Sam Stout

MADDY HARKER

If it seems like you run into Sam Stout at just about every community event in Wanaka, it’s probably because she’s involved in almost everything.

This year alone, Sam’s been part of the Wanaka Artisan Market, the Wanaka Wedding Fair, Homespun Presentations, and Losing Faith - a play that has just toured the region. On top of all that, three months ago she launched her own wedding and events planning business, Tregold Productions.

Sam is well-known about town. She has spent much of her life in Wanaka, but has also lived in the UK, Australia and other parts of New Zealand. Despite her English accent, she has spent more time "down under” than she has in her native UK.

The name of her latest business venture, Tregold, has a lot of significance for Sam, signaling both her family heritage and her adopted home.

"Tregold is the name of my family farm in Cornwall", Sam said. "My grandparents left their home with their babies to move across the country and start a new life for themselves away from everything they knew.”

"My grandparents were really pioneering, and I really admire that spirit of enterprise. People do that moving to Wanaka too, starting over in a new place."

‘Tre’ is also cornish for hamlet or community, and the gold connection relates to the gold in the hills and the golden colours in this region. As the old saying goes in Otago: "blue sky, golden hills”.

"The name Tregold really is who I am and what has formed me as a person.”

Sam spent her teens in Wanaka and lives here permanently now - although she could have ended up anywhere. When she emigrated from the UK with her family in the 1990s, they flipped a coin to choose between settling in New Zealand or Australia. And then it came to deciding on where to live in New Zealand, Sam closed her eyes and put a pin on a map of New Zealand.

It landed on Wanaka. The family had been visiting friends in Nelson at the time, so they caught the night bus to Queenstown, rented a car and drove over the Crown Range.

"It was probably only a few days after that that I was enrolled in school. It was just like, ‘that’s that then, this is home now”.

Sam finished school before studying acting and theatre craft in Sydney, spending two years working in Australia afterwards, then working in theatre and event management in the UK.

As a way to help pay the bills in an unpredictable theatre industry, Sam became a chef, something she said has been really useful throughout her life.

"The lessons you learn in the kitchen take you through any aspect of your life. Because it’s so high pressure, when the pressure’s on you have to really trust yourself and you have to learn how to step back and break down what needs to be done and make it happen. With that kind of experience you can go into any situation and know you can handle it.”

Cheffing has also taken Sam to some pretty amazing places: she and her boyfriend managed a ski lodge at Ruapehu for three winters and spent a season cooking in the Hollyford Valley. Earlier this year, Sam created a five-star menu for a group of people. She was helicoptered into the mountains to serve the meal al fresco - a pretty cool experience for a side job.

Sam’s passions are community and education, so it makes sense that she has leaned towards acting, theatre and event management in her working life.

"I’ve always been really interested in education and community, and I think that giving back is really important. That’s why I always put my hand up for things. Say for example when it comes to the arts in Wanaka: if we want arts in Wanaka we have to make it happen for ourselves.”

One of Sam’s jobs in the UK was working for the Eden Project, an educational charity for sustainability, in Cornwall. Its location: a huge crater; housing the largest rainforest in captivity; and stunning gardens, which become a location for exhibitions and concerts featuring some of the world’s biggest bands.

At the Eden Project, Sam worked largely in venue planning, also working with bands and the circus. It gave her many of the skills that motivated her to start Tregold Productions here in Wanaka earlier this year, after moving back permanently two and a half years ago.

"Weddings feel like an extension of other things I’ve done,” Sam said. "I’m really loving it.”

"There’s something really magical about helping people celebrate their love for each other. Because I’m super organised and really calm it helps them, and I offer quite a holistic service.”

Her new business won’t stop Sam from being involved in other aspects of the community - her experience working on Losing Faith has made Sam keen to help develop the theatre scene in Wanaka.

"There are so many talented people in town that there is definitely scope for an official theatre group. How cool would it be to, once every three months, watch some comedy skits, or two productions a year or something. How awesome would that be for the town?”

She’s got boundless enthusiasm, but it seems to come naturally.

"When you’re passionate about something it’s easy to be motivated,” Sam said. "I’m really motivated by other people and their excitement and passions too, so that really helps.”

"I really feel as though I’ve returned home. I’ve gone off and had adventures and learnt some really amazing things, and now I’m home.”

PHOTO: Supplied