At a council meeting in October, when the decision was made to remove the trees to enable maximum parking on the site, councillor Matt Wong issued a challenge to the Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce, which had been lobbying for the park, to fund 170 new trees — replacing every one removed with 10.
The Chamber accepted that challenge and in partnership with Trees That Count launched a tree registry on November 14, asking businesses to contribute — $10 funded one tree.
By the time the registry closed last Friday, the business community had funded 580 new trees, to be spread across four planting sites in the Whakatipu — the Arrowtown Choppers, Arthurs Point’s Morningstar Reserve, the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust and the Glenorchy Planting Project.
Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers is delighted with the response from Chamber members, and others, who chipped in.
"It just shows you how good this community is.
"This business community — and people often forget — is part of this community.
"They’re the mums and dads dropping kids off at school, and have real pride in this place and actually want to see [it] get ahead.
"It’s just reflected in what they’ve done here — it’s great."
Chamber boss Sharon Fifield’s elated at the number of trees purchased by the business community, noting they "really throw themselves behind any kind of support of community initiatives".
"We are a small town, of small independent businesses, they are part of the community and they love the community, so it’s just really cool to see how much they’re willing to support — and, we need those carparks."
