Six people congregated beside the stage, near Earnslaw Park — two unfurled a "Unite" banner, while Queenstown Housing Initiative co-founder Lindsay Waterfield held a placard which said "Housing for workers".
One of the protesters had worked on traffic management during the years-long street upgrade project while living in a van.
While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was meant to have attended the opening, fog meant his plane was unable to land.
Ms Waterfield wondered if Mr Hipkins knew many of the people who had worked on the street upgrade project had to commute from Kingston, Alexandra or Cromwell due to the lack of affordable rental housing in Queenstown.
"Everybody keeps telling us it’s a central government thing ... so it would be nice to see what he has to say, and see if he’s got any immediate fixes, because we’re at minus temperatures now and people are still sleeping in their cars."
Unite union organiser Simon Edmunds said he felt it was important, while celebrating "a street lined with golden lampposts", to draw attention to the rental housing crisis, which was affecting the workers who kept the town running.
"We still have workers sleeping in their cars, vans and tents in this town, and we heard [Mayor] Glyn Lewers, who spoke today about looking after their community. We don’t believe him."
"We feel that his community that he looks after is the business community but he’s not at all interested in the workers of this town, and that needs to change," Mr Edmunds said.
"Labour has invited in tens of thousands of migrant workers to New Zealand to fill the gaps and we need them in Queenstown but where is the duty of care for these workers once they arrive?
"What we find is they are essentially thrown to the wolves."
By Matt Porter and Tracey Roxburgh
