Clipping the ticket

A visitor levy intended to fund services that overseas visitors use and conservation projects has become a cash cow for the government, with little money spent on tourism infrastructure.

- BY GEORGE DRIVER • PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE DRIVER

It could be a billboard shot promoting New Zealand's adventure capital, were it not for the green tinge of treated sewage. The panorama from the banks of the Shotover River ticks most of the boxes - the snow-capped cone of Coronet Peak, the Crown Range, the jagged ridge of the Remarkables. Every half hour or so, another plane comes in low over the river before disgorging hundreds more visitors. Every hour, the waters are rippled by the wake of the Shotover Jet.

Still, it’s hard to get past the sewage. In March, the Queenstown Lakes District Council began sending about 12,000 litres of treated effluent into the river from a nearby sewage plant after its cost-saving experimental disposal field failed. It claims the sewage is treated to such a high standard that it's still fine to swim here, although the opaque green liquid flowing into the river may cause some hesitation.

Testing shows doing so would have an element of Russian roulette. Before the Listener’s visit, the council's weekly monitoring found levels of E coli were almost double those considered safe to swim. Although E coli levels were much lower downstream, it’s not quite the “100% pure” image tourists are being sold.

Then there was 2023's cryptosporidium outbreak, which stemmed from an unknown faecal source in Lake Wakatipu and led to a near three-month-long boil water notice. Sewage spills into the lake have made regular headlines since.

It would be unfair to blame this entirely on tourists — a Newsroom investigation points to a number of council failures — but during peak times, most of this treated waste comes directly from them. Visitors cause Queenstown’s population to more than double during busy periods. Over a year, the number of guest nights per person is 86 to one — about 12 times the national average.