Gondola project for Picton

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 8

Gondola project for Picton

By

GLENN PERKINSON

A Pieton man’s proposal for a $5 million gondola has been on the cards for nearly five years. Mr Eric Collins owns the hilltop land he proposes to construct a gondola and restaurantnightclub complex on and has been considering the development for some time, says Mr Allan Beaton, Picton’s Mayor. Mr Collins said last evening he hoped his project would be under way within three years.

Earthworks for the gondola’s foundation have begun- He said 180,000 tonnes of earth had been moved from the hills overlooking Picton and the Marlborough Sounds.

However, Mr Beaton said if Mr Collins had accepted offers to develop the tourist attraction with other companies it might have been functioning now.

“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Mr Beaton said. “He’s a real individualist.”

The plan was expected to receive widespread support from the Picton business community and it would help keep tourists in the town longer. Mr Beaton said Picton needed something like the gondola so it would no longer rely on the car-rail ferries for its tourist industry. Mr Collins expected the gondola to Include 14 gondola cars and transport about 500 sightseers a day.