Crux podcast: Melissa White on council, cakes and a surprise exit from investment banking

The latest episode of the Crux podcast series proves that each of our Queenstown Lakes District councillors interviewed so far has a surprising and colourful background.

Melissa White is a single mum who combines commercial cake decorating with being a councillor, but her advocacy skills were developed in the cut and thrust of the London investment banking industry.

She told Crux managing editor Peter Newport investment banking is every bit as dramatic as portrayed by Wall Street movies and she once found herself, as a senior Human Resources manager, on the wrong end of a Friday sacking event complete with cardboard box, security guards and being marched out of the building.

Councillor White also reveals she was one of the very first people to get a roof over her head in Queenstown from being on the waiting list of the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust. She also confirms that even though the councillor role can be tough and thankless at times, she's keen to stand for election again next year and make full use of the skills she's learning during her first term.

Plus Kim Bowden and Peter Newport discuss the top stories of the week, including the emergence of Queenstown's southern corridor as the next rapidly approaching growth crisis and the public toilet block that was not connected to the sewer system - which nobody noticed for 18 months.