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Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Shop owner ships out
Outgoing Peak Interiors owner Kath Evans. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Kath Evans, who's among Queenstown longest-serving retailers, is closing shop with a final sale at her Frankton home decor shop, Peak Interiors, from tomorrow. After setting up Play It Again Records in Invercargill in 1972, she set up a Queenstown branch in the then-new O'Connell's Pavilion in 1988, which closed down in 2010. By then she'd opened Peak Interiors — originally First Impressions — which traded from various premises, the latest being the Five Mile shopping centre. "There's not really any specialties in that kind of thing left in Queenstown," she says. Evans believes compliance costs, electricity and transport costs in the area and, especially, rising rents have made it too hard for small local independent retailers to make a profit. She also believes retail's never recovered since Covid. However, she'll still be able to service longtime customers one-on-one. And she'll continue her successful Peak Interiors homestaging business, which is popular with many local real estate agents, and her fitouts for developers and builders. "When I opened my homestaging business many years ago, it was common to see real estate ads with rubbish bags featured in kitchen photos, unmade beds in bedrooms. "By presenting homes to international standards, it's the best investment people can make for their property when they're selling." Taking over her Five Mile premises will be the Golf Warehouse — ironically, next to The Warehouse.
Otago Daily Times
18-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Helping businesses succeed, for free
Mentor Mel Stadler. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER The former co-owner of successful Queenstown hospo business Surreal is nowadays happy mentoring businesses, for free, for not-for-profit organisation Business Mentors New Zealand (BMNZ). Mel Stadler, who owned the Rees St venue for 26 years, with husband Erich, before selling two years ago, says it's her way of giving back. "And I was sort of thinking about dabbling in the consultancy field anyway, and I was like this is quite a good way to get my feet wet, so to speak. "Sometimes owning a business can actually be really lonely, because there's not many people that do it. "It's really, really hard sometimes — most of the time you're the worst-paid person in the business." Stadler quips her mentoring's based predominantly on her own mistakes. An example from her early days was being packed every night and yet not making any money. "And then I had to take a step back and go, 'what's going on here?' "And I had all my costings all wrong." She says her main advice centres on encouraging businesspeople to spend more time working on, rather than in, their business. Secondly, "you've always got to keep on learning, you've got to keep on changing, it's not like you get to a certain stage and then that's it — unless you sell it". "I mean I think there's very few businesses out there that have got it perfect, there's always areas to improve." BMNZ's Hamish Williams says they pair business owners with one of their 1500-plus mentors. "Mentors receive no pay, no share in the company, they volunteer their time purely to see other Kiwi businesses succeed."
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Otago Daily Times
Congestion-busting contenders
Doppelmayr NZ's Garreth Hayman. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Two fully electric aerial transportation system providers pitched themselves as solutions to Queenstown's chronic traffic congestion problems at this week's Electrify Queenstown event. They're Queenstown Cable Car, which could ferry up to 3000 passengers an hour, in both directions, between the CBD and the airport via Queenstown Hill and Frankton. The other's Whoosh's 'Uber in the sky' which is about to be demo-ed at Remarkables Park. Doppelmayr NZ CEO Garreth Hayman, who's working with local tech entrepreneur Rod Drury and former Infrastructure Commission chief executive Ross Copland, says "the big difference is we are a mass transit solution versus they are an equivalent of an Uber, if you like, in terms of calling up a taxi". "They will probably feed into the gondola system, it would make sense for them to do that, and it's just like the [public] bus [network] is feeding into the system well." However, Whoosh chief executive Dr Chris Allington tells Scene their system has many advantages over a gondola system. It could disperse its users across a greater number of smaller stations, avoiding likely queues at peak times with the gondola system's fewer, larger stations, he says. Its modular system allowed it to be expanded as demand required. "You're no longer stuck with straight lines and a limited number of stops."
Otago Daily Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
'Flying theatre' thrill ride planned for Queenstown
An approved design for a flying theatre on Brecon St. PHOTO: SUPPLIED A theatre-style thrill ride is being developed for a newly consented complex in central Queenstown. Australian-based Upper Village Holdings is establishing a "flying theatre" in a three-level building on the corner of Brecon and Isle Sts — the company also developed the Upper Village entertainment precinct further up Brecon St. The development will replace two established houses on Brecon St. The resource consent refers to "an 'immersive theatre experience' involving a simulator-type ride". There's soaring demand for flying theatres — using motion-based platforms and large, curved screens to simulate the sensation of flight — in theme parks and other venues overseas, though it's thought this will be the first of its type in New Zealand. The building replaces these two established houses. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER According to the resource consent application — the developer's refusing to comment at this stage — customers will first view a seven-minute "preshow", which will include a safety induction. They'll then continue in the theatre room, where the main show will also last seven minutes, during which there'll be noise from amplified speakers. "The theatre room will make up approximately half of the building itself spanning all three levels with seats at each level," the application states. Each viewing session will have a maximum 60 patrons, and the hours of operation will be 9am till 9pm seven days a week. The building design, by Warren and Mahoney Architects, doesn't have any windows or openings along Brecon St. However, interest will be created by patterned aggregate and copper fins along the facade. The glazed entrance is off Isle St and its corner with Brecon St.
Otago Daily Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Wahlburgers gone burgers
The Queenstown Wahlburgers is now closed. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Opened with great fanfare 18 months ago, Queenstown's Wahlburgers — part of a burger chain created by Hollywood A-lister Mark Wahlberg — has quietly shut up shop. The restaurant, now advertised for lease, was on the ground floor of the Upper Village entertainment precinct, below the Skyline gondola, which originally opened for business in late 2021. Promoting itself as North America's fastest-growing burger chain, the Queenstown franchise was its 112th store and the second in New Zealand after Auckland premises opened eight months earlier. At the time, Wahlberg stated: "The opening of our store in the adventure capital of the world is something we are immensely proud of, and I am looking forward to seeing it in person." The restaurant — notable for Wahlberg movie and family memorabilia on the walls — was operated by the Mustaca family, who founded Australian cinema chain United Cinemas. Also closed is Wahlburgers' ground-floor neighbour, chocolate bar Max Brenner, which opened in June 2022, while a large tenancy above, originally occupied by The Bavarian restaurant, is being converted into workers' housing. — Philip Chandler
