Aoraki Dragon Boat
Association (Inc)
Christchurch, NZ

Southern Lakes district venues

Still in the very early stages of planning, is Aoraki's expansion into the Southern Lakes area. Lake Wakatipu would be a brilliant racing venue.

Queenstown

The beach in front of Queenstown central shopping district would be the ideal. See Google maps here.

Advantages:

• very visible
• accessible to the public.
• Options for wharf mooring and crew loading

Disadvantage:

• Need to  work around the frequent water sport operators (including MV Earnslaw (Real Journeys), Kawarau Jet, Paraflights). 
• Short (around 300m might be possible, but full width is about 335m)

So the solution would be to race long-ways. A course of 500m would be easy to achieve, plus it can avoid the other water traffic. See the map.

Frankton Beach

Another excellent contender is the bay/beach in the Frankton Arm.

See Google maps here and here and here.

Advantages:

• visible to road traffic
• accessible for the Dragon Boat crews. 
• direct Qantas flights from Australia into Queenstown
• walk out of baggage claim at the airport (well maybe push a trolley), across the road for 650m to the beach
• Longer beach (Frankton arm) so will easily accommodate 500m course.
• No problems with other water sport operators (except occasional Kawarau Jet to south). 

Disadvantage:

• Beach landing and loading
• May be a bit shallow close into shore.

And over the Crown Range is:

Wanaka shorefront

Another feasible location in Wanaka township. See map. Again, a great beach directly in front of the town's central shopping district, including alfresco cafes.

Advantages:

• very visible
• accessible to the public.
• reserve along waterfront may be available for crews. Or across the road in the large park.
• virtually right in the heart of the cafes and restaurants and bars.
• virtually no other water sport operators to worry about (Noel is close mates with the Commodore of the Wanaka Yacht Club)
• could leverage off the yacht club facilities - onshore restaurant, lane marking etc etc.
• cheaper accommodation for paddlers and set-up crew.

Disadvantage:

• not as big population base as Queenstown. 
• not such a range of accommodation, eateries etc. But still pretty good...

On this page:

• Queenstown
• Frankton Arm
• Wanaka

Peter Woods of Dunedin City Councils DB (Captain, Manager from 1994 to 2002) has been very helpfull. There has no Dragon Boat scene in Dunedin since 2002; "It withered on the vine for a number of reasons but the venue on the inner harbour is very good".

He also recounted "we did a mini regatta at Te Anau many years ago to coincide with their  local festival. It was a great success. I have a feeling some dragon boaters did do a demonstration paddle at Queenstown (not sure what time of year) but mentioned it was very cold re air and water temp. As I mentioned in our conversation, Ruataniwha at Twizel is a brilliant venue but probably more for the future once there are more teams in existence in the Otago/ Canterbury region"

Queenstown/Frankton contacts

Marty Black is the Harbourmaster,
03 442 3445
0274 345 289
harbourmaster@queenstown.co.nz

Noel spoke to Pip, the Planning Manager for Lakes Environment - she was very helpful, offering advice including the following:

• If licences/approvals are required, contact Rachel Rose (food licence) and Joshua (?) Montgomery (liquor licence) of Lakes Environmental.
• A resource consent might be required.  Theoretically, the maximum number of persons is 200 before Resource Consent is required.  Again, a theoretical maximum noise level of 50dBA applies.  No peak figure is stated.
• For rubbish and recycling, see Dr Linda Wright of Queenstown Lakes District Council
• Worthwhile contacting "Destination Queenstown" (03 441 0700, queenstown@xtra.co.nz) to see what other events or might clash, or which festivals etc we might leverage off.

Ngai Tahu owns the wharves, and the Queenstown Harbour.  But they seem receptive to the concept of a once-a-year regatta or festival.

Wanaka Contacts

Chris Conroy, Commodore of the Wanaka Yacht Club.