I'm with you on the wariness towards TOP. Your little bio of one of their Board simply reinforces my suspicion. It should be those Board members under the microscope re their political opinions given their authority over parliamentary decision to be made by TOP should they get in. Stop questioning Q and focus on the faceless puppet string holders behind her - please.
👍💯% Not sure how a "Board" making arbitrary decisions is democracy for those who vote for specific candidates who could get overruled on their election campaign undertakings, ethical leanings, etc
It's a bit of a hike to the Bus Stop. Can I have a Gondola. More concerning than Bishops worked out on the back of a fag packet Gondola, is the Greens on 8% and NZF up 1% to 13%. That just seems all upside down to me.
I’m extremely wary of TOP, and your info reinforces my suspicion they are not to be trusted to do the right things for the majority of kiwis, or the environment.
Their land tax will be water of a ducks back for the very wealthy few, but a burden for everyone else, especially the working classes, and retirees. It will not be good for renters as landlords will just ad the cost to the rents they charge, and it will be another obstacle standing in the way of home ownership for young people.
Agree with you Diana, I also am extremely wary of Opportunity Party, particularly their land tax policy. They are also very coy about which party they would support if they held the "king maker" position. They seem to have some big financial backers too.
What's a puzzle for me is how the Natz comms people can think or even have any faint hope that despite the desperate spinning the majority of people can't still see the emperor and the entire party has no clothes?? They and anybody buying the united story are seriously delusional in my book.
I really don't trust TOP one iota. I'm not dissing on those who support TOP (each to their own) but from what I can see, they are incredibly vague on who they would support even though National has ruled them out, although I sure as shit don't trust Christopher Luxon. That prick will do anything to get in to power.
Te Pāti Reipa and Te Pāti Kākariki have a lot of mahi to do to bring there support up so that we can avoid that very situation that we were in in 2017.
You could have light rail along the lake edge between the airport and downtown Queenstown where a cycling and walking track is now (you could easily locate those activities to the Frankton Rd footpaths.
You’d move a greater volume of pax than I’d perceive a gondola system would and there are cool designs and they can be battery electric!
Buses 🚌 require an independent bus 🚌 lane and that’s harder to achieve! The existing bus service is quite good, I use it regularly, but it suffers during congestion periods which is most of the day now!
Light rail could link to Arrowtown and also the residential areas beyond Frankton and out to Jacks Pt.
💯👍 I was going to say the same! Light electric rail seems much more practical & as you say, capable of moving more people unless you have HUGE Gondolas 🤔 It is a couple of years since I've had to navigate through Queenstown traffic, but I used to do it regularly & even before the extra traffic of recent times it was a challenge I used to dread 🫣
I drive tour coach’s in and out of Queenstown. Frankton Rd is very congested now. If we are leaving for Milford Sound in the morning often you add in a half hour getting out and sometimes it takes an hour at the end of the day to get from Frankton into Queenstown. Park and ride has to be in the mix of things on the near future to alleviate congestion and to make entry into Queenstown doable and viable and sustainable.
I’m cautious about TOP. Maybe better as a kingmaker than Winston but they are still an untested ingredient. It’s very fuzzy about where they stand on the political highway.
Thats really useful info about the OP board. I had a read of their “productivity unleashed” policy ; it all seems to be about supporting Rocket Lab and Xero as examples of innovation. Both founders now Sirs. Rocket Lab now largely based in the US and profiting from military contracts with the US government : Xero ; taken over by American management whose CEO was getting around $26m a year but “took a haircut” down to only $7.5m! Then the exposure about what a creep Sir Rod Drury was. The way they treat their workers is really crap too. I know some of them. I posed a question about this on FB and got a telling off from someone saying essentially I am picking on OP by asking questions and it’s not OP’s fault Labour is falling in the polls (they’re not). But I will continue to ask questions. I already know the answers from National/ACT/NZF and by and large the Labour and Greens, or I can find out. And there are many policies to come. Labour campaign launch in September. But OP needs to come clean.
Oops - my understanding is that the Queenstown gondola will run alongside the lake between airport and central Queenstown with the idea that it will ease congestion along the only road there.
There are buses in Qtown however many cant / dont use buses.
The new suburbs near the airport are full of tradies with utes they need for work.
Visitors pick up and drop off rental cars to travel around central and to fiordland.
(That's where I got caught. I have family I had visited near Cromwell and was returning a car at a busy time.)
My plane was delayed and an old friend picked me up and showed me around the new suburbs. (She has lived there since the 70's.) She is horrified by them. I was shocked.
So no easy solution but its horrible right now.
As one of the few areas of growth the Nats are trying to woo locals with promises.
I was shocked by the traffic density when visiting central earlier this year. (I've visited there quite regularly since the 1950s)
Qtown traffic is a mess.
The Qtown town centre has limited room for expansion because of geography so all expansion has been around, Frankton which has grown into a whole town as well as new large suburbs further on the road to Invercargill (Jack's Point and another)
All converge onto one road at the big roundabout near the airport. Scary navigating for visitors. There is no room for another road.
This gondola as a partial solution has been talked of before. The idea isn't new its the funding promise that's new. Buying votes!
We've visited Queenstown sporadically for decades - my wife used to holiday there when she was a child, and has fond memories of the place. We haven't been back there, though, for nearly 10 years. We found the place too much like a miniature Auckland...
When I was growing up in Dunedin, Queenstown and Wanaka were the places that people had holiday houses, or went camping. Nowadays, Dunedin people have batches in Naseby or Patearoa, and avoid the tourist traps...
Queenstown is more like an oversized exclusive mall now - so different to my childhood memories of roses rambling over rusty tin fences and snow covered mountains as a backdrop and the old busses with gears that graunched as they slogged their way up Coronet Peak.
Same - growing up in Southland, Queenstown was the "poor persons" holiday spot near home, with camping on the lake front in tents & launching your boat straight into the water. I worked for a firm who was involved in some of the early proposed big money investments in Queenstown (doing background research ) and sad to say it was the beginning of the end for ordinary folks having cheap holidays there, plus I had relatives who were living there prior to the boom but were already complaining about not being able to afford to live there much longer as prices for everything went up and up as the "wealthy & sorted" took over 😱 More recently I know people who work in the area but can't find anywhere reasonably priced to live, and very few "workers" get paid above average wages to compensate 🤷 I have strong ties & deep memories of Queenstown which I can separate from the current problems - it is stunningly beautiful & the gateway to some epic backcountry.
Same. The last time we went there was not long after covid and we were going to Miford Sound before the hoards returned (which was wonderful) however, even then,I decided I would never return to Queenstown... it was awful.
🤔 I'm well familiar with that roundabout - it seemed like a chokepoint even when it first appeared (a newish addition in my long history of travelling around but mainly through Queenstown to get to Glenorchy & the backcountry beyond). While there is no room for another road, places in Aotearoa & around the world build roading over top of the existing road in pinch pints, in order to minimise congestion, but I'm sure that has been looked at 🤞🙃
Some years ago I went to a dinner where another guest was on the board of TOP. A mutual friend thought it would be interesting given I at the time had a vaguely comparable role in the Greens (although the governing arrangements there tend to be a lot more devolved). It was kinda interesting. More fun than perhaps spending an evening with an insufferable ACT libertarian or something. Still, I couldn't help but note a certain emotional disconnection that I seem to feel is TOPs hallmark. I'm certainly rational (career as a physical scientist) but the big realisation for the latter part of my adult life is that relationships and community matter perhaps above all.
Until TOP can work out who they are and what they stand for, they’re not worthy of any respect or votes heading their way. At the moment their TOP ticket translates more of……
Trust Our Populism,
Terrifically Optimistic Poppets
Taking Over Prosperity
Thinking Of Possibilities, ( because we haven’t really worked that out yet)
There are probably more interpretations that could be found but for now there’s nothing but indecision ahead. If they can’t make up their minds which side they’re on before election day, when it comes to 3 of the 6 seats in Parliament they could gain protesting about databases being built across country the while the other 3 are busy promoting them, it could be very interesting to watch…..
Having cake and eating it too comes to mind…..
I picture some very short political careers ahead.
With NZ First rising in the latest poll figures you provided, suggests that more white-haired oldies agree with racist Peters recent ‘go back to your own country’ diatribe. And if that is the case, then ‘woe betide ye Molly Wuppee’ ……
TOP....I used to have one of those in primary school. They could really 'Spin' if you get my drift.😉 Maybe they're just a Trojan horse lot...the shock troops will hit the ground running once the 5% mark is reached. We'll wait and see shall we?
I'm with you on the wariness towards TOP. Your little bio of one of their Board simply reinforces my suspicion. It should be those Board members under the microscope re their political opinions given their authority over parliamentary decision to be made by TOP should they get in. Stop questioning Q and focus on the faceless puppet string holders behind her - please.
👍💯% Not sure how a "Board" making arbitrary decisions is democracy for those who vote for specific candidates who could get overruled on their election campaign undertakings, ethical leanings, etc
Your story about TOP confirms my impression - they are the tech nerds' party. Great for engineering solutions, but where is the room for humans?
It's a bit of a hike to the Bus Stop. Can I have a Gondola. More concerning than Bishops worked out on the back of a fag packet Gondola, is the Greens on 8% and NZF up 1% to 13%. That just seems all upside down to me.
You nailed it Nick, I too don't know what TOP stand for and this makes me suspicious of them.
I’m extremely wary of TOP, and your info reinforces my suspicion they are not to be trusted to do the right things for the majority of kiwis, or the environment.
Their land tax will be water of a ducks back for the very wealthy few, but a burden for everyone else, especially the working classes, and retirees. It will not be good for renters as landlords will just ad the cost to the rents they charge, and it will be another obstacle standing in the way of home ownership for young people.
Agree with you Diana, I also am extremely wary of Opportunity Party, particularly their land tax policy. They are also very coy about which party they would support if they held the "king maker" position. They seem to have some big financial backers too.
Exactly Jude
What's a puzzle for me is how the Natz comms people can think or even have any faint hope that despite the desperate spinning the majority of people can't still see the emperor and the entire party has no clothes?? They and anybody buying the united story are seriously delusional in my book.
I hope you're right. I am worried it only looks that way from inside a leftie bubble - it's very hard to look at it all objectively
Kia ora Nick.
I really don't trust TOP one iota. I'm not dissing on those who support TOP (each to their own) but from what I can see, they are incredibly vague on who they would support even though National has ruled them out, although I sure as shit don't trust Christopher Luxon. That prick will do anything to get in to power.
Te Pāti Reipa and Te Pāti Kākariki have a lot of mahi to do to bring there support up so that we can avoid that very situation that we were in in 2017.
Chris Bishop wants to make gondolas (salodnog ) more accessible....well you can just kooh ffo yddoN.
And TOP are kingmakers ? That's the TOP calling the kettle black..
Bring back Social Credit.
Bring Back Bruce Beetham?
yes ! yes, YES YES !!
I'm very surprised
Me too ! thanks Kim.
You could have light rail along the lake edge between the airport and downtown Queenstown where a cycling and walking track is now (you could easily locate those activities to the Frankton Rd footpaths.
You’d move a greater volume of pax than I’d perceive a gondola system would and there are cool designs and they can be battery electric!
Buses 🚌 require an independent bus 🚌 lane and that’s harder to achieve! The existing bus service is quite good, I use it regularly, but it suffers during congestion periods which is most of the day now!
Light rail could link to Arrowtown and also the residential areas beyond Frankton and out to Jacks Pt.
💯👍 I was going to say the same! Light electric rail seems much more practical & as you say, capable of moving more people unless you have HUGE Gondolas 🤔 It is a couple of years since I've had to navigate through Queenstown traffic, but I used to do it regularly & even before the extra traffic of recent times it was a challenge I used to dread 🫣
I drive tour coach’s in and out of Queenstown. Frankton Rd is very congested now. If we are leaving for Milford Sound in the morning often you add in a half hour getting out and sometimes it takes an hour at the end of the day to get from Frankton into Queenstown. Park and ride has to be in the mix of things on the near future to alleviate congestion and to make entry into Queenstown doable and viable and sustainable.
I’m cautious about TOP. Maybe better as a kingmaker than Winston but they are still an untested ingredient. It’s very fuzzy about where they stand on the political highway.
Thats really useful info about the OP board. I had a read of their “productivity unleashed” policy ; it all seems to be about supporting Rocket Lab and Xero as examples of innovation. Both founders now Sirs. Rocket Lab now largely based in the US and profiting from military contracts with the US government : Xero ; taken over by American management whose CEO was getting around $26m a year but “took a haircut” down to only $7.5m! Then the exposure about what a creep Sir Rod Drury was. The way they treat their workers is really crap too. I know some of them. I posed a question about this on FB and got a telling off from someone saying essentially I am picking on OP by asking questions and it’s not OP’s fault Labour is falling in the polls (they’re not). But I will continue to ask questions. I already know the answers from National/ACT/NZF and by and large the Labour and Greens, or I can find out. And there are many policies to come. Labour campaign launch in September. But OP needs to come clean.
Yes Labours policies are coming. The National Party ruckus delayed some; not good to announce a policy with other noise going on.
Oops - my understanding is that the Queenstown gondola will run alongside the lake between airport and central Queenstown with the idea that it will ease congestion along the only road there.
Yes, but buses would also ease congestion by taking vehicles off the road. Just feels like a strange thing for the government to focus on now.
Maybe one of their rich mates wants to make another few bucks.
This!
I reckon!
There are buses in Qtown however many cant / dont use buses.
The new suburbs near the airport are full of tradies with utes they need for work.
Visitors pick up and drop off rental cars to travel around central and to fiordland.
(That's where I got caught. I have family I had visited near Cromwell and was returning a car at a busy time.)
My plane was delayed and an old friend picked me up and showed me around the new suburbs. (She has lived there since the 70's.) She is horrified by them. I was shocked.
So no easy solution but its horrible right now.
As one of the few areas of growth the Nats are trying to woo locals with promises.
I don't know - I think NZ is being redesigned for those golden visa folk who seem to think Queenstown the perfect place to retreat to.
I was shocked by the traffic density when visiting central earlier this year. (I've visited there quite regularly since the 1950s)
Qtown traffic is a mess.
The Qtown town centre has limited room for expansion because of geography so all expansion has been around, Frankton which has grown into a whole town as well as new large suburbs further on the road to Invercargill (Jack's Point and another)
All converge onto one road at the big roundabout near the airport. Scary navigating for visitors. There is no room for another road.
This gondola as a partial solution has been talked of before. The idea isn't new its the funding promise that's new. Buying votes!
We've visited Queenstown sporadically for decades - my wife used to holiday there when she was a child, and has fond memories of the place. We haven't been back there, though, for nearly 10 years. We found the place too much like a miniature Auckland...
When I was growing up in Dunedin, Queenstown and Wanaka were the places that people had holiday houses, or went camping. Nowadays, Dunedin people have batches in Naseby or Patearoa, and avoid the tourist traps...
Queenstown is more like an oversized exclusive mall now - so different to my childhood memories of roses rambling over rusty tin fences and snow covered mountains as a backdrop and the old busses with gears that graunched as they slogged their way up Coronet Peak.
Same - growing up in Southland, Queenstown was the "poor persons" holiday spot near home, with camping on the lake front in tents & launching your boat straight into the water. I worked for a firm who was involved in some of the early proposed big money investments in Queenstown (doing background research ) and sad to say it was the beginning of the end for ordinary folks having cheap holidays there, plus I had relatives who were living there prior to the boom but were already complaining about not being able to afford to live there much longer as prices for everything went up and up as the "wealthy & sorted" took over 😱 More recently I know people who work in the area but can't find anywhere reasonably priced to live, and very few "workers" get paid above average wages to compensate 🤷 I have strong ties & deep memories of Queenstown which I can separate from the current problems - it is stunningly beautiful & the gateway to some epic backcountry.
Same. The last time we went there was not long after covid and we were going to Miford Sound before the hoards returned (which was wonderful) however, even then,I decided I would never return to Queenstown... it was awful.
🤔 I'm well familiar with that roundabout - it seemed like a chokepoint even when it first appeared (a newish addition in my long history of travelling around but mainly through Queenstown to get to Glenorchy & the backcountry beyond). While there is no room for another road, places in Aotearoa & around the world build roading over top of the existing road in pinch pints, in order to minimise congestion, but I'm sure that has been looked at 🤞🙃
Some years ago I went to a dinner where another guest was on the board of TOP. A mutual friend thought it would be interesting given I at the time had a vaguely comparable role in the Greens (although the governing arrangements there tend to be a lot more devolved). It was kinda interesting. More fun than perhaps spending an evening with an insufferable ACT libertarian or something. Still, I couldn't help but note a certain emotional disconnection that I seem to feel is TOPs hallmark. I'm certainly rational (career as a physical scientist) but the big realisation for the latter part of my adult life is that relationships and community matter perhaps above all.
Until TOP can work out who they are and what they stand for, they’re not worthy of any respect or votes heading their way. At the moment their TOP ticket translates more of……
Trust Our Populism,
Terrifically Optimistic Poppets
Taking Over Prosperity
Thinking Of Possibilities, ( because we haven’t really worked that out yet)
There are probably more interpretations that could be found but for now there’s nothing but indecision ahead. If they can’t make up their minds which side they’re on before election day, when it comes to 3 of the 6 seats in Parliament they could gain protesting about databases being built across country the while the other 3 are busy promoting them, it could be very interesting to watch…..
Having cake and eating it too comes to mind…..
I picture some very short political careers ahead.
With NZ First rising in the latest poll figures you provided, suggests that more white-haired oldies agree with racist Peters recent ‘go back to your own country’ diatribe. And if that is the case, then ‘woe betide ye Molly Wuppee’ ……
TOP....I used to have one of those in primary school. They could really 'Spin' if you get my drift.😉 Maybe they're just a Trojan horse lot...the shock troops will hit the ground running once the 5% mark is reached. We'll wait and see shall we?