"It's hard enough trying to get parking in Queenstown for us nine-to-fivers. It's pushing us to the brink," Ms Tomlinson, a personal assistant who used to park at the formerly free Boundary Rd car park, said.
The council's push to sell the new fees as a way of encouraging cycling, car pooling and public transport was "cheeky", because a round-trip ticket to work would cost her $12 a day ($60 per week) on Connectabus.
"It's cheaper to take a car."
Boundary St car park, near Gorge Rd, used to be full by 10am but was almost empty on Monday morning at 9.30am, the first day of new charges.
It was still at under 50% occupancy yesterday afternoon.
Council transport manager Denis Mander said the exodus of vehicles was a typical reaction by motorists confronted with new charges.
He said his experience working for other councils suggested motorists would return once they began to "appreciate the convenience" and had adjusted to fees.
Ms Tomlinson disagrees.
"No-one's going to use the Boundary St car park; it's just going to stay empty," she said.
Neighbouring residential streets would also start to feel the squeeze as commuters looked for alternative free parks in thoroughfares like Hallenstein St, Gorge Rd and Hamilton Rd, she said.
Mr Mander said teething problems with ticketing machines on the first day of new and increased parking charges in Queenstown's CBD were fixed quickly.
The "disappointing" glitch arose on Monday morning when downloading software from Auckland-based ticketing machine contractors Global Integrated Solutions failed to transmit to Queenstown, resulting in the wrong ticket prices being displayed.
Those using the Boundary St car park early in the day were charged $2 an hour instead of 50c, while those using the Ballarat St car park were charged the old fee of 50c an hour instead of $1.
Mr Mander said the machines were turned off by 10am and the problem was fixed by 4pm.
The council would be monitoring parking patterns before Christmas as it continued to assess its new parking regime, he said.
He said there had been no noticeable spike in parking tickets since the new charges were introduced.
