Otago Daily Times: Queenstown Lakes

Firefighters remained on standby in Queenstown overnight after a large fire broke out yesterday afternoon in the building that houses The World Bar, Fat Badgers Pizza and Quest. James Beech, Christina McDonald, Mark Price and Paul Taylor report.

It is a Queenstown institution, known to countless residents and travellers around the globe.

Jetstar has added a new transtasman flight and will fly Australians directly into Queenstown seven days a week, just days after a new airline alliance between Qantas and Emirates opened the resort to tourists from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

They may be volunteers, and they may have had to fly and drive equipment from as far away as Invercargill, but the firefighters who attended yesterday's Shotover St blaze earned high praise from Fire Service Central and North Otago area manager

New Zealand tourism company Real Journeys has been named as the preferred bidder in the sale of Cardrona Alpine Resort, near Wanaka.