Winterfest Stars Come Out To Play

Media Release

Tuesday 27 June 2006

Stars Come Out to Play at Lindauer Queenstown Winter Festival

Nationally renowned comedians and raconteurs led the way last night in a hilarious reality check, debating ‘Is this the real life or TV reality?”

Favourites from the past joined new faces in a battle of wits, under the watchful eye of Debate Chair, Jason Gunn.

Debaters Te Radar, plus Southern gems Tim Shadbolt and Emma Lange, argued reality TV is real, while More FM’s Jeremy Corbett (who made his Queenstown debating debut last year), joined Petra Bagust and her old Ice TV co-host, Jon Bridges, to argue it’s not.

In the end, the winner was subjectively named to be the affirmative team – Southern Gems by Ray Smith of American Express.

Enjoying near-perfect skiing conditions at the festival’s mountain home, Coronet Peak, a melee of nationally well known and local skiers and riders gathered for the Lindauer Stars on Snow.

Some took it more seriously than others, with Local Hero winner Fraser Skinner easily beating his luckless competitors while Simon Dallow and Jason Gunn made a great game of the slide down the mountain with lots of rough and tumble ‘dancing on snow’ between them.  Jason earned the ‘Best Crash’ award despite heavy objections from Simon. 

Then there was the battle of the blondes between Alison Mau and Aja Rock while Jayne Kiely spent valuable time laughing at Geoff Hunt’s Spiderman outfit as they tackled each other over the hay bales. 

The winner of the Professional’s category was real estate guru Chris Campbell who, harking back to old ‘Ski Whizz’ days, thoroughly enjoyed his battle with ‘Out of Towner’ category winner Hamish Wilson.  Alexa Forbes from Southern PR took out the Festival Legends category but worried that the only other entries in her field were slightly more mature.  The Media category and Overall Winner was Richard Thomas from The Mountain Scene, who claimed  “…one down and two to go…” referring to his entry into tomorrow’s Q92 The Breeze Drag Race and Mountain Scene’s Top Block entry,  Greg Miller.  Advice to Greg from his boss (Mr Thomas) went as follows: “He needn’t bother turning up for work on Monday if he doesn’t win the Top Bloke competition on Sunday night.”

Taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, the genteel older folks of the community enjoyed the MacTodd Seniors Luncheon organised by John and Ann Mann which included entertainment from the Queenstown Primary School Choir.

The Lindauer Queenstown Winter Festival is home of the Southern Hemisphere's ultimate winter celebration and runs from June 23 to July 2.

The festival continues tomorrow (Wednesday 28 June) with the Snickers Downtown Day featuring Snicker Hospitality Mentality, AJ Hackett Festival Face Off and the Q92 The Breeze Drag Race in Earnslaw Park. Other delights of the day include Real Ballroom Dancing with the Locals in the Memorial Hall and the outrageous Mountain Scene Sporting Spectacular at the Queenstown Events Centre.

For further media information or images please contact:

Mary Todd

Media Liaison

Phone: 03 441 2453 or 027 477 9394

Email: mary@winterfestival.co.nz