Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read and life as she sees it ...
I'm writing this on a grey old Tuesday, and hoping all the visiting travel writers and travel agents will use this bad-weather day to prowl around the exhibits at Trenz after what has been a dream few days for showcasing our beautiful Wakatipu (oops, I mean New Zealand, otherwise it would be called Treq; but we all know our little bit is the best, and I hope everyone else does too, now).
We have just had the old grey Mayor of Queenstown, David Bradford, staying with us. He's not just a grandfather, but a great-grandfather as well, now.
He's just as much fun as ever.
In a long overdue tidy-up of those kitchen drawers where things are kept for years before being thrown away (instead of just thrown away at the start) I found David's mayoral candidacy flyer from 1983.
Snappy hairdos they had then!Part of his promise was to start up a public relations office for Queenstown to establish a link between the community, tourist and business interests.
He asked for the outrageous sum of $30,000 to start it up and run it for a year, and got the even more outrageous $1250.
That was the beginning of Destination Queenstown, and these days it survives on considerably more than that.
Some people resent funding it, but whatever business you are in, you are still benefiting from the two million visitors we get each year, whether you fit windscreens, fix broken legs, hand out parking tickets, teach, clean or just live here to play golf and ski.
You wouldn't have all our great golf courses, skifields, fantastic restaurants, bars and cafes, and airport and festivals if we weren't getting all the visitors.
And there certainly wouldn't be all the jobs and potential for so many businesses without them.
In the bad old days, we called the tourists "loopies" and scorned them for their penchant for paua ashtrays and orange sheepskins.
These days it's a little better, but some still need reminding that our visitors are our bread and butter and need to be treated kindly and helpfully.
Congratulations to Fleur Caulton and Josh Emmett for putting on such a great opening party at Rata on Friday night.
I placed myself in a very handy spot where tiny delicious morsels were brought out by tiny delicious mortals. Having primary-school children waiting was a very good idea. They were little enough to scoot through the gaps between the guests and were holding the platters at just the right height.
Shame child labour is so frowned upon - they were stars!And there are lots of other local stars out this weekend.
People come up with the most fabulous ideas here.
On Saturday night, Roger Tompkins has organised a Purple Haze gin party at the Spire Hotel with a psychedelic celebration of nonstop Jimi Hendrix music. I'm going to dig out my purple flares right now.
And if Jimi is a little heavy and hazy for you, the Riflemen are putting on a concert at Motogrill in Shotover St and word is they are seriously good.
And don't forget that on May 18, the Festival of Colour has controversial and very funny Joe Bennett, author, columnist and dog-owner speaking at noon at the Crowne Plaza. Telephone (03) 441-8254 or email catherine@ queenstownchamber.org.nz if you want a ticket.
Sometimes you hear people moaning that everything in the world has been discovered and there are no new countries left.
But the biggest unexplored region of our world is right inside our heads. Brain development is so fascinating and so new that it seems every week, scientists are unearthing enormous secrets.
I've just finished reading Welcome to Your Child's Brain by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang.
It starts with a multi-choice quiz on things such as how to get your child to eat spinach or how to improve a shy child's life.
It explains why France was right to ban television for babies and why everyone should learn a second language (I love that!) It's such an easy read and the most annoying thing about the book is wishing I had read it when my children were little.
