I was working on our Dec trip when I saw the stories of rain and subsequent flooding in Queenstown this week and slips along highway to coast.

That led me to the cryptosporidium parasite problem in Queentown identified this week and boil water advisory. The latest I could find from local government was best case scenario is up to 8 weeks to get uv and filtration effective and worst case 12 weeks. Meanwhile boil water, bottled water, water tankers, etc. They can’t seem to catch a break.

Queenstown is such a convenient transit hub and base to catch various tours. Hope it goes faster than expected.

According to this article in our local newspaper, the Otago Daily Times (Queenstown in in Otago), the water problem should be resolved in 6 to 8 weeks, probably earlier. Tourism is too important to Queenstown, they'll try and return things back to normal as soon as possible.
Where else will you be traveling to? In thisEl Niņo season, the East Coast is expected to be rainier than usual, the West Coast drier and warmer, with likely drought conditions.

Here's an update that appeared in today's paper
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queens...cember-council

Wow, I just realized in my first post, I wrote the opposite of what I meant to write, which is, "In this El Niņo season, the West Coast is expected to be rainier than usual, the East Coast drier and warmer, with likely drought conditions." Sorry about that!