Rod Drury: The surprising detail behind his plan to fix Queenstown.

Analysis.

It’s not a reputation we currently enjoy - in fact, many people would argue that Queenstown is a national template for how NOT to do things. But in an extended interview this week with Crux journalist Amanda Robertshawe, local entrepreneur Rod Drury explains the deeper details of his plan. It’s far from what many people (including Crux) assumed - and it has the hallmarks of being a very big success.

That Queenstown’s infrastructure requires a considerable upgrade needs no further debate. Everyone’s aware of traffic congestion, inadequate public transport, health facilities, and wastewater disposal. And the list goes on: affordable housing, additional schools, adequate electricity supply.

The conundrum is, how do we solve this, and who pays?

Rod Drury chose Queenstown as home when he retired from the company he founded, Xero, five years ago and he’s in a hurry to implement solutions for these problems.

And not just for Queenstown, it seems.

“I've been retired for five or six years and business has gone really well. What I want to do now is make New Zealand awesome. And one way of making New Zealand awesome is to use Queenstown as a test lab for just getting stuff done in a fast, but right way, where people can be proud about what we can achieve here.”

Items at the top of his “Get Stuff Done” list is a new gondola connection to move people between the Queenstown CBD and Frankton/airport areas, and new public/private hospital.

So does this make Rod Drury the “Architect of Awesome”?