Latest news with #Queenstown-based
Otago Daily Times
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Soundscapes of the Southern Lakes
Celebrated Kiwi pianist Michael Houstoun. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Some of New Zealand's most acclaimed chamber musicians are heading our way in October, to perform during the fifth At the World's Edge (AWE) Festival. Artistic director Benjamin Baker's brought together acclaimed pianist Michael Houstoun, cellist James Bush and composer in residence John Psathas, who'll be joined by a cast of international artists. This year's festival draws on the natural world as a source of creative inspiration — between October 4 and 12 there'll be seven curated performances across the district and a series of free events to highlight the many ways composers engage with nature. In Queenstown, AWE will be based at Te Atamira. "As a festival rooted in the landscapes of the Southern Lakes, we're constantly inspired by our surroundings," festival director Justine Cormack says. "It's a privilege to celebrate five years of extraordinary performances with artists and audiences who share our belief that music, like nature, can shift our perspective and stir something deeply personal." That theme's also guiding the AWE+ series of free public performances, workshops and talks, which include Queenstown-based architect Fred van Brandenburg, who'll share insights into biomimicry and design, and Olympic freeskier Jossi Wells on the parallels between performance, creativity and the alpine environment, while there'll also be a keyboard-focused programme with works for piano and harpsichord, and performances from Aussie harpsichordist Erin Helyard and Houstoun. AWE culminates in a tour of schools across the Southern Lakes between October 13 and 17. For more info, or to buy tickets, see
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Queenstown open for skiing action on Saturday
It is not too shabby for an opening day. NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson says both The Remarkables and Coronet Peak will open as scheduled from 9am on Saturday, with the latter opening from top to bottom. At Coronet, all the beginner conveyor lifts, the Meadows Chair and Coronet Express would be in action — Rocky Gully and Green gates would not be open, "but we'll be looking to add those in as soon as we can stitch that together". At The Remarkables, the learners' conveyors, Alta and Curvey Basin would be open for action, with Sugar Bowl and Shadow Basin still to come, Mr Anderson said. "Our whole objective in getting both mountains open on the same day is to send a really, really strong signal to the market that ... Queenstown's open for business, and hopefully you see that switch flipped and the town gets busy very quickly." Mr Anderson said last weekend's perfectly timed snowfall had been supplemented by a huge amount of snowmaking, which he believed had been the longest period of snowmaking in Queenstown for a decade. "And the new guns we've got up there, they are just incredible." At The Remarkables, for example, the whales of snow from the guns were higher than the conveyor covers. "It just gives you an idea of the amount of snow they were belting out." He estimated Coronet was opening with between 60cm and 120cm on trail, and about 60cm at The Remarkables. "We're kind of expecting the locals to come out in force once they hear how good the on-trail skiing is ... It'll be nice to get a bit of a dump before school holidays, but with or without it, we're going to have a good school holidays, I can see that." Cardrona, which along with Treble Cone is owned by Queenstown-based company RealNZ, will also open on Saturday. Chief mountains officer Laura Hedley said thanks to an "incredible effort" from the snowmaking team, and some help from Mother Nature, the McDougall's Chondola and the learner conveyors would be spinning. Skiers and boarders would be able to access McDougalls' trail and the beginners' area from Saturday, while the North Face Cardrona parks crew would also put in a few features in McPark, the temporary early-season terrain park under McDougalls. "Our new base area building is nearing completion, and we are aiming to get our new Cardrona Corner retail shop open on Saturday, too," Ms Hedley said. To reflect the early season offering, Cardies day passes will be at early season rates until Whitestar Express opens. Treble Cone is scheduled to open on June 28.
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Open for skiing action on Saturday
It is not too shabby for an opening day. NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson says both The Remarkables and Coronet Peak will open as scheduled from 9am on Saturday, with the latter opening from top to bottom. At Coronet, all the beginner conveyor lifts, the Meadows Chair and Coronet Express would be in action — Rocky Gully and Green gates would not be open, "but we'll be looking to add those in as soon as we can stitch that together". At The Remarkables, the learners' conveyors, Alta and Curvey Basin would be open for action, with Sugar Bowl and Shadow Basin still to come, Mr Anderson said. "Our whole objective in getting both mountains open on the same day is to send a really, really strong signal to the market that ... Queenstown's open for business, and hopefully you see that switch flipped and the town gets busy very quickly." Mr Anderson said last weekend's perfectly timed snowfall had been supplemented by a huge amount of snowmaking, which he believed had been the longest period of snowmaking in Queenstown for a decade. "And the new guns we've got up there, they are just incredible." At The Remarkables, for example, the whales of snow from the guns were higher than the conveyor covers. "It just gives you an idea of the amount of snow they were belting out." He estimated Coronet was opening with between 60cm and 120cm on trail, and about 60cm at The Remarkables. "We're kind of expecting the locals to come out in force once they hear how good the on-trail skiing is ... It'll be nice to get a bit of a dump before school holidays, but with or without it, we're going to have a good school holidays, I can see that." Cardrona, which along with Treble Cone is owned by Queenstown-based company RealNZ, will also open on Saturday. Chief mountains officer Laura Hedley said thanks to an "incredible effort" from the snowmaking team, and some help from Mother Nature, the McDougall's Chondola and the learner conveyors would be spinning. Skiers and boarders would be able to access McDougalls' trail and the beginners' area from Saturday, while the North Face Cardrona parks crew would also put in a few features in McPark, the temporary early-season terrain park under McDougalls. "Our new base area building is nearing completion, and we are aiming to get our new Cardrona Corner retail shop open on Saturday, too," Ms Hedley said. To reflect the early season offering, Cardies day passes will be at early season rates until Whitestar Express opens. Treble Cone is scheduled to open on June 28.
NZ Autocar
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- NZ Autocar
LDV NZ launches Terron 9 ute at Fieldays
Following a recent preview, LDV NZ will unleash its Terron 9 double-cab ute to the public at Fieldays next week. This new four-wheel drive workhorse features a 2.5L 164kW/520Nm turbodiesel and a 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity. So it's another up-for-anything ute that LDV says works as hard as Fieldays attendees do. The Terron 9 is larger (5500mm) than many of the market's best-known utes and joins LDV's smaller T60 line-up. It will form the centrepiece of LDV's site I50 at Mystery Creek from June 11 to 14. After a debut for the brand at Fieldays last year, 2025 promises to be even bigger. There's also the opportunity for showgoers to meet and greet LDV's brand ambassadors. Queenstown-based qualified carpenter Chelsea Roper (She Builds Bro) will be making the trip north on Friday and Saturday. The Morning Shift's podcasters will make an appearance at the LDV site on Saturday. Professional rugby player Katelyn Vaha'akolo who, like her fellow LDV ambassadors also drives an LDV T60 ute, will also be onsite on Saturday. LDV will have exclusive Fieldays offers for those considering a purchase during the event. For example, anyone buying an LDV vehicle there will receive a free accessory pack valued at $3000. This offer runs until June 30. Inchcape New Zealand General Manager Kym Mellow is confident the Terron 9 will set a new benchmark for utes in New Zealand. He is looking forward to seeing the public's reaction to it. 'The all-new LDV Terron 9 is built for power, designed for versatility, and is ready to redefine the ute experience' he said. 'Expanding our range, the Terron 9 brings toughness, intelligence, and performance to the next level. Backed by LDV's commitment to quality, it comes with a seven-year warranty, giving you confidence on every journey.' Also at the LDV site (#I50) there will be a range of T60 utes and LDV's Deliver 7 van with 2.0 turbodiesel power.
Otago Daily Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Changing relationships with food, compassionately
Reducing her mum to tears was not the aim of Claire Turnbull's latest book but she felt she had to lay it all on the line if she was going to be able to effectively help people, the Queenstown-based nutritionist tells Rebecca Fox. Claire Turnbull believes it is hard to help others if you have not experienced tough times yourself — so she is "brutally honest" about her own journey. "I think when you've got to the point where you didn't want to be alive any more and you've gone through the process of wanting to take your own life, I think off the back of that, where I've got to now, is, like, I've literally got nothing to lose by putting this out there because I nearly wasn't here anyway." If by "ripping off my Band-aids and just sharing it" helps her connect with people, then she is willing to do it. "Because we've all got our battle scars and I think that's where the healing is, and I think we don't need to be defined by those, but they are part of us. "And I just hope that by revealing some of my own scars that someone can feel more comfortable with theirs." She is quick to point out that she is not 100% healed and will never be. "I'm still on the journey. But I can pick up a marshmallow and be like, oh, I don't really fancy that and put it down. But I'm a person that used to, literally, if I looked at a bag of Maltesers I'd already eaten three bags of them." Turnbull, a trained dietitian and fitness instructor, details that journey in her latest book alongside insight, advice, tips and tricks on how people can change their relationship with food for the better "for free". Having practised as a dietitian for two decades she has seen a repeated pattern of people getting to the point where they are struggling with their weight and fatigued but wanting to eat better and look after themselves. "But the first thing they default to is the next diet. And what happens is people get results, and then they can't maintain it because it's unrealistic, and really they haven't got to the root of the problem for themselves." Food information can be quite subtle and sneaky these days, but anything that restricts what you eat is a diet and will be hard to maintain long-term, she says. "It's bull.... and people know it. But we all think, gosh we'll get there. Well, you know, it's not worked the 20 times we've done it before, it's still not going to work this time. It cannot be fixed in six weeks, it cannot be fixed with a pill." Many people reach for food or alcohol for comfort or due to boredom. For others it is a way to manage difficult feelings resulting from abuse and trauma, while for Turnbull it was low self-esteem and a tendency to be obsessive. "There's all these different reasons why we struggle with food, and it's this horrible cycle of self-hatred and self-blame and shame around the way that we eat and we think that the next diet is gonna be the answer, and I just want people to understand why they've got themselves into this position and then find a way through that is a lot more compassionate." If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111. She warns the book is not a "quick fix" and that people's journeys, like her own, will be ongoing. "Real life is always going to throw you curveballs and always going to throw you challenges and unfortunately all these diets that sell you the quick-fix option. Turnbull, who has a positive psychology diploma, worries that each time someone experiences that, it erodes their soul. But there is another way, she says. "We just need to realise that we are all human, we are all imperfect. We all are going to struggle with very different things. We're all going to make mistakes." She firmly believes the solution is to find the root cause of the problem and work on that as food is often the symptom of a situation — hence the use of the iceberg analogy. "So when people understand themselves, that is the first point of change. So through my 20 years of working, the biggest thing I know is that awareness is the first stage of change." The book aims to help people understanding why they struggle with food — why they eat when they are bored or tired or to manage their emotions. "We eat very habitually. People finish their food off their plate because we were told to do that when we were children. We eat when something is offered to us because it's rude to say no. We eat food when it's there at a morning tea shout or a lunch thing or picking out of our kids' lunch boxes when it's there. "There's so much eating and drinking that happens that has got absolutely nothing to do with us consciously, like, nourishing our bodies." So if people are able to eliminate what Turnbull calls "non-hungry" eating and manage those behaviours they do not need to go on a diet because a lot of the extra food and drinking they are doing is what has sent them off-track. Instead of using a restrictive or limitation method which just makes the food more appealing, she urges people to flip the way they think about food. "What I encourage people to do instead then is actually approach food from a place of what can you add in to the way that you're eating to help nourish your body better? How can you improve the way that you eat?" She also looks at sleep. How much or how little people get impacts on appetite and cravings and ability to manage emotions. It helps to look at how people grew up, their parents' relationship with food and how that influences their own behaviours, she says. Turnbull grew up when everyone's mothers were going to Weightwatchers or on a diet and watching their weight. It was one of her mother's diet books that triggered her own journey to an eating disorder including secret bingeing and throwing up. She was in her second year of university when her mental health took a turn for the worse and she decided she wanted it to be all over but luckily a friend walked in and took her to the doctor. Getting her mother to proof-read the book was very difficult. "She cried a lot because she didn't know what happened to me. I didn't go into detail of what happened, but dear God, it was a hard read." It was also hard as her mother blamed herself despite her behaviour being completely normal for that era. "It's like smoking, you know, no-one knew the implications of putting your kid on a diet or telling them they were a bit too fat, you know?" Turnbull is thankful both of them have a healthier relationship with food these days. "She's in a really good place with food, because of the work that I have done. And I said, 'Mum, if we'd not been through this journey together, this book and the work that we've done together is not going to help all the other mothers and daughters out there that have been through the same thing'." The important thing for parents to realise is that children are watching carefully their language and actions around food as it is behaviour not words that children take in, she says. "It's so difficult for children to eat well in this modern environment that we live in. But they are not listening to what you say, they are watching what you do." But what Turnbull wants people to be aware of is that they are only human and do not have to be perfect every day. She aims for a balanced lifestyle which means nothing is off limits and she enjoys the odd treat. And no, she is not judging you when she sees you in the supermarket or in a restaurant. "I would just like to always say to people, I don't care what's in your trolley. If I'm around a friend's house or out for dinner, I genuinely am not thinking about what other people are eating. They're probably thinking about it more than I am, to be honest. There's no place for judgement." The book End Your Fight With Food , Claire Turnbull. How to change your eating habits for good, Allen and Unwin, RRP $36.99. Where to get help: Lifeline: 0800-543-354 or (09) 522-2999 Suicide Prevention Helpline: 0508-828-865 (0508 TAUTOKO) Youthline: 0800-376-633 or free text 234 Samaritans: 0800-726-666
