It has been my honour and pleasure to have worked closely alongside Mayor Jim Boult of the QLDC these last 5½ years and his announcement last week that he will not be contesting the election this year while, not a surprise to me, was still met with sadness.

The role of Mayor is never easy, but I doubt if, in New Zealand, it has been much tougher anywhere than in the Queenstown Lakes District over the last couple of years. The whole nation has felt the effects of the pandemic and it is arguable that nowhere has felt it as such a hammer blow as has the Queenstown Lakes District.

Through that time, Jim has led the community and council tirelessly and extremely effectively. I have personally seen the stress this has placed on him as he fought for his place and his people.

I will really miss working alongside Jim; I’ll miss his wisdom which I have sought often, I’ll miss his absolute willingness to work collaboratively for the greater good of inland and the broader Otago region, and most of all, I will miss his dry wit and sense of humour.

Jim and I became mayors at the same time, but from talking to others who came before us, it seems there may have been a “Republic of Queenstown” attitude prior to his taking on the role. It quickly became apparent that Jim understood the principle of growing the pie rather than clinging to ones own slice of it and he has always been a great support to Central Otago, especially in the area of tourism. Jim happily got behind the Central Otago Touring Route and a short film we put together of a mayoral journey through Otago for the Chinese Mayoral Forum alongside other initiatives that smaller-minded people might have seen as being aimed at taking people away from Queenstown. Jim saw that all our candles would burn brighter working together.

I just hope the stars align and that again this year there is a Central Otago v Queenstown Lakes rugby final; currently the scoreboard reads two all for the bottles of Pinot from our respective wine growing regions for our bets in the past; it would be nice to finish up one ahead before he heads off on his next adventure.