​Oh the excitement last week as the one and only Taylor Swift breezed swiftly and covertly through town.
 
Queenstown is often lauded as an idyllic playground for the rich and famous. A favourite get away for assorted sports stars, celebrities and wannabe celebrities, along with plenty of well do foreign and domestic visitors. 
 
This popularity has been a real boom for the high-end luxury tourism market.
 
We have erected luxury lodges and high end nail salons, while regularly run out of parks for private jets. However is that really a unique offering for pampered celebs who travel in the lap of luxury as nonchalantly as old lady marmalade runs up lines at Tuesday night bingo?

It’s a ferocious argument containing extreme and often confusing views on either side.
 
Recently the Associated Press announced it was instructing journalists to use the terms “doubters” or “those who reject mainstream climate science” in their climate change stories as opposed to skeptics. It was believed using skeptics gave them too much credit given the overwhelming scientific evidence in support of climate change. 
 

OPINION: I'll admit I've got a bit of an interesting obsession.

It manifests itself as the leaves begin to colour and the temperatures cool, becoming full blown as the army of snow guns roar into life on The Peak.

It can wane like my interest in rugby after the mighty Stags conclude their ITM Cup campaign or peskily stick around for summer like low-riding, pants-wearing snow chasers.

I've  stayed out of the bed tax debate thus far. It’s not that I don’t have an opinion or five but more that it’s such a complex issue and there are so many valid points of view. However having just visited Hawaii to enjoy a wedding in stunning Waikiki, I have been able to draw on some comparisons from another rapidly developing tourist mecca.

Maybe it’s a mid thirties thing but she's been a big couple of years for weddings of late, sauntering around the country helping friends and family give the bar tab a decent whack on their big day.  

Unfortunately Southerners generally fall to bits on a hot day and most weddings  are scheduled for the searing hot months of summer which brings to bare several sweaty issues such as underarm ponds, bum sweats and excessive consumption of cooling beverages.  

Compounding the heat itself is the fashion not function mentality in regards to wedding attire. For some reason that never made sense to me, whom in summer is reluctant to wear even the bare essentials most wedding's still require full formal regalia consisting at the very least of dress shoes, pants, a long sleeved shirt and often a tie (I'd rather drink from the Nile in Cairo than wear a tie).