Back in 2013, Wanaka locals Shona Brown and Paul Tamati got talking about the difficulties facing young people who wanted to learn a musical instrument in Wanaka. Shona was looking for an instrument for her child and couldn’t find any affordable options to buy or hire. Paul, who was heavily involved in Stars in Your Eyes, came up with the idea of starting a musical instrument library and applying for a grant from Stars in Your Eyes.  The grant application was successful and in 2013 the musical instrument library opened with ten flutes, ten clarinets, two cornets and two trumpets. With the musical instrument library, administered by Helen Carter, proving very popular, in 2015 Shona, Paul and music teacher Naomi Carleton started thinking about how they could make learning an instrument more fun and accessible for young people and affordable for families. “We came up with the idea of group lessons for children because we believe it’s more fun to learn in a group setting and it’s also much more affordable for families,” Shona said. With some more funding from Stars in Your Eyes, Aspiring Young Musicians became an incorporated society and in late 2015 started group music lessons after school at Wanaka Primary School. From these small beginnings, Aspiring Young Musicians has grown to become a Wanaka community success story. The not-for-profit organisation now has more than 95 young students enrolled in group music lessons in Wanaka, and runs lessons after school at Mount Aspiring College four days a week, where they have been for the past three years.  Currently the lessons available include keyboard, ukulele, guitar, violin, cello, trumpet and percussion. There are also group lessons available in musical theory, an introduction to music for children aged five to seven-years-old, and drama and music action - a game-based lesson involving mime, improvisation and music.  Lessons available include keyboard, ukulele, guitar, violin, cello, trumpet and percussion.Mat Doyle, head of music at Mount Aspiring College, said he had noticed a significant change since Aspiring Young Musicians began offering group lessons in Wanaka. “There’s been a huge increase in the level of performance of our incoming Year 7 musicians,” he said. “I’ve been blown away by the number of good musicians coming through and I know that Helen Carter, who teaches Year 7 music, has found it invigorating to teach students who can play a much wider range of instruments than was the case in previous years. Because of Aspiring Young Musicians’ group lessons, we’re seeing a greater number of students with a high level of musical knowledge from the get-go, which gives us as teachers a real opportunity to expand on the basics.”Shona credits the success of Aspiring Young Musicians to the support the organisation receives from the community. “If for any reason one of the music teachers is unavailable, we have some fabulous older members of the community who are happy to relieve for us on a voluntary basis.We’ve also received a generous grant from the Wanaka Concert Society to grow our instrument library, continued support from Stars in Your Eyes, and great backing from Mighty Efficient Bookkeeping.”As well as the adult music teachers, some senior Mount Aspiring College students have got involved in music teaching for Aspiring Young Musicians. “It’s great for them and great for the younger kids,” Shona said. “They get to showcase their musical talents and mentor the younger students, and the younger students get to see what’s possible if they keep practising.”Paul Tamati, who is now chairperson of Aspiring Young Musicians, said he has big plans for the future of music in Wanaka. “My ultimate goal, and this might take 20 years, is that we would be able to contribute to the founding of Wanaka’s first symphony orchestra. All we need is passionate people who want to make a difference to our young musical community.”Shona said that the organisation had been overwhelmed by the popularity of the group lessons, which are currently offered at $15 a lesson. “We’ve just grown exponentially - so we must be doing something right.”PHOTOS: Supplied

Kaz von Heraud-Parker is no stranger to re-invention. Her career choices have taken her from architectural designer to interior design guru, and now a new business helping women navigate menopause. A gift for mathematics led Kaz to completing her first degree in building science. At that stage, Kaz’s inner artist wasn’t fully formed, but the design elements of the degree attracted her.She worked in a range of different roles in the building industry, from hands-on with the “dirt doctors” and engineers, to project management.Eventually she moved to Wanaka, drawn back to the southern mountains where she had spent a lot of time with her family. Here, she discovered the book ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron, which set her on a new path.In 1999 she started an interior design business. Kaz Designz brought Kaz’s artistic skills together with her building industry experience. Next, she and her husband Greg launched the high end luxury fashion label Von Avi - "metal fashion with attitude” - in 2009. Greg had made her a metal wallet that attracted so much attention that when their son was born Kaz told Greg she must “have graduated to a handbag by now”. “I couldn’t go anywhere without someone commenting on the handbag or the wallet,” she said.With Greg’s background in aircraft engineering (working with Sir Tim Wallis) and Kaz’s creativity and business skills, they developed a range of hand bags for the international market. The handbags drew attention at both Auckland and Sydney fashion weeks, and they succeeded in setting up outlets in New Zealand and exporting to Dubai, until they came head to head with the global financial crisis. Von Avi bagsThe ambitious, underfunded label soon became unstuck. Kaz and Greg realised they needed to change tack if they were to survive the challenging times.At that point Kaz’s reinvention skills came into play as she launched “operation city bitch”, taking on a corporate job in Wellington to help pay for their Wanaka property. Having lived in Wanaka for 17 years, she said moving to the city felt very foreign.She was quickly promoted from her role as marketing manager to general manager at an interior design import supply company. She designed an acoustics education programme for architects, wrote training books, ran seminars and sustainability-proofed the business.But the high achieving “city bitch” was also struggling with insomnia, hypothyroidism, and low energy. "The combination of huge financial stress, the move to Wellington, and a history of hormonal imbalance meant that I created the perfect storm and crashed head long into menopause,” Kaz said.A doctor prescribed a range of medications, but Kaz was brought up to believe food is medicine. “I just threw it all away and started researching.” She came across an interview about adrenal fatigue with functional medicine practitioner Dr Kalish in San Francisco, and was so impressed she contacted him to ask if she could study with him.Functional medicine involves saliva, urine and stool testing, providing a snapshot into the body at a cellular level, Kaz said. This tangible record appealed to her, as she had been spending a lot of money on supplements in the hope they were what she needed.She adopted functional medicine whole-heartedly. “Every step I made along the pathway my energy levels got better.” Kaz at Sydney Fashion Week with Von Avi.She realised she was not the only woman hit hard by menopause, and wanted to help others.Kaz “got her geek on” for the next steps: studying functional medicine online, including a two-year mentorship programme with Dr Kalish, then studying for a double diploma in nutrition and naturopathy - at double-speed.Meanwhile, she and her family returned to Wanaka and this past year has been devoted to setting up her new business, Reset Lab, drawing on her “city bitch” experience implementing a systemised education programme.And all the while, she has been healing herself, not just of menopause symptoms, but of a lifetime of adrenal deficiency. There’s some detective work involved in understanding yourself - and other people - but it’s not rocket science, Kaz said, it just takes time“I am passionate about being able to couple my natural desire to help people with the creativity of biochemistry and nutrition.”She now specialises in helping women through menopause and offers packages, both online and from her beautifully designed Reset Lab Clinic, including testing, lifestyle and nutrition advice, and follow up support from two health coaches.Kaz’s latest reinvention is an exciting place to be, she says. “I always believed the body could heal itself given the right circumstances. When I was in the thick of menopause I felt like an old lady - I felt shipwrecked, and taking medication just didn’t sit well for me. But you can have that energy back. Knowledge is power - to know when you’re out of balance, and to heal yourself.”Kaz held her first Wanaka seminar, Sailing through Menopause, last month, and is offering another this week (Wednesday October 9, from 6.30-8.00pm) at the Lake Wanaka Centre. Find more about the Reset Lab here.PHOTOS: Supplied

The tradition of having a nice slice of home-made Christmas cake with last minute gift shopping at Kaleidoscope, at 44 Helwick Street, has come to an end. Helen Johnston’s gifts and manchester store closes its door for the last time tomorrow (Monday September 30).After 33 years as a retailer on Helwick Street, Helen has decided the time is right for her to end this chapter of her life. She said she will “miss the people” most of all; her long-established relationships with staff, customers, fellow retailers and reps.“There comes a time when you have to make a decision are you going to carry on a seven-day a week business or are you going to have some me-time,” she said. Helen moved from Dunedin to Wanaka in the mid 1970s after purchasing the Manuka Crescent Motels. She and her husband ran the motels for 11 years before deciding they want to try their hand at something completely different - retail.She took over Helwick Gifts (where the Spice Room currently is located) and within six months had changed its name to Kaleidoscope to better reflect the myriad colours and variety of retail items she stocked.In those early years in Wanaka when the local population totalled a few hundred full-time residents and visitors largely only featured in winter and summer, business wasn’t easy - you had to be careful about ordering stock for instance, Helen said. Moving into the new store at 44 Helwick Street in the 1990s. PHOTO: SuppliedShe decided to get into manchester sales as no-one else was providing that in Wanaka at the time; contacted a rep who said ‘leave it with me’ and suddenly the store was overwhelmed with huge boxes filled with linens.“We had to work out a deal where we could pay it off in three installments; but it sold really well,” Helen said.In 1996, a new set of three retail stores was built in the upper end of Helwick Street, near Brownston Street, and Kaleidoscope moved across the road to take up its current location. For 23 years, the shop has opened from 9:00am-6:00pm Monday to Friday and 9:30am-5:30pm Saturday and Sunday.Those early days were very rewarding though as she built up her loyal local clientele and, with little competition, became the go-to place for Christmas, birthdays, souvenirs and so on.“December 24th was always the biggest sales day of the year,” Helen said. A slice of Helen’s Christmas cake for her customers on December 23 and 24 became something of a tradition for those last minute Christmas shoppers.At one stage, her commitment to open her shop seven days a week got her into trouble with the law. Helen believed, as Wanaka was part of the Queenstown Lakes District, and Queenstown retailers had a dispensation allowing them to trade throughout Easter, that dispensation also applied to Wanaka retailers.Kaleidoscope’s empty front window indicates the end of an era. Melanie Craig Design, which operates next door, will expand into the shop vacated by Helen. PHOTO: Wanaka AppHaving opened her store for many years to Easter customers without any problems, a visit from a Department of Labour inspector on Easter Sunday 2004 resulted in a conviction and a change to her trading habits. The fine was waived, Helen said, but she had to pay court costs and, to the disappointment of her customers, she never opened her doors again on Easter Sunday.“I didn’t want to put myself or my staff through the apprehension of guessing is that customer an inspector, or is that one,” Helen said. “I’m happy opening my shop most days but, if I’m breaking the law, I’m just not doing it.” Helen says the retail scene has changed since those early years. There’s more local competition with many Wanaka retail stores selling gifts and souvenirs, she said, and there’s been a noticeable shift in the past five years, even from loyal local customers, to buy online or purchase in bulk from big box stores. “Our linens and manchester items used to be one of our top sellers. Now people take shopping trips to Briscoes,” she said.  “We are not the only retail people finding it challenging. I talk to my reps and its happening all over the country. Online shopping has affected a lot of brick and mortar shops.”Helen said proposed changes to Wanaka’s CBD are also going to provide challenges for retailers. “Pedestrianising the lower part of Helwick Street will not be good for retailing,” she said. “If people cannot park close to where they want to shop they will drive on.” She believes the commercial development at Three Parks will become the shopping equivalent of Frankton for locals.She also believes, even though Wanaka’s “town centre” will always be near the lake, there will be more suburbs with small retail spaces, such as the “pocket retail development” at Northlake. “We’ve got to be very careful we don’t over retail the CBD when we don’t have the population or visitors to support it,” she said.And like any retailer in her line of business, Helen has had her fair share of light-fingered shoppers over the years, but it was uncommon, she said. “We have a policy of always greeting people when they come in the door, then they know we’ve seen them.”And sometimes things are not always as they appear. Helen recounted watching a young man handle a small item on her shelf and later saw him leave the store. She looked at the shelf and noticed the item was missing before she raced out the door to confront the chap down the road.“I asked him: ‘You were just in my store and I saw you with a bottle opener in your hand and it’s not there anymore’. And he said: ‘You’re pretty sharp’. It transpired he had hidden the bottle opener in the store as it was the last one and he didn’t want it sold. Helen put it aside for him and he returned the next day to purchase it.Although the shop has been her focus for decades there have been other interests too. Helen was the secretary of Wanaka’s squash club for 28 years and is still on its committee and she served for ten years on Wanaka’s Chamber of Commerce committee in its early days.“But to be honest, running a store with all the buying and bookwork takes up a fair chunk of time.”Helen had been thinking about retiring for a while and then a friend said: ‘Helen when are you going to leave your shop; we don’t want to take you out in a wheelchair.’ And I said: ‘When I’m ready’.” And that time is now. She has promised herself a trip to Paris - “and not just for two weeks”, and said her home, purchased 19 years ago, has never been in the state she wants it. Sorting the office is her first priority; gardening the second.And then, of course, there’s the rugby. “I’m passionate about it,” she gleefully - and unexpectedly - confesses. She’s a supporter of the local team; has watched live matches at the Dunedin stadium several times; and even written poetry about it, shared on Radio Wanaka.Just as well there’s a world cup on for the next few weeks.

Mike Regal and his family hadn’t even finished unpacking the contents of their new Bevan Street home when they were evacuated in the middle of the night, as a fire on Mt Iron threatened to spread.It was a literal warm welcome for the Regals, who’d only just moved to Wanaka to start a new life in quiet central Otago, away from the madness of Auckland, after becoming the new owners of Radio Wanaka.The connection to the town had been there for many years. Wayne Johnson, who founded Radio Wanaka, gave Mike his first job in radio in Dunedin, when he worked for Radio Otago in the early 1980s.Ed Taylor, a good friend of Mike’s, bought the Radio Wanaka in 2002 and always said to Mike that he’d sell it to him “one day”. That day eventually came in April 2011 when he rang him up and told him he wanted to sell it. “I was 52 and thought ‘if I don’t do it now, I’m never going to do it’,” Mike recalls.He ditched his corporate job in the big city, packed up his life and moved to the bottom of Mt Iron to take over the community radio station.“It was a steep learning curve,” he said. “In corporate, you have a specific role. Suddenly, you are doing everything.“The biggest challenge was the technical side of things. I didn’t have Sean on the third floor anymore that I could ring to come and fix things.”It took him a couple of years to stop waking up at three o’clock in the morning worrying about things. “One day I realised things weren’t all going to blow up on the same day and it can all be fixed.”In Wanaka, he found a friendly and welcoming community that helped him feel settled from the start (fire scare aside).After eight years steering the station, Mike prides himself in the fact that they never lost a client -  and some of them have even become good friends. He also takes pride in the low staff turnover as he tries to give people the space to enjoy the lifestyle Wanaka offers.“I’m not a clock watcher. We come to Wanaka for a certain lifestyle,” he said. As long as the job is done, he’s a happy man. That lifestyle was exactly what enticed Mike to Wanaka. As he sits in his office in the Radio Wanaka building, in his plaid flannel shirt and Vans shoes, he’s a whole world away from his old corporate days in Auckland.A passionate mountain biker and skier, he’s often off the airwaves and out on the trails enjoying the outdoors. “When you come here, you have to make sure you enjoy the things that Wanaka offers,” he said.What Wanaka offers is also a sense of community like few other places still have. According to Mike, Radio Wanaka is one of about four independently-owned radio stations left in the country and, more than just being a profitable business, it also has the goal of serving the community.“Local radio is about connecting with the community,” he said. “Bigger corporations present a homogenised, general programme, they talk about what Kim Kardashian had for breakfast, while we tell you whether the Crown Range is open or not. We talk about things that affect people in the community a lot more directly.”For Mike, that’s the power of radio - the connection with the community - and that’s why community radio like Radio Wanaka has done so well even through all the changes in the media, with the digital revolution, including streaming and podcasts.He’s optimistic about the future of radio and said the industry will go through further technology advancements in the next ten or 20 years, as it moves away from the reliance on terrestrial signals. “Right now we’ve still transmitters on Mt Maude and Hill End. But we also stream on the Wanaka App and iHeartRadio. I hop in my car and I stream Radio Wanaka from the Wanaka App. Often the streams are clear as a bell, the audio is actually better.”“You’ve got to have a point of difference. As long as we’re local, that’s our point of difference.“We could play Newfoundland whaling songs 24 hours a day because the important stuff is the community stuff that goes in between, because no one else's doing that,” he said.There’s also an ease of business that bigger companies can’t offer: “If a client comes on a Friday at 5pm saying they forgot about the ad for the weekend, it’s not a problem, I live two minutes away. We can act quite quickly.” Mike admits he uses technology smartly and sometimes works from home, with his slippers on and a cup of tea in hand. In those moments, corporate life feels even further away - and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hola! There’s music playing on Thursday night in Wanaka...and it's tango time. For a decade now local salons, ranging from restaurants and bars to people’s living rooms, have hosted a small but passionate local outpost of the tango diaspora.Sousa Jefferson is one of the area’s most enthusiastic participants of the Argentinian dance, hosting weekly ‘milonga’, or tango social events, at her home.“Argentine Tango is a social dance that has been danced for a hundred years,” Sousa told the Wanaka App. “Tango is danced in Buenos Aires at many late-night venues and on the streets.  It is a dance that connects people through a close embrace and lilting or rhythmic orchestral tango music.”Sousa has a polished concrete patio specifically crafted for an outdoor dance floor during summer months, and her living room is cleared during winter for indoor sessions.She said the group started  in Wanaka in 2009 when Kasha Szot,a ballet and contemporary dancer, opened a dance studio.It began with a weekend intensive session with Kasha and Sanjay Pancha, a Wellington-based tango dancer. Weekly beginner and improver classes and "practilongas" continued for a year.   Raul Faustino partnered with Kasha for some of the teachings. Several New Zealand tango teachers visited and taught at K DANCE as well as two famous international tango performers and teachers, Fabio Robles and Ana Andree. “The small but dedicated group of dancers learned, trained and performed together at local events. Many of them continue to share their love of tango today, in Wanaka, New Zealand-wide and around the world, after starting their journey in a humble Wanaka studio. Kasha left Wanaka to follow her love of tango around New Zealand, and overseas. One of Kasha's students was Stella Senior who five years later took up the role of teaching tango in Wanaka.“Stella Senior and Andreas Peckwitt then taught tango for 18 months between 2014 and 2015.  They started the Wanaka Tango Facebook page and classes were held at various venues around town including the Lake Wanaka Centre, Gin & Raspberry, Patagonia Chocolates and private residences. They also performed at Art in the Park.”  Since their departure for further training in Buenos Aires in 2015, Sousa took up the role of coordinator for the group.As well as hosting a local ‘practica’ which supports peer learning, she organises classes with visiting tango teachers, hosting them at her home.Graham and Gloria Whittingham from Christchurch come twice a year to teach weekend intensives. Chris Corby from Motueka came two years ago and taught an eight-week course in tango and returns at times to also teach a weekend intensive, Sousa said..  Currently Koen Michiels, a Belgian with a long involvement as a tango dancer and coach has been helping the group with a winter series of classes.Working the winter as a ski instructor at Cardrona, Koen (pronounced Kuhn) has been involved in dance since early childhood and said he was introduced to tango by visiting groups from Argentina in his home town of Schoten, near Antwerp, which holds a renowned international dance festival he worked at.After lessons in Belgium and Amsterdam, Koen followed what appears to be a familiar pathway for many tango aficionados, dancing in Paris, Italy and finally the pilgrimage to its origins in Buenos Aires and meeting the legends of the dance.“My best tango memories are probably the ones I have from dancing in the salons in Buenos Aires and the clinics I had there with Roberto Leiva,” he said. “Working with the Wanaka Tango community is great. I get out of the ski bubble once a week and I get to know a lot of nice locals.”He noted the “positive energy” of the small group and projecting energy and intimacy seems to be at the heart of tango.“I just love to teach and pass on my knowledge and passion.”It definitely forms a bond. The Wanaka Tango group now has almost 200 members on its page including many former locals taking their enthusiasm elsewhere,with tango community groups all over the country and overseas, Sousa says.“Rumour has it that Kasha Szot may soon return as a visiting teacher. At the end of November, Wanaka Tango is excited to announce the arrival of two world-class tango performers and teachers from Buenos Aires, Ariel Yanovsky and Gisela Vidal. They will also be giving a public performance at a venue yet to be determined.”“Glamourous "Show Tango" with its dramatic bold moves is really the making of performance tango dancers,” she said. “Social tango is for the pure enjoyment of the common folk of a community. Community is found wherever you happen to be, where people are dancing tango.”  PHOTO: Supplied

Wanaka artist Stephen Martyn ‘Marty’ Welch believes everyone deserves a portrait, and his vision for a worldwide collection of portraits kicks off right here in Wanaka.Marty was raised in the far North, growing up with a love of comics.“The one day I walked into a toy store in Dargaville and there was a poster of a Barbarian dude by Frank Frazetta,” he said. “I fell in love with drawing from that day.”He failed art at school, though, in a time when comics weren’t considered real art. Marty went on to join the army and would draw tattoo designs for his colleagues - and was sometimes disappointed with the tattooists’ rendering, recalling a ‘lone wolf’ that ended up looking “like a bloody hamster”.Marty ended up in Auckland working in hospitality, and when he and wife Mandy’s second son, Scott, was born with the very rare Kabuki Make Up syndrome, “everything changed”.“After the first year we’d spent all our savings and were living in the [Starship] hospital. It was a pretty horrible time,” Marty said.A nurse who had noticed the couple fraying at the edges had a chat with Marty, discovered he liked to draw and encouraged him to spend time on his art. Marty started by drawing Scott in the incubator, and went from there. “The art and the people joined and it started making sense to me. Art is about people.” He was still working part-time, but also teaching himself how to paint. He bought himself kindergarten grade paints, mastered those and gradually moved on to oils. “I’ve never had a lesson, never taken a class.”Marty became known for doing portraits of homeless and disabled people. He has painted a six feet high portrait of a burns victim’s face (a man who had endured more than 50 surgeries); large enough “so people can’t look away” from him. He says he sees people and wonders what their story is. There are the super attractive and well known, but what about the other 99.9 per cent of society, Marty asks? “I tell myself, ‘go find someone to paint, don’t get captured by someone that’s really distinguished - it doesn’t matter’.”2012 was a big year for Marty. By now an accomplished portraitist, he was approached to be part of a TV show, The Sitting. The show featured Marty conducting interviews with 20 well known New Zealanders, while also painting them.The Sitting was filmed in an intense three months. “It wasn’t the nicest experience but it was an achievement and we’re proud of it.” Each painting was then auctioned for Starship Hospital, raising around $160,000.“We’d lived there for about five years straight. There was no way we could repay them,” he said.Marty has painted scientist/inventor Sir Ray Avery, who wrote about him in his book ‘The Power of Us’, which celebrates New Zealanders who dare to dream. Ray went on to auction a blank canvas for Marty to paint someone’s portrait. He’s done this twice now, raising money for one of Ray’s inventions, the life pod infant incubator.Marty has also painted three New Zealand governors general - Sir Jerry Mataparae, Sir Anand Satyanand, Sir Michael Hardie Boys.“I meet everybody I paint. I don’t do it from photos - I don’t know that person; I don’t know their story.” He likes to observe their mannerisms, and hear about their life. The portrait naturally evolves from that, he says.“To do a good portrait you’ve got to know or understand someone. EDAP is about that. It’s not about a reward or a pat on the back.”EDAP is Marty’s project “everyone deserves a portrait”, born in those early days at Starship with Scotty. It’s his goal to create a series of portraits celebrating ordinary yet extraordinary people around the world. Marty has already painted five portraits for the series, and has his eye on a controversial Antarctic scientist, and an African farmer participating in a UN programme helping to drastically reduce child mortality.He is now in talks with Netflix about EDAP.Funding is the biggest challenge though, and when Marty found the worldwide EDAP wasn’t getting much traction, he thought “why don’t I just do a smaller, community version?”That was possible in Wanaka, his home for the past six years. At the end of the eventful 2012, during which he won a major art prize, the Adam Portraiture Award, Marty drove his van to the South Island for a week. He arrived in Wanaka, a place he’d never heard of, on a cold July day. The town was under an inversion layer and Matry sat at the lakefront and pictured his kids growing up here.Because of Scotty’s challenges, the family had to think hard about moving. But once they decided, he brought Mandy to Wanaka on a brilliantly sunny day. As they drove into town, Marty said: “Where the f--- did these mountains come from?” “Within a few weeks I knew I’d made the right choice about moving, after walking down Helwick Street and hearing people calling out “hi Scotty!” to my son. We never looked back. I love it. I love the mountains, I love getting out hiking and camping.”He has a small studio at the Wanaka Arts Centre and is on the board.“There’s some really good art being made in this town,” Marty says. He is planning to add to that with an Upper Clutha EDAP exhibition in November. “I want to celebrate ourselves with some art, before the summer crowd gets here. Just for us, the people who keep the town running.”He’s completed six local portraits so far: his son Scott (“the Wanaka volunteer”); barista Robert Holt; chestnut grower Greg Inwood, long-term local Marg Scaife, teenager Ferdia O’Connell, and primary school student Louis Dorset. He has six more to go.He and Mandy are looking for practical help with the exhibition, which they hope to hold in a large marquee, with hay bales for seating, a giant lolly scramble for the kids, and a spit-roast barbecue. They have a vision for an accessible, fun, community event - not a highbrow art exhibition.“We feel uncomfortable asking for money, that’s why we’re asking for some time, or help from companies that might be able to contribute, such as farms, bakeries, breweries, or vineyards.”The event will include a blank Stephen Martyn Welch (his art world name) canvas up for auction. “There are people who need to be celebrated,” Marty says of EDAP. “I’m not trying to judge them, I just want to chronicle them. It’s something that gives me purpose.”To find out more about Marty, his work, and EDAP, or to contact him and Mandy about the Wanaka event, visit his website.PHOTO: Supplied 

There’s not much Michael Ross doesn’t know about local government in Otago and Southland. So how did this former council chief executive find himself on the other side of the fence, lobbying Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) and the Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) at the helm of the Wanaka Stakeholders Group? Michael grew up in Oamaru and started his career working as an accountant. While living in Queenstown, he became a board member of the Queenstown Promotion Board because of his interest in tourism. He managed to persuade QLDC to introduce rate-based funding for the Queenstown Promotion Board. This success raised his profile locally so that when the role of deputy general manager at QLDC came up, Michael’s application was successful. This was the start of a long and varied career in local government. Michael laughingly describes himself as “the most recycled chief executive in Otago/Southland local government”. Michael served at QLDC from 1989 to 1995, looking after the Wanaka Community Board because of his close family ties to Wanaka. He was then appointed chief executive to the Clutha District Council, where he spent five years before moving to Southland District Council for another four years, also as chief executive. After this, he moved to Oamaru to serve as chief executive of Waitaki District Council, where he remained until his retirement from local government in 2017. During this time, as Michael moved from place to place for work, the one constant in his life was Wanaka. Michael’s family have owned property here for 52 years, and Michael remembers childhood holidays at Glendhu Bay even before that. “My dad eventually got sick of camping and bought a section,” Michael said. “I love Wanaka to bits - I’ve always wanted to be here but struggled to find suitable employment in the area.” So, one way and another, it seemed a natural choice for Michael to retire to Wanaka. Thus far, Michael’s retirement has been a busy time. Like many people in Wanaka and the surrounding area, Michael was concerned about plans for developing Queenstown Airport. A year ago, a small group of people started getting together to discuss concerns around the airport. In particular, at that time there was a public consultation around plans to increase the air noise boundary of Queenstown Airport.The fledgling Wanaka group made a submission to council on the air noise boundary, in support of the Queenstown Stakeholders Group. The noise boundary consultation process attracted 1500 submissions, 92.5 per cent of which were opposed to any change to the air noise boundary in Queenstown.Then on October 2, 2018, QAC’s CEO announced that there would be no further moves to increase the air noise boundary of Queenstown Airport, and that the focus would now shift to developing the Wanaka Airport Masterplan.“That’s what really got us [the Wanaka Stakeholders Group] started,” Michael said. “I put my hand up to put a group together, because I felt that my local government background would be helpful.”The Wanaka Stakeholders Group has now become a more formal entity, with about 2700 members in the Wanaka area. The group is now an incorporated society and has developed its website at www.protectwanaka.nz.Like many people in the Wanaka area, Michael was concerned that the community had not been consulted on the real extent of what was planned for Wanaka airport. “There was a consultation process back in 2016 to 2017, but it was all about leasing the airport. The possibility of commercial jet services arriving in Wanaka was not fully discussed with the community back then,” he said. After this consultation, QLDC issued a long-term lease on Wanaka Airport to the QAC. At the time, council undertook to retain ultimate control of the airport through mechanisms contained in the lease and via QAC’s Statement of Intent process.Michael said that despite numerous requests, he and the group have been unable to view details of the lease, so they can’t be sure it actually does stipulate that QLDC will retain ultimate control of the airport.“Wanaka Airport is a community asset that’s being taken away from the community,” Michael said. “There hasn’t been a transparent and open process - this community has not been consulted on the real extent of what was really planned.”Michael added that Wanaka is a community that cares a lot about the future of the area. “The reality is that when we set up a stand in the main street, people walk up and say ‘where can I sign?’ We don’t even have to explain what we’re lobbying for - everyone is now aware of the issue. ” A criticism recently levelled at the Wanaka Stakeholders Group is that it doesn’t represent the interests of local businesses. Michael refuted this claim, adding that among the 2,750 members of WSG, about 500 identified themselves as being local business owners.  Michael estimates that his work for WSG takes up about 10 to 20 hours a week. Outside of this, he is a keen golfer and also enjoys the other outdoor pursuits that Wanaka is famous for: mountain biking, skiing and boating. Michael and his wife Susie have three adult daughters and are currently enjoying a visit from their first grandchild. PHOTO: Supplied

At first meeting, you could be forgiven for thinking Caroline Oliver is an Auckland ‘lady who lunches’, but there’s much more to her smartly-dressed, sociable persona - she recently worked for a biotech company where her PhD thesis and ongoing work have contributed to a ground-breaking approach to cancer treatment.Caroline has lived in Wanaka for almost a year and has made herself very much at home in this community, leading music sessions for preschoolers, chairing the Wanaka branch of the National Party, and as a member of St Columba Anglician church’s committee, the Upper Clutha Parish Vestry, the Wanaka branch of the Royal Society of NZ, and service group Rotary.It’s a long way from her role as research officer in the Kode Biotech laboratory at the Auckland University of Technology, from which her work has been cited in more than 40 published papers.Kode is involved with a range of biosurface engineering techniques, and one of its innovative technologies is licensed to an immunotherapy company which is now on the brink of releasing a personalised treatment of cancer. Clinical trials have resulted in an unheard of 100 per cent regression rate, Caroline said.The synthetic animal-antigen molecule ‘AGI 134’, Kode’s patented treatment, is injected into primary tumours. The immune system rejects animal tissue, so it attacks the modified tumour and in the process destroys the tumour. Meanwhile the immune system is educated to recognise the person’s own tumour antigens, and it destroys unmodified primary and secondary tumours.“I’m very proud of the company and very privileged to be involved,” Caroline said. Her link to the company dates back to when she worked at an Auckland blood transfusion centre. She had a staff member called Stephen Henry (now a professor), who went on to establish Kode Biotech. Kode was awarded NZ Innovator in Health Science in 2015.‘AGI 134’ has been through hazard trials and clinical trials, with incredible results, Caroline said. The therapy secured US Food and Drug Administration approval last year. “It will be so dramatic when it’s on the market,” she said. “It will revolutionise cancer therapy.” Kode has more than 100 patents for different therapeutic techniques, and Caroline herself has two patents: for neutralising antibodies, and measuring cell survival.She left Kode last year when her contract expired. “I’d made my mark. I thought it was unfair to others who need the funding, and I didn’t want to stay in Auckland.”Caroline’s involvement in the field was almost accidental, as her heart was in working on tissue transplant techniques. But being married with three children meant developing her career further wasn’t really on the cards. “I fell off the ladder,” she said.She would go to university from 9am to 2.30pm then race off to pick up the kids from school.“You might have done something amazing but you had to leave it for tomorrow,” she said, although she admitted to sometimes heading back to the lab after 8pm.She earned a Master of Applied Science, and a PhD, in which she looked at neutralising blood group antigens.“Unknown to me, it would become the basis for the Kode cancer therapy,” she said. “I was just delighted to contribute what I did.”After finishing her PhD in 2013 she was accepted at both Cambridge and Oxford to do further study on stem cell and regenerative medicine technology. This self-confessed “party person” livened up the workplace at the Stem Cell Immunotherapy Lab and Research Labs in Oxford University; and she is pleased the staff morning teas she instigated are still continuing. “I’m very collegial in my work.”She also spent time in stem cell laboratories in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Kings College, and the John Goldman Centre, London.After her divorce in 2016 she built a house in Wanaka, not far from the house she and her husband had used as a holiday home since 2009. She joined St Columba, which she loves for its modern traditional approach and “intelligent level of worship”. The church is - and always has been - a big part of her life, and Caroline says her belief boils down to two things: “Love each other as you love yourself; do to others as you would have them do to you.”She also values the structure the church provides in caring for others. She has always done a lot of voluntary work - she inherited an “altruistic gene” from her parents: “Cubs, Brownies, school committees, church,” she lists. “To me, church is outside the church.” Caroline led a pre-school Mainly Music session in Auckland for 14 years, and now coordinates the “wonderful programme” here in Wanaka. She also provided ‘science in the classroom sessions’ for Year 5/6 at Cornwall Park and Glen Innes school (she has a Teacher Aide Certificate) and is hoping to offer the same thing here in Wanaka. There’s more: Caroline sings soprano in the church choir and is practising for The Messiah later this year, as well as studying a certificate of small business management (to support her dress-making - she makes most of her own clothes).It’s a diverse range of activities. “I describe my life as a series of Venn diagrams - and I’m in the middle,” Caroline said.A recent full day included Mainly Music in the morning, lunching with friends, attending the Lazareth Quartet in the evening, followed by her business class - and managing to fit in a glass of wine along the way.“You could not do that in Auckland because you wouldn’t have time with the travel,” she said.Caroline is determined to make the most of life after watching two close friends die in the past year; and she is excited about the imminent release of the promising new cancer treatment to which she has contributed. “I feel I’ve ticked all the good boxes,” she said.PHOTO: Supplied

In the 29 years he’s been volunteering for the Wanaka Fire Brigade, Tony Wellman has seen it all.An electrician by trade, Tony is also the leader of the Wanaka Road Crash Rescue Team which is off to France next month to compete in the World Crash Rescue Championship after winning the Australasian Road Rescue Championships in July. The British are the current world champions but Tony believes Wanaka has what it takes to steal that top spot.“You’ve always got a chance on the day. Who said Australia was going to beat New Zealand last weekend [in the rugby]?” he said.Despite his three decades as a volunteer, Tony said he started out late in the brigade, compared to some of his friends at the time. Yet most of them are gone and he’s still going.Volunteering for the rescue team is a big commitment — and one that affects the whole family.“Training is two hours a week on Mondays. Then you have the call outs, which can be anything from a quarter of an hour for a false alarm to four or five hours. We cover up to Haast for car rescues so you could be away for three or four hours quite easily,” Tony said.It’s not just the number of hours - it’s also the fact that you can never predict when your help might be needed.“You have to either be single or have a very understanding partner, otherwise there’s no way you can do this.”Luckily for Tony, his wife understands his passion for helping others.Tony doesn’t like talking about himself but is well aware that he and his team regularly save lives. He doesn’t do it to boost his ego, though, and says a big part of the reason he’s kept going for so long is the Wanaka community. “The town looks after you. That’s why it’s like a payback thing,” he said.His dad was heavily involved in Rotary when he was younger and he remembers people trying to convince him to leave the fire brigade and join the Rotary. But his passion for the work of the fire brigade ran stronger and he never left.Tony’s family moved to Luggate when he was just four-years-old, then to Wanaka when he was about 15. He’s a son of this region and said he remains passionate about it, despite all the changes the area has gone through in recent years.Wanaka, in particular, has gone through explosive growth since Tony moved here but he says, at heart, it’s really still a small town.“People are just lovely, they really do look after you.”While people might still know you by first name, Tony said the growth is even more noticeable when he thinks about the number of callouts the fire brigade volunteers get these days.“When I started we only did fires and the odd car crash. We went from 50 calls a year to now about 200 calls a year. We’re way busier.”The numbers might get higher but the level of attention paid to each person who needs help never changes.These days, the fire brigade gets a lot more mental health support than it used to get when Tony started but he said some days are still tough. And while the number of callouts is higher, the reasons are very much the same old ones. “Drink driving, ice, people not driving to their abilities... People thinking they’re awesome rally drivers, then next thing you know, we’re picking them up off the road,” he said.“Some things you see and you never forget.”Fortunately, that also applies to good things, like the days when you get to save someone’s life. Those are etched in Tony’s memories even more strongly than the bad days.He wishes more people would join the brigade and experience the joy of making that big a difference to someone else’s life.PHOTO: Wanaka App

What does it mean to be gifted?This is something Danielle Nicholson, a teacher at Central Otago REAP’s One Day School, thinks about often. She leads a programme for gifted Year Five and Six children who are pulled out of the regular classroom one day a week and put in a learning environment catering specifically to their needs.“There’s a great deal of misunderstanding about what the word means,” Danielle said. “Being gifted doesn’t mean a child will be successful - it’s really important these children are taught to use their gift.” Surprisingly, gifted children are much more likely to fail university than other high achieving students, which is just one of the many unexpected things about the ‘gifted’ label.While best diagnosed by a psychologist, there are a range of traits often shared among gifted children: having a greater depth of emotion than others at a young age, a stronger sense of idealism and justice and often presenting as overly sensitive. A high IQ may play a role, but experts disagree on the efficacy of IQ as a measurement of giftedness, and it can be other characteristics, from a highly developed sense of humour to a tendency to disengage in the classroom, that can indicate a child might be gifted. Helping gifted children manage these varied traits - and the advantages and disadvantages they bring - is Danielle’s specialty.After first training as a teacher in her hometown of Auckland, Danielle almost immediately found her niche working with gifted children. A two-year ‘trial run’ moving down south with her husband and first baby while on maternity leave became permanent when her dream job became available through REAP. After 13 years teaching the One Day School, she is still incredibly passionate about the role. Our conversation ranges from discussing hobbies to her studies and where she grew up, but it keeps quickly returning to gifted children and the One Day School programme. Being gifted is labelled as a disability in some countries, and Danielle says without nurturing it, it can have serious impacts on someone’s life as a child and then as they become an adult. “Generally speaking, boys identify as developing behavioural problems and girls have emotional problems. We diagnose boys to girls 5:1 because boys’ symptoms are more noticeable.”Everything she teaches the children must help them succeed in life far beyond school, and it’s far from the maths or science test-measured environment of a regular classroom. “If it’s only useful this year I won’t teach it.”A tall order - but Danielle thrives in her chosen environment, and ongoing research informs the way she teaches. “The lens through which these children see the world is different from the everyday child,” Danielle says. “We teach them about social, emotional, and ethical development as well as high level thinking so they can learn more about themselves and become successful humans.” And interestingly, she wants them to fail sometimes: “If a gifted child doesn’t reach the point where they fail at something, they’re not pushing themselves hard enough.“There’s a dopamine hit that comes from doing challenging activities, and they feel it more because they’re generally more emotional, but get the opportunity less often [because they’re less stimulated in a regular classroom].”After repeating the mantra to challenge themselves to her students many times, Danielle decided it was time to do the same herself, which is how she ended up founding and running the Contact Epic bike race (around Lake Hawea) without any specific experience in the area. While she was looking for inspiration, the bike race idea was floated by her sporty husband (Sergeant Aaron Nicholson who retired from the police force in 2018). Danielle’s not one for bike riding but she is an “organiser by nature”.“My husband is massively into the outdoors and does the exciting stuff. I sit in the office and do logistics.” She says the multi-job life is typical of people in Wanaka. The Nicholsons have two children who each have “very different learning styles” - the elder is now at university and the younger one is at Mount Aspiring College. They’ve become true Wanaka kids - one even called her a ‘Jafa’ not long ago. Danielle wears her Aucklander badge proudly, but she loves Wanaka too.“I don’t love the cold but I love the people and the sense of community and that all groups here intermingle - even if by accident. Your character rings true in the end when you live here.”She’s also a keen skier; loves walking, yoga, wine, food, and people but, as it does throughout our conversation, her work returns to the fore and is at the top of her list of interests. “My true passion is teaching gifted children.”It’s rewarding work: Danielle said some of the most heartening moments have been watching the students learn about world events, from climate change to the Christchurch terror attacks, and talk compassionately and thoughtfully about how they can take action to make positive change. When I met with Danielle, she’d been visited that morning by a former student who is now studying at an overseas university.“He’s just divine,” she says “and doing incredibly well. He talks a lot about the impact the school had on him. I think he’ll go on to do real good in the world.”PHOTO: Supplied

Wanaka GP Susie Meyer may not fit the stereotype of a rural general practitioner (GP), but that’s not surprising, as she followed a less traditional path into medicine. The fifth of 11 children born to a family of “careless Catholics” in Washington State, Susie was a cheeky bespectacled girl with her nose in a book (when she wasn’t playing sport). She came from a working class family where everyone grew up to be a teacher or “helper” of some kind.She aspired to change the world as an activist and, at university in the late 1970s, it was all about feminism, along with all the other things that came with the 70s.After dropping out of university in the US, Susie and a friend became ski bums and moved to Wyoming. “We thought skiers had a cool lifestyle.” She and a friend drove a borrowed station wagon to ski resort Jackson Hole, where she stayed for four years. After meeting a Kiwi who suggested she study medicine, Susie agreed and moved to Auckland where she enrolled at university.“I thought it would be a good idea to be a doctor and do some good, so I was driven by that.” She was certainly driven: first she had to complete a BSc; having never done sciences, she enlisted the help of tutors to get started and read the chemistry text book cover to cover. Susie likes forming groups, and at medical school she set up study groups (“I picked people who were smarter than me”) so her learning was social.Susie (seated centre) with four of her ten siblings. PHOTO: SuppliedThere was plenty of scope for Susie’s activism at medical school - she wanted to promote cooperation over competition. She worked to change the university’s policy of posting people’s ranked exam results to using code numbers instead of names; arranged for better access to counsellors; and organised tutorials for Pasifika students.It was the 1980s, and while Susie liked New Zealand’s “girls can do anything” approach, she noticed it was tempered with “as long as they make everyone a cup of tea too”.She decided to live in Dunedin for her intern years, and spent three years at the hospital before getting winter work on Wanaka’s skifields, which she alternated with summers at the hospital. In those days, Treble Cone’s on-duty doctor was also a ski patroller, pulling rigs and exploding bombs for avalanche control. Susie loved it.When she graduated she was 35 with a young son (Beach, now 28-years-old, with her partner Whitney Thurlow). Susie decided to take her father’s advice: “Don’t worry about what you want to do, worry about where you want to live.” Susie wanted to live in a small town and Wanaka fit the bill. As a training GP she commuted daily to Alexandra or Queenstown - over the gravel Crown Range. There were no female GPs in Wanaka, and people kept asking Susie to set up a practice. She initially set up on her own in 1995, in a small sleepout behind the dentist, which she decorated with items from home. “It was all very homespun.”Susie has kept active. PHOTO: SuppliedSusie had trained with Lucy O’Hagan and Simon Brebner in Dunedin, and connected well with them - all three were a little “out of the norm”, she said.She asked them to join her in her fledgling practice and they agreed. “Setting up the new practice created diversity in Wanaka township,” Susie said. But she and Lucy had to find a new formula of working as GPs. “Basically we had to re-invent the model, because we didn’t have wives at home.” They came up with the shared patient concept, and worked in teams.The practice, Aspiring Medical, eventually moved to premises on Dungarvon Street, then expanded; and finally moved to the new Wanaka Lakes Health Centre in 2011.It was a busy life. Susie and Whitney also operated a business called Wild Walks for eight years (it has now been amalgamated with Aspiring Guides). Susie would be on call at night for the practice 14 hours at a time; she often worked nights and weekends, and missed countless social engagements. She had her first Christmas off three years ago.“These sorts of commitments are a service, a career of dedicating yourself to the community,” she said. “Also, these things are not done in isolation there is a whole team of health workers supporting me.”The work was varied and challenging. Dealing with car accidents, and supporting people who are dying are some of the hardest aspects of a rural general practice, she said.Susie also maintained her involvement with groups. She served on a range of advisory committees, including the national advisory committee for the Royal NZ College of GPs (RNZCGP). She was a member of the Central Lakes Health Network, advising the Southern District Health Board on service delivery in the district, and teacher liaison for the RNZCGP. She taught undergraduate and postgraduates in medicine for 17 years, which took her to many practices around Otago and Southland. She was instrumental in negotiating for the Wanaka after hours service that she believes is the gold standard for care. Susie’s involvement has been such that last weekend she was recognised by the RNZCGP for a career of community service.Related: GP recognised for community serviceAfter 25 years in Wanaka, Susie says the issues of equity and access to health care services remain, but while public health care stops at Dunstan Hospital in Clyde, Wanaka’s access to private care has been maintained - for example, you can usually be seen by a GP on the same day you call to book an appointment.“People who come here now have less difficulty getting access to health care. We are much more of an urban environment,” she said. There’s a flip side: our rapid population growth is challenging infrastructure development, she said. And the fact that we are the furthest community from a base hospital remains an issue. The answer for now is that rural GPs have to be upskilled, Susie said.She retired from clinical work in March this year. She retired before 65, she said, because she was “worried about becoming an old fuddy-duddy doctor”. Susie wanted to stay dynamic in her approach but figured she may not be as sharp as she was at 35. Plus, she wanted to be more creative and she’s seen too many people retire too late to enjoy it. She wanted to take advantage of having kept active with skiing, tramping, biking and walking.Being a GP in a small town means you know a lot about people, and while you may get approached in the supermarket for health advice, you’re also very aware of the people around you and what they’re going through, Susie said. “The thing I’ll probably miss is knowing people in depth.”“I want to be more creative, free of time pressure, free of the burden of working so much,” she said. “My life used to be scheduled six months ahead. Now I don’t have any time pressure.”She has some plans for retirement, such as a few writing projects to finish - including a young-adult novel which she somehow managed to write in what spare time she has. She might try to publish it. “I’m a sort of ambitious character.”She has also written her own story of doctoring in Wanaka, which will appear in the upcoming second edition of Skirt Tales (an update of the Suffrage centennial historical accounts of women in the district) - her “first published piece”.Susie has retired from general practice but not from activism. “I want to do some good activist work. I’ve done women, I’ve done health; I’d like to do something for the environment. I’m going to see if I can offer something,” she said.

Machu Picchu beckons but first Carol needs to raise thousands of dollars and go to the movies. That’s Carol Bradley’s focus as her year long quest to raise awareness of mental health issues comes to fruition.Next Friday (August 2) an audience of 70 plus will attend a special screening of Disney’s Lion King at Paradiso and hear Carol speak on behalf of the Mental Health Foundation (MHF). The price of the movie ticket includes a donation to the cause as Carol aims to raise in excess of $4000 for the foundation.In addition to watching the movie, Carol will be holding raffles, sizzling sausages, and handing out spot prizes and vouchers generously donated by local businesses and organisations. “I’ve been blown away by the kindness and generosity of locals and also the stories that are coming in, as well, about other people’s struggle with mental health,” she said. “I wanted to do something that would bring the community together but also be uplifting and kind,” Carol said. She selected the movie because it deals with grief and survivor’s guilt but also compassion, friendship and loyalty.A vegetarian, Carol takes one for the team at her fundraising sausage sizzle outside Mitre 10. PHOTO: Wanaka App When she’s not raising awareness on behalf of the MHF, this full-time working mum teaches physical education and health at Mt Aspiring College (MAC). Born in England, Carol chose her teaching vocation in the 1990s starting out as a physical education teacher in 1992. In those days, PE teachers were also cross-trained in personal and social health (PSE) and within three years she was taking the lead in PSE education as dean at a sixth form college.“Back then it was sexuality, drugs and alcohol. Now, when we talk about health, it’s always about wellbeing.”Asked to define wellbeing, Carol said coming to New Zealand and discovering the Maori philosophy of wellness, or hauora, “really resonated” with her. The four dimensions of hauora - mental emotional wellbeing (self-confidence), social wellbeing (self-esteem), spiritual wellbeing (personal beliefs), and physical wellbeing (health) are the foundation stones of wellbeing - “when everything is in a complete state of balance.” This philosophy is encapsulated in Te Whare tapa Wha - the four walls of the Whare where if one wall doesn’t have strong foundations, it will affect the other three, she said. As a teacher, she recognises that today’s students are facing a range of wellness issues with mental health and mindfulness becoming increasingly important as, research indicates, New Zealanders tend not to discuss the subject. “We’re very good at keeping our bodies fit and healthy but not so much our minds,” Carol said. “When it comes to mental health, we close things down rather than talk about it.”Four years ago, she went to Australia and trained in the “Mindfulness for Schools” project and brought that experience back to MAC where it was formally introduced to the curriculum. Carol, with her boys Red and Tay, in Ubud, Bali. PHOTO: Supplied “Teaching has to be relevant, up-to-date and appropriate,” she said, and today’s teenage “stress” is triggered by factors she never had to experience. She admits when she was a teenager in the 1980s her peers didn’t talk about anxiety or depression. “We’d say we were a bit sad or down but a word like anxiety wasn’t a part of our language.”Today, anxiety is experienced by most teenagers, Carol said, and much of it stems from social media, such as cyber bullying, sexting, gender roles and body image. The prevalence of personal phones and devices and the rise of social media indicates today’s kids are much more disconnected, she said, and she’s now “spending time teaching empathy”.“Our kids do all their chatting through their phones, so they’ve lost the natural ability to empathise. You can’t tell how a person’s feeling if you’re not looking them in the eye and being fully present.”And Machu Picchu - well that’s the “bonus” to this year of raising mental health awareness. With her 50th birthday on the horizon, Carol said she had been looking for something to sink her teeth into when she discovered the MHF challenge to raise awareness, which finishes with an epic adventure to Machu Picchu, Peru. “It ticks all the boxes for me. It is something I want to do as a mum, first of all, to show my kids that what you put your mind to you can do. You can be anything and do anything; you just have to have the heart to achieve your goals.”Carol also sees this year long effort as reinforcing her credibility as a teacher. “I need to be able to walk the walk. It’s too easy just to talk it up but not do anything.”“This challenge has been a personal project where I could give a little back and, besides, Machu Picchu was always on my bucket list.”Together with 12 strangers from around the country, each with their own personal reasons to promote MHF awareness, Carol signed up for the challenge which culminates in a 12 day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu, starting September 6.“It will be incredible when I get there - I’ll be living the dream,” Carol said.Between now and then though, there’s a lot of planning, fundraising, school class work, and packing to go. And going to the movies, of course. There are still tickets available on facebook Carol says, but she expects a last minute rush. For movie tickets click here. Anyone just wishing to donate to the cause click here.

After nine months of planning, the Honest Wholefood Co is open for business, and the first two weeks of operation have been a whirlwind for the owners, sisters Emma Brown and Nicola Cross.The Lake Hawea-based company sells kitchen, bathroom and laundry essentials without the packaging these goods normally come in. Emma and Nicola source bulk products and sell on the goods in reusable, recyclable packaging - or, better yet, customers can provide their own reusable containers.Wherever possible, the bulk products are sourced from companies already using waste free packaging for the stock, and the prices are set to match or beat the supermarket - a tall order for the entrepreneurial duo. “We want to help people access waste-free products,” Nicola said. “If it’s too expensive, people just won’t buy it.”With backgrounds in marketing (Nicola) and accounting (Emma), the pair sought to provide for customers something they themselves wanted - easy, affordable essentials without waste.Nicola lives as close to zero waste as she can, which requires everything from baking biscuits for her kids when they want them instead of buying packaged ones, to - until recently - driving long distances to find low-waste, affordable pantry basics. The understanding that it can be both difficult and time-consuming to live to a low waste life inspired the pair to make access to their products as simple as possible. “It shouldn’t be complicated, Nicola said. “We try to make it easy.” Nicola and Emma considered opening a retail store before deciding that an online shop, plus providing deliveries, would be the best option, at least to start with. “We try to be really responsive, and work like a storefront online.”Finding suppliers who are willing to deliver goods in waste free packaging - and are also ideally locally or New Zealand based - is an ongoing challenge, but it is an important aspect for the Honest Wholefood Co. “We don’t want to just be a front for the customers who don’t get packaging with what they buy, but also be really responsible at the back end.”Honest Wholefood Co sell more than 150 products through their online store. Visit it here.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Merino sheep farmer Meg Taylor defies all the stereotypes.  The Dunedin-born former tourist lodge owner has just 162 hectares of fairly flat land ten minutes drive east of downtown Wanaka. Her farm is made up of three river terraces and the only ‘high country’ is in the views. What’s more, she runs a mere 720 ewes and has been a full-time farmer for less than three years – though she was very involved in her late husband’s farm, and ran it for two years, with help, after he died in 2008. “I herded sheep, set up fence breaks, fed out to stock, drove the tractor and loaded hay etc, etc, quite regularly,” Meg says. “I wouldn’t have gone into farming full time if I hadn’t known what I was getting in to.”While some local cockies were sceptical when Meg started farming merinos on flat riverside land, she had done her research and so far it’s going very well.  “It’s not ‘high’ country that’s essential for merinos, its ‘dry’ country. There are lots of flat merino stations in the Mackenzie Basin and the Maniototo,” she adds. “It’s also a myth that you need to starve merinos to get fine wool. The research now says to feed them as well as you can.”Driving in the ute around the farm, delivering salt blocks to her sheep, it’s easy to see why she loves farming. There are picture perfect panoramas wherever you look, the grass is lush and the sheep are robust and happy.  “And I’m not answering the same questions again and again,” Meg says. After 19 years hosting tourists over dinner at Riverrun – a boutique luxury lodge Meg and her late husband John Pawson built in 1996 - the conversation could get repetitive. “I’m loving not having to be careful about saying what I really think.” When you’ve got Republicans and Democrats around the same table keeping discussions civilised could be quite a challenge, even for a practised diplomat like Meg.After the lodge, moving into the male dominated world of farming was relatively simple. Meg’s happy to be farming merinos (“They’re my favourite sheep, but I guess every farmer feels like that about their particular breed”) and unlike other sheep, merinos are commanding very good prices for their wool.“Ordinary wool earns two or three dollars a kilo at the moment. Merino wool sells for up to $20 to $25. And the meat market is good too.” Meg has led a varied and interesting life. She met her husband John in Melbourne when he was establishing outdoor clothing brand Kathmandu and she was doing a PhD in English Literature at Monash University.Their home was always full of people talking about Kathmandu and eventually Meg decided she may as well join in officially. “It was an exciting time. The business was growing very rapidly. It included retail shops - eventually in both Australia and New Zealand - wholesale and a busy mail order service. Mail order was a key strategy in those days - rather than internet. I did the catalogue and marketing from 1990 on.” Kathmandu became a big successful business, and Meg and John eventually sold their shares in 1994.They took a year off to go climbing and have adventures, and the following year moved to New Zealand, bought some farmland bordering the Clutha and Cardrona Rivers and started building the lodge. Meg threw herself into tourism, with the same enthusiasm she previously had for retailing outdoor clothing and would later have for farming. “It’s like there’s a switch in my brain turning from one thing to the next.”  There are some constants in her life, one of which is a love of the outdoors. And that particular love has a strong connection to everything she has done both professionally – outdoor clothing, tourism in Wanaka and then farming wool for outdoor clothing – and in her recreation – which includes a passion for cycling and mountain sports.Tragically, John died in a climbing accident in 2008. Meg leased out the farm and continued to run the lodge for another eight years. She also set up another tourism business called Green Journeys with two other lodge owners, which offered ‘luxury holidays, accommodation and experiences’.Eventually Meg decided she was ready for a change. Three years ago she sold the lodge and her share of Green Journeys and became a full-time farmer.She threw herself into learning everything she could and has loved every minute of it. “It’s a very exciting time to be farming. So much is changing. I’ve got an auto-drafter in my sheep yards and I’m planting nitrogen-fixing legumes rather than applying nitrogen. There’s lots happening in the eco and technology spheres.” It’s also an exciting time to be living in Wanaka. And like many locals, Meg is not letting her work or her lifestyle stop her from fighting to protect the town she loves.“My friends and I had been discussing Queenstown Airport Corporation’s plans for developing Wanaka Airport and after six months of talking decided it was time to do something. “ Now when she’s not busy on the farm, Meg can be seen in town helping run the Protect Wanaka information and membership drive stand.“It’s fascinating talking to people on the streets about the issue. Almost no-one wants a $400 million redevelopment so the airport can take jets. There are so many other things that $400 million could be spent on in Wanaka; waste water infrastructure, medical facilities, parking, roading, school facilities and so on."“Our key request is that Wanaka people should have a say in the development of Wanaka Airport. QAC is planning for millions of passenger movements and this will change Wanaka massively and for ever.”“The plan for the airport is not driven by any vision for Wanaka’s future but instead by constraints on the development of Queenstown airport. The easy solution is to look over the hill to the green fields of Wanaka. We’re happy with 50 seater domestic flights to service the local market but we don’t think the dual airport model being proposed is in any way for Wanaka’s benefit."“We want our council to have a vision for Wanaka’s future, beyond seeing our town as a solution to Queenstown’s problems.”PHOTO: Caroline Harker

Rising star Thea Erichsen already has loads of accolades under her belt, from starring as Annie in Showbiz Queenstown's production of 'Annie' to traveling to Los Angeles and performing at Disneyland. But this young singing, dancing and acting talent has recently been offered her biggest opportunity yet: she has been selected to perform at the 2019 Broadway Dreams Showcase in New York City. The 16-year-old former Wanaka teen - now living in Auckland - took part in the Broadway Dreams New Zealand summer intensive workshop in January 2019 in Auckland. The week-long programme is designed to strengthen New Zealand's upcoming talent, and allows students to receive training and support from current Broadway creatives and performers. At the end of the week the United States faculty awarded four students scholarships for the Broadway Dreams Showcase, and Thea was one of the four. Thea needs to raise funds to travel to New York and for her accommodation while she is there, and she has come up with an innovative way to do it - to travel back to Wanaka for a one-off performance. Her show, ‘Wanaka to Broadway’, is coming up on Sunday July 28. Thea is bringing with her other talented performers from Auckland, and local Wanaka dancers and singers will also be part of the evening of musical theatre.The show is an opportunity to enjoy a night of entertainment and attending will help make Thea’s trip possible.The Broadway Dreams Showcase is a huge opportunity for young performers, giving them the chance to work alongside current Broadway performers, directors and choreographers, plus the showcase will be viewed by some of the best industry representatives. To book your tickets to Wanaka to Broadway, click here. If you are not able to attend but would like to help Thea’s goal become a reality, you can contribute to her Givealittle here.PHOTO: Supplied

Champion swimmer Hamish McLean has just been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2019 World Paraswimming Championships in London. It’s not his first outing at “the Worlds”. Indeed he’s an experienced international competitor having trained or competed in Australia, England, Scotland, Spain, Germany, the United States and Brazil.He now studies in Christchurch but the former Mt Aspiring College (MAC) student still considers Wanaka home.It’s where his dog Charlie and his mum and dad, Claire and Alastair, live and it’s where he comes to chill. With Wanaka’s new swimming pool he can even keep up his training and still enjoy the benefits of being at home.Born with achondroplasia, Hamish is a person of short stature who has excelled at something he truly enjoys. He discovered his talent for swimming competitively after his first “meet” as a member of the Wanaka Swim Club. He was 11-years-old when he attended his first national swimming competition and by 15-years-old he was representing New Zealand at “the Worlds” in Glasgow, and a year later at the Paralympics at Rio in 2016.In Rio he swam in four events - a big ask for an Olympic novice whose name was only added to the team at the eleventh hour.“I was a little disappointed that I didn't get selected at first. But I had kind of prepared for both situations, if that makes sense,” Hamish said. “Training ramped up a lot as soon as I found out. And I had to let the school [MAC] know as I was going to be having a whole term off in the 2016 year.” At Rio, Hamish set an Oceania record in the paralympic final of the Men's 400m Freestyle S6, finishing seventh in the event. His goal at these “Worlds” is to improve his personal best times in freestyle and individual medley and qualify for the Paralympics in Tokyo next year where he’s aiming for a podium finish in his specialist events, the 400m freestyle and 200m medley.He said there’s a big difference between the “Worlds” and the Paralympics. “There are so many more people, as there is more than one sport. It was a little overwhelming at first but you settle in and it is great fun in the end,” he said. Hamish (back row, 2nd from right) with his 2019 World Champs team, including Cameron Leslie (left) and Sophie Pascoe(centre). PHOTO: BWMediaHamish said he hasn’t been mentored by any one person to achieve the heights he’s climbed but he was lucky to have made some good contacts early in his career.At his very first national swim meet, he made friends with Sophie Pascoe (New Zealand’s most successful Paralympian with nine gold medals and six silver medals from three Olympics). “I’ve always looked up to Sophie and she’s always been very supportive and helpful,” he said. “She invited me to be on her relay team [in 2011] and I was really stoked to be swimming with her.” He’ll be training with Sophie’s coach Roly Crichton in Christchurch in the lead up to these World Championships. Another teammate he’s often travelled with to international events over the years is Cameron Leslie (para swimmer and Wheel Blacks (wheelchair rugby) who has represented New Zealand at the Paralympics at Beijing (2008) and Rio, as well as the Worlds 2012.As with any success story, there’s always been a good deal of struggle, effort and self-discipline required to get there, but Hamish thinks his path to success has benefitted from his start in a small town.“The Wanaka community has been really good in supporting me,” he said. Everyone at MAC knew him and got behind him when he was fundraising with sausage sizzles outside Wanaka New World; or mini auctions through the Wanaka Swim Club.He was even offered the use of a private swimming pool for training when Wanaka’s public pool was closed for earthquake strengthening works.“I don’t think it would be the same in a big city like Christchurch but Wanaka is such a tight-knit community, it’s so much better,” he said. Hamish still swims under Wanaka Swim Club’s name. PHOTO: SwimInfo NZHe has also appreciated the flexibility offered by Canterbury University for him to juggle exams and assignment deadlines while attending national and international meets.Hamish is studying a four year Bachelor of Engineering with Honours degree at Canterbury. “It’s really interesting and I’m enjoying it but it is hard work with lots of assignments and tests.”He’s currently leaning towards civil and structural engineering. “My cousin and my uncle are both civil engineers and what they do seems pretty interesting and cool.”He’s enjoying the challenge of being a student and continuing his training. Bishop Julius Hall was his home for his first year and, together with “a bunch of people I met at the hall”, he’s gone flatting this year. “I’m not too bad at cooking and with my training I’m trying to keep a nutritional balance with lots of vegies and pasta. I do need to eat healthily to perform well but I think I’ve got a good balance that works for me.”Seven swim sessions plus two gym sessions each week is his standard routine and it keeps him at peak performance. “Any more and I start to get sick or injured.” Endless hours of training sessions can get quite long and tedious but it’s all worth it in the end, he said. “When I’m training I just think about random things; the easy training sets can be relaxing but when you have to turn it up a notch it gets pretty hectic and tiring and all you’re really thinking about is when it’s going to be over.”Right now, with only eight weeks before the New Zealand team departs for England, Hamish is “just putting in the hard yards”. At home, he’s enjoyed swimming at the Wanaka pool, especially being able to relax in the hot pool after training, and has been training with Wanaka Swim Club’s new head coach Cameron Stanley. “He’s a good coach and a very good fit for the Wanaka Swim Club.”Hamish’s advice to anyone who wants to succeed is to find something they really enjoy and stick at it. “You’ll always do well if you have a passion for it. Don’t be put off when it gets hard; it will pay off in the end.”

Nine teachers have been appointed to the foundation teaching staff at Te Kura O Take Kārara, Wanaka’s new primary school, which will open for classes next year.Foundation principal Jodie Howard said a strong mix of teachers with a wide range of skills had been appointed following a rigorous selection process. “We were very happy with the quality of the applications from within and beyond our district,” Jodie said.Two of the teachers who will join Take Kārara currently teach at local schools. Estelle Moore will transfer to Take Kārara from Hawea Flat School and Fergus McLean will transfer from Wanaka Primary School.All other teachers are either new to teaching or come from elsewhere in the South Island. The new teachers (and their current schools) are Anita van Looy (Clearview School, Rolleston), Anna Mulconroy (Highfields School, Timaru), Anna Murdoch (Heathcote Valley School, Christchurch), Caitlin Buttle (Knights Stream School, Christchurch), Jillian Macfie (beginning teacher), Joe Miller (Goldfields School, Cromwell), and Olivia Pearce (beginning teacher).The teachers will be employed from the beginning of Term Four this year and will be working with the leadership team to prepare for the opening of Take Kārara at the beginning of 2020. The school will initially cater for a roll of 400 students. Jodie said there would be opportunities for children, parents, caregivers and whānau to connect with the teachers before the end of the year.Expressions of interest for enrolment at Take Kārara are now open and can be completed via the school’s website, where more information about the new teachers can also be found. Meantime, construction of the school in Three Parks is proceeding smoothly, with steelwork for the buildings now clearly visible on the site alongside the Wanaka Recreation Centre, Jodie said.The new school has been created to accommodate the rapidly growing population in the town and the increasing number of school students. It will be complementary to Wanaka Primary School and Holy Family Catholic School.Visit the school’s website here.

Chanelle O’Sullivan has only lived in the Upper Clutha for a few weeks but she feels right at home.The mum-of-two has gained a name for herself online with her Instagram account, but her social media handle - “just a farmer’s wife” - doesn’t paint the whole picture.The “just” is in jest, of course. Anyone who’s ever met a farmer’s wife knows how busy they always are, and what a range of roles they have.Chanelle moved from Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, to the Hawea area about eight weeks ago with her husband Dave and the couple’s two children, when Dave took up a job managing a nearby station.“The name [justafarmerswife] came about because I run a group with 12,000 rural women across New Zealand - Farming Mums NZ - and quite often women felt treated as ‘just’ a farmer’s wife,” she explained. “It’s very sarcastic. Any woman living on a farm wears many hats at any one time.”The group started in 2013 and has been a helpful hub for Chanelle to both stay connected with like-minded people and also work in the industry she loves.She is involved in a number of aspects of the farming and agriculture industries, independently from her husband’s career. As well as managing the Facebook group, she works in social media and marketing for different agriculture businesses, runs the family’s Airbnb in Twizel, works with Farmstrong on improving the life of farming families and has a few other business ideas simmering away.Her children, seven-year-old Isabelle and four-year-old Hunter, also make sure she’s busy every day — and she wouldn’t have it any other way.Chanelle with children Isabelle and Hunter.Chanelle knows first-hand how isolating farming life can be, not just for the farmer but for the whole family. It often involves moving away from friends and relatives, sometimes regularly, constantly leaving support networks behind. Her Farming Mums Facebook group works as a stable support system for those in that position.The last couple of months have also been an example of how much Chanelle benefits from the support of that online community. Uprooting the family from Pleasant Point, all the way to Hawea, wasn’t easy but she’s happy to find her feet again now in the Upper Clutha.The region, she says, ticks all her boxes. “I love it here. It’s been a full on few months but I’m loving it. We love the outdoors. Every 10kms, there’s another DOC sign with another walk or a river or something to explore and that really suits us,” she said. “And I love that you can take dogs on so many tracks down here.”Living just outside Hawea, she says she gets the best of both worlds: the quietness of countryside living and the convenience of having everything she needs nearby, whether she turns on the road to Cromwell or Wanaka.Born and bred in Auckland, Chanelle always knew she’d grow up to live in a rural setting. She remembers visiting a farming station while on a family holiday in the South Island, as a child, and deciding right there and then that was the kind of place where she’d live as an adult.She moved from Auckland to Canterbury on her own, via a detour to study agriculture in Hamilton, and met her now-husband Dave not long after arriving in the south. She never looked back.“The thought of traffic makes my heart race. I hate wasting time,” she said, when asked about what turns her off city living. “I just don’t like the rat race.”Animals and the outdoors have always been a true passion for Chanelle. Her first job was at a pet store, then she became a vet nurse, and is now farming.“I love the outdoors aspect of farming. You do something different every day,” she said.“I’d suffocate in a 9-to-5 job. I know some people really like routine. Sometimes I wish I did too but it’s just the way I work, I have to have ten things on the go.”It’s probably a few more than ten at the moment, but it’s too hard to keep track as Chanelle continues to say yes to all the opportunities that come her way — and then thinks up new ones in whatever spare time she gets.One of her goals is to get better at taking time for herself, and she is encouraging all other rural women in New Zealand to do the same. She’s recently worked with Farmstrong on a nationwide survey to understand the struggles and needs of farming families. The survey found that, for farming mums in particular, one of the main struggles is the guilt that comes from… well, everything.“Guilt that comes from being away from the farm, guilt from being away from the kids, the typical mum guilt,” Chanelle said. “Self-care is also tied to self-confidence. It then plays off in your family and everything else you do, but it’s easier said than done.”Chanelle is using her Facebook group to remind women to take time to do things they love, one thing a day, whatever that is. The important thing is that you find your one thing. Just one thing. But remember: the “just” is sarcastic.PHOTOS: Supplied

The Rotary Club of Wanaka recognised two outstanding contributors to the Wanaka community on Saturday (June 22) when it awarded Paul Harris Fellowship awards to Lynne and Ralph Fegan.At a dinner at Cardrona Hotel to celebrate the annual change-over to a new club president, out-going president George Scott outlined the services of the husband and wife team.“It was a great honour to present the award to two people who have made and continue to make such a selfless contribution to others,” George said.Lynne and Ralph came to Wanaka in 1996 after 30 years in Franz Josef Glacier where they owned a supermarket and souvenir shop. They set up bus company Wanaka ConneXions and Lynne set up the Alpine Community Development Trust (Community Networks), becoming its inaugural chairperson.Lynne was also chair of Women’s Probus & Travel Club, held treasury positions with the RSA, U3A, the Presbyterian Church and Concert Society; she found speakers for Grandview Probus and worked with Queenstown Lakes District Council on the Wanaka Town Centre Strategy CommitteeLynn Fegan responding to her award.Ralph is a familiar Wanaka identity, known for his community work. He has worked with victim support, been chair of Lake Wanaka Tourism, is active on the RSA committee, civil defence and fire brigade, as well as a justice of the peace and wedding and funeral celebrant.George said Ralph is passionate about Wanaka Airport and the Wanaka community. Other people are foremost in his mind and often his prioritising of the needs of others is to his own personal detriment, not that you would ever hear that from him, George said.“The members of the Rotary Club of Wanaka acknowledge the wonderful dedication, work ethic and enthusiasm that Ralph and Lynne have brought to the local Wanaka community,” George said.A Paul Harris Fellowship Award is recognition for outstanding work and contribution both to Rotary and to the community.It was in 1905 that Paul Harris, an American, founded the Rotary Organisation. The award in his name is held in high regard throughout the Rotary world.PHOTOS: Pip O'Regan