Lorna Thornber17:12, Jun 05 2021
Brook Sabin
Quirky sculptures, monster trucks, and supersized pizzas - here are our favourite offbeat Queenstown experiences.
With the Queen to thank for this long weekend, we thought we’d take a look at the New Zealand towns named after Elizabeth II and her whānau. Given the huge number of places named after British military types, I was surprised to find there aren’t many. Queenstown, Kingston and Alexandra are the only three settlements in Aotearoa said to be named after royals, perhaps as a result of the anti-royalist attitudes of the long-defunct New Zealand company, which essentially tried to turn us into a Little Britain.
Gig Information
The Bards, Ballads and Bulldust Festival, a mix of New Zealand high country folk music, poetry, stories and folklore, was started in Naseby in 2006 by the late Folk Legend Phil Garland, and Warrick Brock, with help from Ancient Briton Hotel owner, Roch Sullivan.
This unique festival featuring spoken word, highlights the importance of stories and songs of New Zealand history.
This year the festival organiser, Roger Lusby, originally of Roxburgh, Central Otago, has arranged a series of concerts before and after the festival in Naseby, to bring Bards and Ballads to as many people as possible.
Nine talented performers will bring a bold set of songs, stories and poems to the stage to entertain and refresh many memories of ‘The Good Old Days’