rope tow at official trails. Tim started out offering heli- View of Lake Wakatipu from the summit of Ben Lomond 5,747 ft – No. 249 – Morris – S. R. Ryan, Coronet Peak and created New Zealand’s biking trips into the Remarkables, but soon The Development of the Tourist Industry in Queenstown first commercial ski resort. People flocked realised Bob’s Peak was an opportunity in to the mountain. Roads were cleared and, his backyard. He negotiated access to run For many hundreds of years getting to The first European settlers William Rees in a few years, Queenstown had become a guided tours from the gondola and built Queenstown was an arduous journey. and Nicholas von Tunzelmann crossed winter destination. the Vertigo trail. Cut off by gorges and hemmed in by the Crown Range in 1859. It was a rough Sue Knowles started skiing Coronet Peak mountains, the rugged isolation of the journey. Rees wrote: “Speargrass, often In 2003, the Queenstown Mountain in 1958, aged 11, when the Mount Cook area made it impenetrable for all but the more than three feet high, and masses Bike Club came together. Today 700 Co. offered the local school a free day on toughest travellers. of matagouri constantly impeded us, committed locals work with DOC, council, the slopes. Smitten, she became a regular especially in the gullies. Our trousers landowners and the community to build Māori people were the first adventurers and recalls, “Every year in the August from the thighs downwards were filled and maintain around 60km of trails. Their to discover the area in the 13th century, school holidays you’d meet the same with blood.” hard graft is a gift to our town, just one settling at Tāhuna on the site of people in the queue for the tow, from more example of the grit and vision that Queenstown, at Te Kirikiri (Frankton) and In 1862 gold was found in the Arrow River, ski clubs in Alexandra, Invercargill and makes Queenstown so unique. at Puahuru (the junction of Kawarau and sparking the Otago gold rush. Miners Dunedin. It was a very nice atmosphere. Shotover Rivers). embarked on epic journeys, scaling Although that rope tow was an ordeal!” Tim says: “Now people come to mountain passes and fording rivers, Queenstown to ride our network of When Europeans arrived in the region In the 1950s Henry Wigley made his and Norwegian goldminers introduced spectacular trails. Biking’s all about in the mid-19th century, Kai Tahu were second mark on winter tourism when the community to skiing, using freedom and independence, and people visiting in summer to gather kai, taramea, he invented a special ski-plane to homemade skis to reach their snowed come to Queenstown to push boundaries.” and pounamu, before returning home to take enthusiasts for back country ski in diggings. coastal settlements. experiences. Today 16 companies offer – Elizabeth Davidson CORONET PEAK - THURSDAY 19 MARCH FROM 3PM – FREE TICKETS FROM ADVENTUREFEST.CO.NZ ADVERTORIAL Thin air. Wild rivers. In the run up to the Queenstown Adventure Festival on 19 March, we’re celebrating Queenstown’s adventurous heart and pioneering history. Today we soar above Wakatipu and ride the rivers wild to tell a story packed with adventure firsts. Because of our remote and inaccessible of the gearbox,” his New Zealand Order location, Queenstowners took to the of Merit for his services to aviation and air early. The Queenstown airport tourism gives a truer indication of the role was granted a license in 1935, two he’s played. years before commercial flights began While young Jules Tapper was learning in Auckland, and five years before to fly, brothers Alan and Harold Melhop Christchurch airport was founded. were introducing Queenstowners to a For those first aviators, landing in new kind of thrill on the Kawarau River. Queenstown was an adventure itself. Engineers by trade, their Invercargill The paddocks of the old Queenstown Kawarau and Kawarau Two on Lake Wakatipu – Image courtesy of KJet. firm was the agency for the new Hamilton racecourse were the airstrip, and landing Jet. In 1958 Alan and Harold demoed a depended on the prevailing wind. speeds of 80kph, diving beneath the In the early 90s Queenstown became jet boat to a potential customer on the surface and breaching into the air. home to a hard-core group hiking up tall Local pilot Jules Tapper became an early Kawarau Falls Dam. They soon found peaks and flying off them. It wasn’t long In the 1970s, Kon Tiki Rafts introduced pioneer of flights to scenic locations when that whenever they did a demo, they before visitors wanted to have a go too, thrill seekers to white water rafting with he co-founded the Hollyford Valley Walk made a sale. Not only that, but everyone and commercial operators started offering New Zealand’s first commercial rafting in Fiordland National Park with Viv Allott wanted a go. hang-gliding and paragliding experiences. in 1968. experience. Queenstown’s two rivers offer As trustees for the Lakeland Christian a full spectrum of rafting experiences, Rene taught local Olympian Bruce Grant Jules recalls, “I always liked the outdoors, Camp, Alan and Harold were always from the serene reaches of the mighty to paraglide. Bruce then invented the first so when an opportunity came up in the trying to come up with ways to raise Kawarau River to gnarly grade 5 rapids on tandem paragliders and the duo set up G national park, we went for it. It was so money. In 1959 they started jet boat joy the Shotover. Force Paragliding off Bob’s Peak in 1991. remote we had to use aircraft and I flew rides for five shillings a spin, with huge hundreds of trips to Hollyford Valley.” In success. Recognising a good business Parasailing combines the excitement of Queenstown is also the New Zealand 1976 he applied for an air service license, opportunity, the brothers persuaded the jet skiing with epic views. For 30 years birthplace of tandem skydiving. NZONE flying passengers in to hunt and tramp. other camp trustees to invest in a jet boat, Queenstown Paraflights have been Skydive’s drop zone at the foot of the and the world’s first commercial jet boat elevating people 600 feet above Lake Remarkables is described as “one of the The Mount Cook Group brought the first tour was born. Wakatipu for panoramic vistas of the best places in the world to jump out of a commercial flights into Queenstown in snow-capped Remarkables. perfectly good aeroplane”. the 1960s. In the 1980s, Jules went to Kawarau Jet Services (or KJet as they’re now work for the group, first heading up their known) proved so popular that the council Paragliding was introduced to Bruce Grant died on an expedition to flightseeing team, then becoming regional invited them to move their berth from Queenstown in 1987 by Rene Schwaller. K2 in 1995. Before he left for his last manager, and finally leading the company. Frankton Jetty to the Queenstown Pier. Rene visited his family in Switzerland to adventure he said, “set your sights high, find people leaping off mountains for the higher the better, and wonderful The story of the Mount Cook Group and You can see a new generation of jet boats fun. He returned home to Queenstown things will happen.” His philosophy could its many initiatives is inextricably bound out on Lake Wakatipu. Hydro Attack’s equipped with two modified parachutes be the motto of all those who’ve made up with Queenstown’s evolution as an dramatic semi-submersibles are another and a new skill, which he demonstrated Queenstown the home of adventure.