It was a pleasure bumping in to former Lucire cover girl Amber Peebles (above, posing cheekily while eating salad), newly engaged to TV personality and entrepreneur Brooke Howard-Smith, at Style Christchurch last week.
   Also present was Lizzie Gray, Miss New Zealand 2006, and both girls were more than ably looked after by producer extraordinaire Andhy Blake.
   I got to chat to Andhy in great depth a few days after the show, when we had both recovered from a hectic Saturday, and learned of his background. His immigrant story paralleled so many others that I have heard and the man has definitely worked twice as hard to get to where he is. We popped out to Governor’s Bay and found a well serviced redneck bar, where the Fijian boy and the Chinese boy looked pretty out of place.
   It was a long weekend where I began in Queenstown, covering Fashion on Q at Peregrine Winery and staying at the Dairy, a lovely boutique hotel. Normally I cover few catwalk shows these days, but I do love the community feel at local events.
   I publicly acknowledge Victoria Bunton at Sequel Events for getting me over to Queenstown from Christchurch, and Coco PR for their help on the Christchurch end. I should note to our readers that I paid my own way to Christchurch (and for my accommodation there) so there will be no compromise in our review. Lee Harris of the Canterbury Development Council, who shares a few mutual friends with me, is also a great ally that I thank here. It’s a great town, and you’ll read more of it in issues to come.