"Prior to that, we had somewhat of a ghost town for many months... The South Island town relies on international visitors during the peak summer months. Traditionally, local businesses had survived on trading primarily through five months of the year - summer ones, he said. "It's normally very quiet here in winter, we don't have a ski season or any other thing to get us through the winter months. Generally we try and trade profitably over the summer which gets us through the winter months, and we can carry our staff through the winter by trading well in summer."

Source: Otago Daily Times January 06, 2021 22:41 UTC