Coronavirus: South Island tourist towns without tourists

Deserted South Island tourist hotspots are now "eerily quiet", peaceful – and sad.

Towns and cities all over New Zealand have come to a stand still during the Covid-19 lockdown with only essential service workers and those using the services permitted to travel.

In the always-busy tourist hotspots of Queenstown and Wanaka in Central Otago and Punakaikai on the West Coast, the transformation is resounding.

Queenstown's Fergburger, with its persistently long queue for the 21 hours the popular burger bar is open every day, is locked up.

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Donald Boyer, who lives near central Queenstown, has been taking photos during the lockdown.

He described the resort, which normally hosts 3 million visitors a year, as "eerily quiet".

"It's lovely in that it's peaceful, but it's really sad to see how devastated the tourist town is."

Wanaka resident Maurice Chave manages Pines Resort and Edgewater Club and said it was the first time since 1991 the town had no guests.

Wanaka's streets were reminiscent of when he first arrived in the town when it had fewer than 1000 residents.

"You used to be able to park on the wrong side of the road back then and leave your keys in the car when you popped into a shop. 

"It's surreal. We don't get a shoulder period anymore. We have not experienced that for such a long time. It's a quiet feeling."

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks cafe and motel owner Patrick Volk said it was very strange to see the village devoid of tourists on a beautiful sunny day. 

"We are finally seeing some good summer weather, but there are no tourists. I imagine people from all over New Zealand and the world should be here enjoying the West Coast if we didn't have Covid-19."  

Punakaiki usually has about 500,000 visitors a year. The past year had already been significantly down because of road closures and disruption to the TranzAlpine train route caused by bad weather. 

Punakaiki Beach Camp owner Sue Findlay said she had never seen Punakaiki so deserted.

The usually packed car parks at Dolomite Point were empty and very few cars passing on SH6, which was usually a tourism thoroughfare. 

It was devastating from a business perspective, but she was thankful the shut down happened at the end of the busy summer period.

Boyer, a manager in the tourism industry, said people he knew were keeping positive about the road ahead.

"A lot of the feedback is that everybody wants everybody else to stay home and get through this as soon as we can."