Not all businesses in Te Anau are suffering from the tourist drought caused by the Covid-19 border closure.

Fiordland Lobster Company chief executive officer Alan Buckner said business was as good if not better than pre-Covid-19, with all the available lobster quota, including quota leftover from the early loss of business in China 14 months ago, caught and exported for the season.

Mr Buckner said despite the restrictions of having to carry out business without appropriate experienced people on the ground in their key markets, the company had managed to navigate the complexities of international market negotiations from a distance.

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He also gave credit to the government’s assistance with discounted airfreight which helped offset the increase in freight costs and enabled air routes to be maintained.

Another ‘despite Covid-19’ success story is the aircraft maintenance engineering business, Aerofix Fiordland.

Aerofix Fiordland's co-owners Debbie Garlick and Paul Preston purchased the previous long term Te Anau business, Fiordland Aero Maintenance, in 2018 from the late Russell Baker.

The business is based at the Te Anau-Manapouri Airport and services a range of aircraft from various industries, including agriculture, conservation, private hunting groups, film and tourism.

Mrs Garlick said the loss of tourism due to COVID-19 has had little effect on their core business.

“We have increased our workforce from three engineers when we took over the business to seven, we now have six engineers and one administrator,” she said.

The latest addition to the staff is a new engineer who started just two months ago.

The company also recently built a new workplace at the airport in partnership with Helipark, which is owned by Mrs Garlick’s parents, Steve and Jenny Gamble.

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Mrs Garlick said when they bought the business it included a leased hanger and she and Mr Preston decided they would work towards custom-building their own fit-for-purpose premises.

They sought ideas from the engineers, who had all worked at various other places and all had good ideas from their experiences.

The new hanger opening was celebrated last weekend with a spit roast barbecue to thank the builders, clients and supporters who helped the company achieve its dream hanger.

The celebrations included a bottle of champagne poured from a helicopter hovering over the roof of the building.