Two high-calibre rock bands set the seal on four days of wintry fun, games and frivolity in Queenstown yesterday.
The Black Seeds and The Feelers helped turn around a shaky start to the final day of the 44th Queenstown Winter Festival as they played to a respectable crowd in brightening afternoon sun on the resort’s waterfront.
The day started with a little too much winter, heavy snow, strong winds and poor visibility at Cardrona skifield forcing the cancellation of the Tour de Cardies ski-touring race and Mountain Bikes on Snow event.
Back in the resort, persistent rain prompted organisers to also cancel the Hospo Race. However, the duck race went ahead, children, parents and curious onlookers watching as hundreds of decorated ducks set off from the Village Green on the short float down Horne Creek to the lake.
Yesterday’s grey skies were in stark contrast to Saturday’s blue skies for an action-packed ‘‘Day on the Bay’’ programme.
It started with the splash and dash of a chaotic rafting race and the revving engines of a jet-boat sprint competition, and continued with scantily clad men and women racing along the beach in the Undy 500.
In the Undy, the men’s final was won by defending champion Alex Radley, of Auckland, while the fastest woman was Gore’s Jasmine Simpson.
But Saturday’s show-stopper had to be local Quinn Gardiner’s leap from a chopper hovering 150m above Queenstown Bay.
Fortunately, Mr Gardiner had a bungy cord attached to his feet and the helicopter for the stunt — the first of its kind in the resort since 2012 — organised by AJ Hackett Bungy.
That was followed by perennial crowd favourite the Birdman competition, in which competitors dressed up variously as SpongeBob SquarePants, the Blues Brothers, MC Hammer and Bart Simpson and hurled themselves off a high platform into the freezing lake.
The Dunedin-based Otago Dancers, made up of Hannah Doogan, Fallon Voyle, Xzenia Kutia and Annie Withington, were judged overall winners for their slick "Freezing Hot" dance routine.
