Southern businesses are struggling in the aftermath of the region's severe flooding.
Some tour operators are having to cut staff, while others are doing their best to keep staff on, while they get back on their feet.
Tour guides on hiking tracks have been helping farmers with the flood clean-up in the meantime, as they wait for their work to return to some normality.
“We are all guides on the Routeburn track so we are normally out there in the wilderness, so this is very different for us,” said Georgia Hansen.
Ultimate Hikes have been waiting for the past two weeks to get back on the tracks they service but have been badly damaged by the recent flood.
"We have a team of about 64 guides who all of a sudden had not too much to do,” says Tony Phillips.
“We have had guides out doing wilding pine work to the surrounding hills around Queenstown and this week have got teams going out on farms in Southland that have sustained the same kind of damage we were seeing on tracks.”
The guide is happening on Mark Evan’s farm in Athol, south of the tourist town.
“Having a team of them rather than tackling something like this on your own seems daunting but all of a sudden it's finished.”
It has been a difficult time for many tour operators who struggle to find and retain staff at the best of times.
Anna Mickell from the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce says it is heart-breaking for employers, on top of the coronavirus situation.
“It is really a matter of trying to keep the staff that they have worked really hard to get and actually trying to manage that they've got no customers.”
Milford Sound reopened to the public by convoy only last week, but it's running at about half normal capacity of tourists.
Some companies have had to cut back fixed-term staff.
“The bigger their business and the wider their product offering, the easier it is for them to manage, they can move into different divisions but some of those smaller businesses with maybe only one or two product offerings that are focused on trekking or a particular activity, it's much harder for them,” said Anna Mickell.
Now it’s a waiting game for Ultimate Hikes and its staff.
“We have had the hope of re-opening and the Milford has re-opened in a guiding sense and we are back out there and we are hoping the Routeburn will not be too far away.“
The Department of Conservation says there is no decision on re-opening the Routeburn track yet.
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