SEAN NUGENTA MAC student’s startup fresh fruit and vege produce market has taken off, with plans to continue to grow in the future.Freshlink (known as Central Citrus until a recent name change) offers a range of fresh fruit and vegetables out of The Shed on Reece Crescent. Although it only opened in July, the company has quickly established itself in Wanaka, with an estimated 250 to 300 regular customers.The face behind Freshlink, 16-year-old Liam Kirk, says the best way to maintain steady growth is "getting more people to know we’re here.”Kirk first came up with the idea as part of his NCEA Level 1 Business & Economics class, where students were asked to set up their own businesses. Under the name Central Citrus, Kirk sold mandarins across the road from the college, and while it was initially intended to be a short-term project, customers were so impressed they asked Kirk to continue running his business.Since then, Freshlink has continued to grow, adding a wider variety of products and finding itself a new base on Reece Crescent. With no financial backing, the company really has built itself from the ground up, to a point where Kirk believes its competitive prices have influenced price drops at local supermarkets New World and Mediterranean Market.Despite a prosperous start, Kirk is not resting on his laurels. He is planning to start selling fixed-price delivery boxes, similar to Nadia Lim’s My Food Bag, in the near future, and believes it will be a great way to continue growing the business.Kirk has no certain plans on what he wants to do after leaving school, however he has not ruled out the possibility of studying business at university. In the meantime he is preparing himself for a busy summer, as he is finally able to work extended hours at Freshlink without school clogging up his schedule.Those interested in supporting Kirk and his business can email him directly at [email protected] to become a member of Freshlink’s mailing list. Those on the list receive a weekly flyer with the latest range of products on offer at Freshlink.PHOTO: Wanaka App

CAROLINE HARKERA two-week holiday, camping in a Luggate backyard, was all it took for the Marshall-Lea family to decide the Upper Clutha was where they wanted to live. That was during the Christmas holidays of 2011."We camped at my husband Chris’s sister’s place,” said Eve Marshall-Lea. "It was absolute bliss. We were so grumpy the day we had to leave.”Eve, Chris and their sons Owen and Cormick (now 14 and 11) moved from their Christchurch home to an old three-storied A-frame house in Luggate two years later. "It’s got beautiful views from every window,” Eve said. "I’ll never get sick of it.”Before they moved Eve had worked for Youthline and for various companies including one selling fairy lights and another which taught people how to make cheese. She had also been studying extramurally, doing an Information and Library Diploma through the Open Polytechnic. Working in a library was her dream job."After the [Christchurch] earthquakes we were living in a caravan with the boys and it got too hard to study so I stopped for a while, but I’ve finished it now.”Her studies stood her in good stead and two months after moving south Eve got a job as an assistant at the Wanaka Library. Much of her time is spent organising events at the library - and judging by their popularity she’s very good at it. Under Eve’s reign, and with "incredible support” from her boss, library team leader Sue Gwilliam, Eve has produced a huge variety of shows, performances, gigs and exhibitions at the library."We don’t want people to think the library is a place where all you can do is borrow books,” Eve said. "It’s a central part of the community.”Eve’s events over the past three years have included book launches, poetry performances, music gigs, talks and exhibitions. Highlights include a performance by visiting South Auckland poets and a book launch for local children’s author Lucy Davey which brought in a crowd of around 150 people. An exhibition of photographic portraits of 43 Kiwi authors by Maya Moritz was also very popular.Eve is very focussed on delivering events the community wants - so she’s always talking to people about what would appeal to them. ("All suggestions gratefully received.”)"We’re making Saturday a family day at the library so we try to have some live music, and some craft activities for the kids.” The next family day (Saturday December 10) will have a Christmas theme and features local choirs. Other events coming up include book launches for two local authors; Helen Herbert (December 3) and Neal Brown (December 8).Another success for Eve is a foodie book group which has been meeting monthly in the library the past two years. "It’s really popular, especially when we have guest speakers. Next year I’m keen to include cooking demonstrations. Maybe fermented foods. And sushi.”While Eve’s husband Chris is happily employed at Mitre 10 and also works as a commercial photographer, and their boys are enjoying life at Mount Aspiring College ("We couldn’t move them now”), Eve said she couldn’t wish for more than her present job."I love it. The library’s an amazing place to work. And I get to meet so many people. I really want to keep putting on events which will interest people in the community.”If you have an idea for an event you would like to see at the library email Eve on [email protected]: Chris Lea

CAROLINE HARKERWhen Wanaka GP Dr Lucy O’Hagan was asked for a bio as part of her application to study narrative medicine through Boston’s Centre for Narrative Practice, this is what she wrote:I have been a small town doctor for nearly 20 years.I mainly give out tissues and condoms. And tend the wounded. Sometimes at night.I thought I would change medicine -I did not realise medicine would change me - for better or for worse.I like problems but prefer solutions.I am driven by curiosity -I have learnt that things are seldom what they seem.I am the keeper of the town's secretsAnd the towns criers,And I put plasters on.Lucy enjoyed the course so much she has decided to continue her studies in narrative practise with a Masters in General Practice at Otago University. She talked to the Wanaka App about what narrative practise is."I am intrigued by the idea that humans make sense of their world through stories, that we narrate ourselves into being. I sense that medical encounters are just a moment in time in a narrative that holds both past and future. Our assessments are often divorced from the story, static images through a particular lens."I want to use narrative principles in teaching family physicians about clinical encounters. I want to think more about the doctor’s narrative, my own; about the sort of stories doctors inhabit, the stories they are allowed to speak of, the stories that get status, how doctors narrate themselves into being.”Earlier this year Lucy gave a talk about the role of narrative in general practice at a medical educators’ conference. The talk caught the attention of many, including Royal College of General Practitioners CEO Helen Morgan-Banda, who decided to nominate Lucy for the college’s prestigious Eric Elder medal. College communications advisor Janaya Soma was also at the conference. "Lucy gave a fantastic address,” she told the Wanaka App. "Her talk was amusing and funny, but also made a great contribution and encouraged people to think about the future of general practice. She explained how the skill of listening and storytelling fits into that.”Lucy was asked to speak about narrative again at the college’s annual conference, and it was there she was presented with the Eric Elder medal by college president Tim Malloy, who congratulated her on her "lateral thinking always tempered by wisdom”. "I was a bit stunned because I didn’t know it was coming,” Lucy said afterwards.In her talk "Narrating Our Selves” Lucy encouraged fellow doctors to adopt a more ‘reflective, patient-centred doctor narrative’ in their general practise. She said the dominant narrative taught in medical school, which she termed the ‘biomedical brain box narrative’, projects an image of a doctor who is a "highly competitive cognitive expert diagnostician who knows what to do and gets the dose right”. However, she said, this narrative does not welcome other ways of seeing or being a doctor. She asked her fellow GPs to reflect on the question: "Do we want to be factory-farmed doctors sitting alone in individual cells looking straight ahead, fed the diet of evidence and objectivity and measured in terms of our productivity? Or do we want to be free-range doctors choosing our diet, roaming freely with each other seeing the world from different perspectives?”The Eric Elder medal honours Dr Eric Elder, a GP who lived and worked in Tuatapere for 60 years. He was known as the grandfather of vocational training for general practice in New Zealand, creating rural training programmes and pioneering the use of peer review. Ironically Lucy grew up in Southland where her father John was also a GP who worked alongside Eric Elder.After practising medicine in Wanaka for 20 years, Lucy sold her practice in 2015. She now divides her time between homes in Hawea Flat and Dunedin where she continues to work at various practices as well as teaching GPs and studying.PHOTO: Lizzi Yates

CAROLINE HARKERThe arrival of a new butcher in Wanaka a year ago was very much the result of a chance conversation in Northland.Jeff Smith and Kate Gordon-Smith had a lifestyle block in Kaukapakapa and used to employ Helensville longtime butcher Bruce Scott to homekill their lambs. When he was at their property last year Bruce mentioned he had just been down to Wanaka for the shotgun sporting clay national competition. Jeff and Kate said they always holidayed in Wanaka and would love to move south one day. Bruce mentioned there was no dedicated butcher shop in town, Kate said Jeff was looking for a new business and the rest (as the saying goes) is history.Kate talked about the idea to their friend, Wanaka resident Brent Makeham, who said there was a disused butcher shop on Reece Crescent. "That was in July last year and we were here by November,” Kate said.Jeff and Bruce are 50/50 partners in The Butcher’s Block and Smokehouse. Bruce is passing on his smallgoods processing knowledge to Jeff, who now manages that side of the business, producing hundreds of kilos of sausages, bacon, salami and other smallgoods every week.Bruce’s partner Olesia Andronnikova spends most of her day out the front of the shop serving customers and does the office administration, and Kate does the accounts and marketing."We’ve all found our own roles,” Kate said. "We had a few things to sort out but it’s all going very well now. Especially since they pay me.” Kate also has her own business of 15 years, Relish Communications, which she brought south with her.The two couples are celebrating the first anniversary of the Butcher’s Block on Saturday (December 17) with a free barbeque outside the shop from 10am to 2pm (weather permitting).Bruce said their first year has been tough. "I’m really proud of the team. Everyone has pulled together and worked hard. It cost us more to set up this business than anticipated, so we’ve had our challenges but we’re certainly on the positive side of things now and our feedback is fantastic. People are noticing that we are cheaper than the supermarkets. We manufacture everything on site and its all South Island produce. We’re all about supporting the south.” Jeff said locals seem very pleased to have a dedicated butcher in town again. "We’re trying to support the community too. We do fundraising sausages which we sell at no profit. They are $1 each including bread and sauce and lots of people pre-order them for fundraisers. We also do a cheap rate on handmade patties for sports clubs etc and they are going really well."Our first year in business has been better in some areas than we expected, not as good as others. We can’t compete on the wholesale market but people love the quality of our produce, the smallgoods and the prime cuts. We’ve got some really good staff, and the locals have been very good at supporting us."We plan to get bigger and better in the future. The homekill slaughtering side just started in mid-November, and we’re consolidating and expanding, getting our name out there. We still get some locals coming in saying they didn’t know we were here."We would like to get a trailer going in the future, so we can go to the markets, with a BBQ too.”Jeff and Kate are living in Luggate, and Bruce, Olesia and their two-year-old daughter Julia live on Plantation Road and have plans to build on a section in Hawea. Both families say they are very pleased with their move to Wanaka."Oleisa and I both love it down here,” said Bruce. "One of the things I really like about Wanaka is it’s still got that small town local feel, whereas Helensville, where I come from, has really been swallowed up by Auckland and lost that. Now it’s full of takeaway bars and real estate agents. Most of the people who live there commute to Auckland to work and the local businesses are dying. Wanaka still has that ‘look after local’ attitude.”"We’ve got no regrets whatsoever,” Kate said. "We’ve always wanted to move down here.” And despite being from balmy Northland they don’t mind the winter cold. "We’ve got a really well insulated house. We just put on lots more layers and we’re fine. We’re even talking about bringing my mother down from Devonport.”PHOTO: The Wanaka App

LAURA WILLIAMSONTalk to Wanaka woodworker Simon King even for a short while, and you’re sure to learn something interesting. For example, did you know all good cabinets have a secret compartment? They are not always hard to find, but they are always tricky to open.Simon works out of his workshop on Ballantyne Road making a combination of domestic woodwork products which he sells at the markets in Wanaka and Queenstown: beautifully-crafted native beech bowls, stirrers, rolling pins, honey drippers and chopping boards - and bespoke furniture to order. He also teaches adult night classes over the course of which students learn the techniques to make a woodwork item, such as chair or a stool, to take home.Visiting his workshop, packed as it is with furniture, offcuts, machines, and tools hanging from every wall, all of it coated in wood-scented sawdust, it’s hard to believe he’s been working there full-time for less than a year.Until the start of this school year, Simon had been the Head of Design Technology at Mount Aspiring College for 11 years, as well as a teacher of Spatial and Product Design, Visual Art Design and Woodwork. He dropped to part time hours in 2015 to get his woodwork business off the ground, and planned to carry on into this year, but "things just got too busy.” He went into the woodwork business full-time part way through Term One, and he hasn’t stopped since.Simon grew up in Dunedin, then went straight from school to train to be a civil engineer at Canterbury University. He never studied woodworking, but instead learned as he went. "I started working with a friend who was a beekeeper at Carey's Bay near Dunedin, and used to help him make beekeeping equipment. Later, when my father retired, he decided he wanted to go to woodturning classes and he asked me if I wanted to come along. Soon, I was doing better work than my instructor and selling it, and Dad had given up.”To find artisans look in the Wanaka App Shopping sectionHe attributes his success to being both a quick learner with practical things, and to having a good eye for form. "I wasn’t trained to be a designer, but it came naturally to me. And I’m a visual learner, which helped,” he said. And while he didn’t take art classes, he was involved with photography while at university and was a member of the photographic society.Simon has worked as a woodworker once before, more than 20 years ago, where he said he earned a "precarious” living in Dunedin, sharing space and equipment with three other woodworkers. He got into teaching when he was asked by a friend who was a woodwork teacher to do some relieving ("in those days they were less fussy about whether you had qualifications”), and with a young family to help support including a seven-year-old son and another baby on the way, he went to teachers’ college. His daughter Eleanor was two weeks old when he graduated.He worked in a succession of relieving positions in Dunedin until his partner Jenny was offered a position by the New Zealand's International Aid and Development Agency teaching in Rarotonga. Simon ended up teaching design and woodwork there for two years. He was also involved in a project on Mauke, a two- by three-kilometre island in the Cook Islands. "There was a community of disabled kids there, and we built a sheltered workshop where the mothers could come together and work while their children got looked after. I designed a lot jewellery for them to make out of shell and coconut to sell in Rarotonga, got them all the gear they need from New Zealand, including a drill press, and taught them how to use them. That was really rewarding.”Four years teaching in West Auckland followed, an experience he described as very "Outrageous Fortune”, before the job in Wanaka came up. He said he kept up the woodworking throughout his time as a teacher. "l was always doing a bit of this on the side, because I have a creative urge that needs to be fed,” he said. "Although teaching is creative in its own way, I still need to make something tangible.”These days, his paid work and his creative side are one. He said his passion is designing and making bespoke furniture. A recent example is a wine cabinet, square on one side, curved on the other, its elements - cabinets, shelves, a wine rack - crafted in different types of wood with different colours, from dark, to light and to red-tinged, and seamlessly fitted together. He said the thinking behind its design came from a challenge he used to give his own students, asking them to identify what made a design a distinctly New Zealand one, especially in a modern environment where young designers can go online to look at, and be influenced by, thousands of international styles. "My cabinet adopts the colours of the marae, red and black, while the tongue and groove panelling is a nod to New Zealand’s colonial past."The rest is just my imagination. The form, the curves, the way the elements are proportioned, that’s me.”  His work really does stand out, and Simon said he has two distinctive skills that are not necessarily common in modern woodwork. One is inlay work and the other is steam bending, which allows him to use one piece of work to make elements like curved legs for stools and chairs and rockers. "Once you have that technique at your fingertips, it opens up design possibilities,” he said.As for the wine cabinet, yes it does have a secret compartment, and it takes a while to figure out how to open it.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Lake Hawea singer songwriter Anna van Riel is celebrating more than just Christmas as 2016 comes to an end. The local muso has taken home ‘Best Children’s Song’ for her song and album title track ‘Cooking Up a Song’ at the annual Australian Songwriters Association music awards held last Wednesday (December 14) in Sydney.Anna not only gained first place among hundreds of entries in the children’s music category, she was the second person in the 36-year history of the competition to gain a perfect score. "They called me and announced that I literally could not have scored any higher. I was fairly blown away to learn this as over 3,000 overall artists enter in various categories each year and the calibre of songwriting is excellent,” Anna said.Anna performed her interactive children’s song to an audience of more than 400 at Sydney’s Orion Theatre on Wednesday evening.‘Cooking up a Song’, both the album and track of the same title, were also nominated Best Children’s Song and Best Children’s Album at this years NZ Children’s Music Awards. And 2017 is looking to be a busy year for Anna. She has also been successful in gaining a Creative NZ grant to perform a series of concerts for her Off the Beaten Track tour of remote schools in the deep South, and later on the West Coast, hosted by WESTReap and funded by Westland Creative Communities. "I remember when musicians and theatre groups came through our school when I was a child. It used to blow my mind and leave me so excited and inspired. I want to be that for kids who are off the beaten track and are missing out,” Anna said."I have two small children and am part of a flourishing community, full of families with small kids. It makes sense that I create songs for our tamariki right now and be part of this growing culture of nurturing the growth of great music for little people. I don’t mind what kind of music I’m making, so long as I get to be creative.”PHOTO: Supplied

SEAN NUGENTAspiring young filmmaker Daisy Thor-Poet has yet another award to add to her growing list of accolades. In December she picked up the prize for the Canon Eyecon Tertiary Film Award with her short film Strike Out.Around three minutes long, Strike Out tells the story of a man suffering from depression and considering suicide, only to "find the light,” as Daisy puts it, and move onwards and upwards with his life.Daisy told the Wanaka App she had had the idea of the film for a while, and the Canon Eyecon competition was the perfect forum for it to be displayed. She directed the film especially for the competition, and submitted it in early November."I just thought why not? I thought it was what the judges were looking for.”She was right. In the week before Christmas, Daisy found out she had won the award, and was particularly happy with the judges liking her imagery, something she has been working on for a while.Since leaving Mount Aspiring College, Daisy has been studying digital media at the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) in Invercargill, and is about to start her second year in February.She is hoping the course will help her towards her dream of being a director of short films in New Zealand. Prominent Kiwi director Jane Campion is an idol of Daisy’s, with the Wanaka teenager particularly liking the way Campion portrays New Zealand and uses imagery.Not satisfied with what she has already achieved, Daisy has been working on a script which she hopes to submit to Short Film Otago in mid-January with the hope it will be chosen to be produced later in the year.

Robyn van Reenen has been running the Wanaka Autumn Arts School since soon after it was started, 28 years ago. It was founded by Peter Mitchell who ran it for two years before stepping down. When his position was advertised both Robyn and Dennis Schwarz applied for the role, and they were given the job to share."He does the money, I do the rest,” Robyn said. "The rest” includes a lot of work, from finding tutors to taking bookings."I’m always on the lookout for new people [tutors], Robyn said. "There’s probably about two months off working on it, in the middle of the year, but I’m always thinking about it.”Whatever her recipe is, Robyn has got it right, and year after year most classes sell out long before the annual art school is held during the autumn school holidays at Mount Aspiring College.Coordinating the school is not even Robyn’s day job. She also runs a quilting supplies business, Christofer Robyn Quilts, in partnership with her friend Chris Bartlett. They operate from a cottage on Robyn and her husband Gilbert’s land in Ballantyne Road, and are open six days a week. Their customers come from far and wide. "It’s great meeting people who do all sorts of things, from all over the world,” Robyn said. "They come here when they’re on holiday and have time to think about their quilting. If they have their husbands with them we send them upstairs to look at Gilbert’s photographs.” (Gilbert van Reenen is an internationally renowned photographer.)Robyn is quite miffed quilting and other textiles arts are often regarded as the poor relation in terms of what is art."I think it’s because quilting has tended to be what women have done forever. The quilting tradition grew from making use of scraps of material, and was not regarded as art. That’s changing, but only slowly. There are still lots of art exhibitions which specify ‘no textiles’."There are a lot of New Zealand quilters who have been successful internationally. It’s hard to see that as any less valid than painting.”Robyn’s other great passion is bookbinding. She did it at the art school in its first year and loved it so much she has been doing it ever since. And what does she do with all the books she makes?"Oh, I squirrel them away, or write in them - recording textile ideas, journaling…” Bookbinding is a regular class at the art school and is always popular. This year the tutor is Phil Ridgway, an Englishman who lives in Melbourne and runs his own bookbinding school there.While she’s passionate about her arts, Robyn hasn’t always been into them. She studied Agricultural Science at Lincoln University and her first ‘real’ job was as a science teacher at James Hargest College in Invercargill. While teaching, she saw an advertisement for an agricultural editor at the Southland Times. "In those days the idea of a woman doing agricultural journalism was ‘off the planet’. They gave the job to someone else.” But that someone else never turned up, so the newspaper reluctantly gave Robyn the job. Her early journalism career also included editing an Auckland-based magazine called Meat and Wool and starting a deer farming annual for the Deer Farmers Association. She became the association’s executive officer, and it was at a Deer Farmers Association conference in Te Anau she met Gilbert, who was working as a vet for Wanaka deer farming pioneer Tim Wallis."Gilbert was starting a vet practice here [in 1981] and we flew up to Halldon Station in the MacKenzie country for a job. I met Bim Innes and her mother and they showed me two quilts. I had never seen any before. I rushed home to have a go at quilting and I loved it. I started a local quilting group and it’s been going ever since.”As time went by Gilbert did less vet work and more photography, and Robyn did less journalism and more quilting, though she is a regular contributor for the national quilting magazine.Anyone wanting to meet Robyn will find her at the Wanaka Autumn Art School at Mount Aspiring College in April, or at Christofer Robyn Quilts in Ballantyne Road.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Graeme Perkins is best-known in Wanaka these days as a musician who contributes to local productions like ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ and as the chair of the Luggate Community Association, but without knowing it, many of us have been listening to his music for years.  An award-winning composer, his creations have played in the background of a range of television and film projects, including wildlife documentaries screened here and abroad, and some of our most-loved children’s programmes.Originally from Invercargill, Graeme moved to Dunedin to pursue a history degree, which included a mini-thesis on Asian immigration. He chose history, he said, because it seemed there was no future in pursuing music as a career. He was wrong.Immediately after finishing his degree, he went into playing in rock bands ("it was mostly loud raunchy pub music”) and teaching piano and guitar privately. He took it further in 1976, when he moved to America to learn more."I needed to know about music, and at that time they didn’t have the wonderful contemporary music courses they have now. You could only study classical, and I was more interested in arranging and orchestration,” he said.Graeme moved to Los Angeles, where he studied under arrangers and orchestrators who worked in the film industry, and then went on to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, a school whose alumni include Quincy Jones, Diana Krall and John Mayer."Then I ran out of money,” he laughed. Graeme came back to New Zealand, settling first in Wellington where he worked as a programme producer for National Radio, then moving back to Dunedin with wife Yvonne, where they started their family.It was there, in the mid-eighties, that Graeme broke into television, the medium through which many New Zealanders will have become familiar with his work, though they may not realise it. He was involved in musical direction and songwriting for ‘Playschool’ for the show’s final two years, and then went on to work on ‘You and Me’ with Suzy Cato.In about 1990, he did his first wildlife documentary, a job that led to a 25-year career doing "one documentary after another”. He worked as a contractor for Natural History New Zealand to work on co-productions with companies like National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery, as well as organisations in Europe and Asia. He was involved in the Emmy-award winning ‘Most Extreme’ series, as well as ‘Deer Wars’, and won Best Original Music (television) for ‘Dragons of Komodo’ in 1997. He followed this up in 2002 by taking out Best Soundtrack at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Albert, France, for ‘The Devil’s Playground’.Despite the subject matter of the films, his life wasn’t spent flying around the world exploring its magnificent landscapes. Most of Graeme’s work was done in his home studio in Dunedin; he said he only had one trip into the field, on the show ‘A Wild Moose Chase’, which documented the search for live moose in Fiordland."They set up motion cameras in Fiordland, and every so often the chopper went in to change the batteries, so I got to go in to do a battery change!” he said. Graeme left the wildlife behind four years ago, when he and Yvonne moved to Luggate, a place they had been visiting for holidays since they bought a crib in the village in 1997. He said knowing the area well made it an "easy transition”.He has enjoyed his work with the Luggate Community Association, which he joined right away right away after the move, becoming chair a year ago. "We’ve got a great wee can-do committee that’s a pleasure to work with,” he said, adding he’s learned about political and infrastructure issues he didn’t know existed.Since making the move to Central, he’s also taken to the stage again, for ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ in Wanaka, Queenstown's ‘Saturday Night Fever’, and performing in ‘Grease’ back in Dunedin, something he relishes. "I get to play the piano again, which is great,” he said, and while it’s a long way from the raunchy pub music of the seventies, it’s a kind of full circle for a life spent in music.PHOTO: Wanaka App

EMILY MENZIESTwo enterprising Mount Aspiring College students have taken to the skies, forming their own aerial photography and video businesses in Wanaka.Finn Mueller and Ollie Larkin, both 16, have been busy taking on clients for their burgeoning businesses, The Collaborative Project (Finn) and Vision Workshops (Ollie), which work with local companies to supply them with aerial photography and videography.Finn has been busy building relationships with real estate companies, creating eye catching photo and video presentations for house sales. "The Collaborative Project does aerial photography for different companies. I can do basically anything that you want me to do, aerial shots, make an advertisement, or film you doing [an activity]". It's been a challenge building a business from the ground up, but Finn has enjoyed the whole process. "It has been a lot of fun, getting business cards … emailing the companies, and working with the companies."He chose to get into aerial photography and videography because he thinks it’s the future. "Soon they are going to stop using helicopters because they're too expensive, so hopefully I can get into the niche of [aerial photography] before it gets too hard."Looking forward to continuing to build his business overseas once he is finished with school, Finn is excited at the prospect of moving back to Germany, where he was born, with ideas of expanding into the adventure tourism market.Finn's family and friends have been supportive of his ambitions. "They think it's quite inspiring that I'm making a start at such a young age," he said.Ollie came up with the idea of starting his business after getting into filmmaking a couple of years ago. "It's progressed into specialising in drone videos for people and working with other filmmakers, which is cool."Ollie LarkinVision Workshops has been involved in a number of projects, from fly-fishing promotional videos, to assisting with a recent video featuring rally driver Haydon Paddon.With John-Jo Ritson of Flashworks Media as his mentor, Ollie has been developing his talent for crafting stories, learning the skills needed to take a project from inception through to final delivery. He is excited about the possibilities opening up to him through his new business and plans to head to Invercargill's Southern Institute of Technology after graduation, with the aim of being accepted into their film programme.MAC has been supportive of the ambitious teens and their filmmaking aspirations. Ollie was asked to work with the school on a recent project, putting together a video for the school’s language centre showing the experiences available to foreign students.Forging their way in a notoriously competitive industry, Ollie and Finn are taking the work as it comes and are grateful to have been able to turn their love of filmmaking into flourishing small businesses.PHOTOS: Wanaka App

Wanaka triathlete Nicky Samuels announced on Wednesday (February 1) she will be retiring from international triathlon. The two-time Olympian is expecting her first child in August.Nicky spent 10 years as a professional triathlete, during which time she attended both the London and Rio Olympic Games, placing 35th and 13th respectively. She also raced at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games as an individual and in the team's race, in which the New Zealand team narrowly missed out on a medal.Nicky's career has included world championship medals, world triathlon series medals, world cup medals, an off-road triathlon world championship title and an aquathlon world title. She was New Zealand elite cycling champion and triathlon national champion, and achieved many podium finishes for her pro team in France, TCG-79, which she captained over the last few years.Nicky was ranked as one of the top five triathletes in the world in 2014, and has also won "bucket list” races like the 'Escape from Alcatraz' triathlon, the 'Alpe d'Huez Triathlon' triathlon, and the prestigious Xterra off-road triathlon world championships in Maui, Hawaii in 2013 despite her limited experience in off-road racing.Tri NZ high performance director Hamish Carter this week expressed his excitement for his fellow triathlete. "Nicky has made an incredible contribution to triathlon both as an elite and in the community. Her performances on the world stage have been exceptional for the sport and New Zealand," he said. "On behalf of Tri NZ we wish the Samuels family all the best and look forward to celebrating the arrival of their new baby."Nicky will remain based in Wanaka this winter, where she plans to launch a triathlon coaching business and spend time close to family and friends.PHOTO: Supplied

A Mount Aspiring College student who finished her high school studies last year has pulled off an exceptional academic feat. In what senior staff believe may be a first for the college, Michaela Rogan gained Excellence grades for every one of the 107 credits she sat at NCEA Level 3 across internal and external assessments last year.Michaela was also dux for 2016, and has picked up an Otago University Academic Excellence scholarship worth $45,000.Despite this success, she said, while she had worked really hard over the course of the year, the "straight Es” came as a welcome surprise. The subjects Michaela sat were Maths with Calculus, Spanish, Art Design, Chemistry and Biology."It was definitely a goal to get Excellences in my internals because it was my goal to get dux, but while I wanted to do really well, I didn’t expect to get Excellence in all my externals,” she said. Michaela said when she first checked her external exam grades online, she thought she had misread them. She was particular happy to get top grades in Biology and Maths with Calculus, which she called "ridiculously hard”.Stay in touch with your school. See Schools in the Wanaka AppAs for young students hoping to emulate her success in the future, Michaela said the key was simple: hard work. "Any spare time I had, I studied. I didn’t think of myself as a naturally smart person, I just worked really hard,” she said.Mount Aspiring College principal Wayne Bosley called Michaela "an amazingly-focussed academic who set herself high goals and worked extremely hard to achieve them.”"Along with the entire staff, I am very proud of her and look forward to following her progress at university in the years to come. We all admired her goal to be the college dux at the beginning of last year and her fierce determination to succeed,” he said.This year, Michaela plans to pursue a Bachelor of Arts and Science, majoring in Spanish and Chemistry at the University of Otago.PHOTO: Supplied

EMILY MENZIESSchool is back in session, and with the new year comes a brand-new challenge for a couple of students principal Wayne Bosley believes are two of Mount Aspiring College’s "brightest shining lights”.Campbell Russell and Mackenzie Ayres, both 17-years-old, were announced as head boy and head girl for the 2017 school year at last year’s prize giving ceremony in November. After a rigorous application process, including an online application followed by a shortlist of candidates interviewed by a panel (Mr Bosley, Year 13 Dean Mr Crosbie and Year 12 Dean Ms Watts), Campbell wasn’t expecting his new title, but is now excited about getting stuck into the role. "I was quite nervous, I wasn’t expecting my name to be called up. It was quite competitive.”It was a nerve-wracking process but the students were well supported by friends and family, Campbell said: "Everyone’s behind you, because we have a lot more on than usual; it’s very supportive.”As part of their duties as head boy and girl, Mackenzie and Campbell will be involved in running a weekly school assembly, sitting in on executive meetings with Mr Bosley and the heads of the different school committees. As well as their internal school duties, Mackenzie and Campbell will represent the school at external events. "We are the face outside the school as well,” Mackenzie said, "It’s a massive honour to be the face of our school, it’s a big school, so it’s incredible to be chosen.”Having both grown up in Wanaka, the two students have enormous affection for the town and their school. Well known for its sporting programmes, there is much more to MAC than meets the eye, according to Mackenzie. "We have so many opportunities for sport, and that’s what people see, but really there is so much more. It’s a really great school.”It’s going to be a busy year for Mackenzie and Campbell, who both have full academic and extracurricular schedules. With an emphasis on the arts, Mackenzie will be taking painting, photography, business, English, maths and OP (outdoor pursuits). She is keeping her future options open, with plans to work overseas for a year before attending university in either Wellington, Australia or Canada.With more of a science focus, Campbell will be taking physics, chemistry, calculus, PE, geography and economics. He is already considering studying civil engineering at the University of Canterbury next year.Both students are looking forward to a challenging and exciting year, with the added anticipation of what’s to come when school lets out.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Making a living in Wanaka requires finding a balance between your skills and what the local market needs, and Laetitia Campe and Hugh Barnard have it down to a fine art."It’s hard to combine what you like doing with what’s viable in this town,” Laetitia said. Having lived here for 24 years, she is in strong a position to know. "You have to balance your background and what’s viable - it’s a real skill.”Laetitia and her partner Hugh’s business Wanaka Heli Hikes supplies a service for a demand they identified years ago. "It’s something that’s evolved,” Laetitia said. "We have mountains all around us but there’s a shortage of walks for the number of people. Huge numbers of people climb Roys Peak and Isthmus Peak and the few other accessible walks such as Rocky Point and Rob Roy Glacier.”Laetitia, whose mother is French and father is German, has lived in Europe where the infrastructure allows people access to the mountains. Here in New Zealand that access is limited to the occasional ski road, she said. "The helicopter is the only thing we have. It’s a taxi!”While she acknowledges helicopters aren’t cheap, she said their heli hikes aren’t just for the wealthy. "It’s approachable.” She also maintains that, apart from the short helicopter flights, their business leaves little mark on the land. Their motto is ‘spread your wings’: "The kea is a symbol of how we want to be - treading lightly, not much impact. We don’t leave tracks.”The pair set up Wanaka Mountain Guides many years ago, offering customised trips. With decades of experience between them in mountain guiding, ski patrolling and heli-ski guiding, they started offering heli-hiking a few years ago but are now concentrating on that aspect of the business. Laetitia is the main guide and Hugh guides less often (he works primarily in the film industry). Aspiring Helicopters does the flying, the Whare Kea Chalet at Albert Saddle provides accommodation and Fedeli does the catering - it’s a flexible mix and they all work together, Laetitia said.The terrain is huge, covering the Harris Mountains - Black Peak, Fog Peak, Isobel Glacier, and the Buchanans - Daniel Spur, Alta Tarns, Albert Burn. Having climbed, skied and hiked the area since 1993 - and having worked for all the local guiding companies - Laetitia knows the terrain "super well”. "There is a huge variety of places to go,” she said, with standard packages and individually customised trips on offer.Laetitia credits good teamwork with Hugh and identifying what’s important in life with the balance they have found. She kept working as a guide after having children Moana (18) and Manu (16), taking turns with Hugh on guiding trips so they could do what they loved while putting energy into their family life.In 2010 they both took time for postgraduate study at Otago University. Laetitia studied printmaking and did a graduate diploma in Fine Arts and Hugh studied documentary filmmaking and did a Masters in Science Communication. Laetitia wanted to nuture her passion for visual arts practice to balance out her outdoor pursuits. "They feed each other,” she said.After the year in Dunedin they returned to Hawea Flat (having travelled the world, Laetitia’s still a bit bemused she has settled in Hawea Flat) and had to redesign their working lives. She went back to guiding for a while, completed her qualifications and the heli-hiking business continued to evolve."It’s not all been plain sailing to get there,” she said, explaining the mix of living in Wanaka, identifying what you enjoy and what other people want - and being a bit entrepreneurial. "A lot of fulfilment for me comes from giving people an unforgettable experience,” Laetitia said. "For most people I take it’s the ‘best day’ of their life. And I get to do that on a daily basis. I feel really privileged.”PHOTO: Wanaka App

Volunteering overseas had been a dream for Wanaka optometrist Katie Bennetts for four or five years. With several years experience under her belt, last year she headed to Africa, working with patients in both Ghana and Cameroon during a three-and-a-half week visit.She took with her 600 pairs of reading glasses which were donated by people in the local community. Donations from Wanaka, Queenstown and Alexandra also funded 17 cataracts surgeries for patients in need."The people were so appreciative of the help we were providing,” Katie said.Katie’s first two weeks were spent with Unite For Sight in Ghana, an organisation that works towards eliminating preventable blindness. The rest of her trip she was working with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity International in Cameroon.With other volunteers and local eye care professionals, Katie screened for eye disease and provided glasses and medication to those in need.In Ghana, the team was made up of two optometrists and two ophthalmic nurses and they would see up to 400 patients a day. In Cameroon the volumes were even higher, with a team of twelves optometrists seeing from 600-820 patients each day.For local crafts and products see Artisans in the Wanaka AppAs well as the huge volume of patents, Katie said it was difficult to adapt to the limited technology available. "I just had one handheld tool to use, which was challenging. You had to make a call based on what you could see. It really makes you appreciate the technology we have in New Zealand.”Almost 80 percent of visual impairment worldwide is preventable, and 36 million people are left "needlessly” blind because they don’t have the eye care services they need. "For some of the patients I saw, it was hard knowing if they’d just happened to have been born in a different country they wouldn’t be in that situation.”In Cameroon, Katie said, people would begin queueing as early as five in the morning.Katie said it was difficult seeing the overwhelming need for more eye care services, but that by focusing on the individuals she was able to help, she could see the difference she was making.Katie’s boss at Central Vision Optometry, Tui Russell, has volunteered in Vanuatu and her fiance Hunter, also an optometrist, has also volunteered in Africa.Katie hopes to volunteer again in the future, in Asia or the Pacific.PHOTO: Supplied

CAROLINE HARKERWanaka mother-of-four Cass Treadwell’s philosophy is life begins when you step outside your comfort zone. That’s something she learnt during a year she spent in Argentina at the age of 16, where she went to school and helped out in an orphanage. She’s been stepping outside her comfort zone ever since."I love travelling in third world countries, because I’m amazed by the people there and their sense of happiness,” she said. "They have taught me a lot about how to live well.”Cass, who spoke at the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce’s women’s meeting this past week, certainly walks the talk. She has a masters degree in medical law and ethics and has worked as a legal medico, before giving that up to do something concrete for children in the thd world.Nearly a decade ago she founded a charity called So They Can which now raises $2.5million annually for schools and orphanages in Kenya and Tanzania. She chose Africa because she had backpacked through the continent and seen the living conditions in Kenyan camps for internally displaced people. "The camps were horrific,” she said. "The people had suffered terrible trauma, the lack of hygiene was shocking and people still weren’t safe.” Representatives of different tribal groups in the camps told her what they needed most was for their children to be educated. "They saw that as the key to stopping tribal violence.”Going out? Check out Food/Accommodation in the Wanaka AppUnder the auspices of So They Can, Cass and her supporters have educated hundreds of children and adult women, set up an orphanage, a medical centre, and more.Eight years ago So They Can built a primary school in Kenya, in partnership with the Kenyan government which provided the teachers. Since then the school has educated 1000 children. So They Can also has a microfinance business school which teaches business skills to 300 women a year, including loaning them $100 each to get a small business started and providing mentoring. "It’s been very empowering for the women,” Cass said. "I love it when they say to me, ‘My husband asks me for money now’.”So They Can has also built a medical clinic which supports an area with a population of 20,000 people. "There were so many children dying of avoidable diseases,” Cass said.The most challenging situation for Cass during her regular visits to Africa was visiting a rubbish dump where children lived, competing with pigs and vultures for food scraps. Since that trip So They Can has set up an orphanage for 100 children, where they live in ‘family’ houses in groups of eight with a house mother. Cass said while they haven’t been able to provide homes for all the children living at the dump, there are no longer any there under the age of seven. While the task of helping the poor in Africa can seem overwhelming, Cass said they simply do what they can. "So They Can works with communities and governments (in Kenya and Tanzania) to educate and empower, so they can break the poverty cycle, realise their own potential and meet their own needs,” she said. "Education is at the core of everything we do.” The organisation has also set up a teachers training college in Tanzania which works with 26 local schools, and a lunch programme for many schools, which provides students with a free lunch every day. "Hungry children can’t learn.”Cass insists that the work she and So They Can do is not altruism. "Giving educates the giver as much as the receiver.” She sees charity as "school for the soul”. She said this approach (based on the African concept of ubuntu - meaning "I am because of you”) means the exchange is equal, sustainable and beneficial to both parties."Our personal well-being is deeply connected with the well-being of others. And giving makes us feel so good. I have learnt so much from the African people, who value people over possessions."If everyone in the world took on the responsibility for one more child this problem [child poverty] wouldn’t exist.”Cass said So They Can fundraises through events, grants and donations from major donors and foundations, and child sponsorship."It costs $800 a year to sponsor a child. The kids over there cannot fathom that someone on the other side of the world cares.”PHOTO: Wanaka App

Wayo Carson estimates he has spent about 20,000 hours in a harness working on various cliffs in the Wanaka region, but he still prefers to relax by rock climbing.Wayo is an industrial rope access expert who has maintained cliffs here since 1999, including those on the Makarora to Haast Road, Kawarau Gorge, the Nevis Bluff, Cromwell Gorge, the Queenstown to Kingston road and the Lindis Pass.While some people with his qualification spend their time washing windows or inspecting dairy factory vats, Wayo prefers to specialise in geo-technical abseiling. "I like the rock aspect,” Wayo said. "Drilling, blasting, rock scaling, meshing - stabilisation type stuff.”Wayo has been climbing since he was a kid: he grew up near Elephant Rocks (inland from Oamaru) and came to Wanaka for the rock climbing in 1997. He’s lived here ever since. For his day job he does cliff maintenance, inspections and emergency responses after slips. Our local cliffs deteriorate all the time, Wayo said, with rain and wind hammering the soft schist.For his spare time (what there is of it for a busy father of four), he likes to climb that same schist. The activities are quite different, Wayo said: "Mostly when I’m at work I’m hanging on a rope, but when I’m climbing I’m avoiding hanging on a rope.”Wayo likes all rock. Struggling to explain why he loves climbing, he settled on "it’s a part of me.” "Forging a line through nature” is how he describes route-setting (identifying a line to climb and placing bolts for protection). Most people look at a cliff and just see rock, Wayo reckons. He sees a line, an aesthetic. "When you’re finding your way up, you don’t necessarily look for the easiest way. There’s always something that draws your eye to where you’re going - a colour in the rock, a plant, a steep point.”Even when he’s maintaining and stabilising cliffs he likes to leave them looking natural. Wayo has done this working for Geovert, Drilling and Abseil Services, Fulton Hogan, Downers and Oamaru Landing Services. He recently completed the final stage of Wanaka’s first via ferrata, Wild Wire, as head of construction (he spent a year and a half on the project, working out the route up the waterfall and placing protection). Now he is setting up his own business, Cliff Care, contracting his services.Wayo working on Wildwire.He has also set routes for climbing competitions and has established rock climbing routes around New Zealand - as many as 60, he estimates. One of his well-known Wanaka routes is a stiff grade 25, five-pitch (approximately 120 metre) route at Wishbone Falls in the Matukituki Valley, called ‘Fat Freddy’. He has also climbed in the USA, Australia, Thailand, France, Spain and the UK.Wayo has worked on the Nevis Bluff since 2004, twice a year for maintenance and on longer term projects too. While the bluff itself isn’t beautiful after decades of manipulation, the vantage point gives Wayo a different perspective. "The sheer size of it, seeing the way it ages…” He and wife Kate named their youngest child Nevis.Rope access is a good way to make a living here, Wayo believes. "It keeps you fit, gets you out in unique environments. My favourite place in the whole area is the Makarora road - it has stunning views and it’s a beautiful part of the lake.”He works in all weather - snow, rain, wind and searing heat but said the worst part of the job is the dust. A hard freeze is difficult too. "I’d rather fry in the heat than shiver in the cold.” He likes heights but also respects them. "I’ve been hit by a few rocks. I’ve had a few moments on some active slips when things have starting falling down around me.”There’s a whole other world on the cliffs: Wayo sees plants and wildlife, mainly geckos and spiders, the odd rat and possum. He sees a few falcons, including one that lives at the top of the Nevis Bluff.Maybe you’re the kind of person who sees nothing but rock when you look at a cliff. Next time you’re travelling our roads beside the precarious cliffs Wayo helps maintain, try to glimpse that other world, the one that keeps Wayo in his harness.PHOTOS: Supplied

Ask Gavin Key what he does with his time, and his answer will include, in no particular order, mountain bike coaching, graphic design, landscaping, track building, riding and parenting.It’s a very Wanaka response: the town is full of polymaths who combine pursuing their passions with the business of earning a living and raising their children.Originally from Gisborne, Gavin surfed competitively for years, before a visit south in 1992 saw him head back home, sell all his stuff to pay for a ferry ticket and petrol, and move to Queenstown. He took up snowboarding seriously, spending 21 winters in a row going back and forth between New Zealand and Canada, the United States, Japan and Switzerland, working both as a freestyle snowboard coach, and designing and building parks when pipe and park was in its infancy."It saved me having to find a summer job,” he told the Wanaka App with a laugh. He added his favourite of all the places he worked was Bear Valley, California, both for the snow and for the people he met there. "People make places,” he said.Similar reasoning saw him end up in Wanaka for good in 2009, where he started to apply what he learned from working in snowboarding to mountain biking. "I was snowboard coaching before there was a formal certification, and when that did all start to come through I never bothered to get my tickets, so I ended way out of that loop,” he explained. "When the opportunity came up to do a coaching certification in biking, I took it.”Gavin is now certified as a mountain bike coach through Cycling NZ, and is pursuing an advanced Performance Advance Coaching programme with Sports New Zealand, a programme he had to get nominated for by Cycling NZ, as a restricted number of places are awarded in the programme each year."It’s non-sports specific. You go and learn fundamental coaching skills and implement them into for your chosen sport,” he said. He has also studied Physiology and Anatomy through the New Zealand College of Massage, and Sports Psychology through the Stotts Correspondence Education school.It has all paid off, with Gavin now well-known locally as a private bike coach as well as a contract coach with Mission WOW (Women of Winter/Water/Wheels), which brings together groups of women who want to share their love of, and progress themselves in, adventure sports.Outside of elite racing, Gavin said, the bulk of bike lessons are taken by women, not men. "It’s the Kiwi psyche, it’s hard for men to ask for help,” he said. This, however, is changing, as mountain biking grows, especially with the advent of lift-assisted bike parks like the one at Cardrona, where riders are looking to progress downhill-specific bike handling skills beyond those needed for everyday cycling. Gavin said it’s an area of sports coaching that is growing more and more. "I don’t think people realise what’s happening yet. It’s going to explode,” he said.He is also coaching two elite Downhill mountain bikers, Finn Parsons and Nikki Clarke. Both are 14-years-old but have been racing above their age grade, in the Under 17 instead of Under 15. Despite this, Finn took second in U17 downhill at the Mountain Bike National Championships at Cardrona in February, while Nikki came first in the U17 women’s event."They’ve both chosen to race the category above where they could be. I’ve got to keep checking myself they’re only 14,” Gavin said. He said working with athletes that age involves mentoring as well as coaching, and he has learned almost as much as them through working together.He said one thing he’s come to understand is the need to work on the same basic skills whether he’s training beginners or experts. "I start with a lot of the same basic fundamentals, and I’ll repeat them all the way through to the elite athletes.”Gavin’s success has been recognised recently with a nomination as one of five finalists for the Coach of the Year award in this year’s Central Otago Sports Awards, the winners of which will be named at an awards dinner in Queenstown on April 28.As for combining making a living and growing his coaching career with finding time to ride his bike for fun as well as to help out with the building and maintenance of local tracks, Gavin said none of it would be possible without the support of his partner, Chloe, especially since the arrival of their young daughter, Ella.Coaching full-time is in the life plan, Gavin said, but for now he’s basking in the enjoyment of watching his daughter hit the trails on her balance bike. "Maybe that’s why I gave it all those hours, and gave it the love I did,” he said.PHOTO: Supplied

Public Health staff from across the district this month (April) farewelled their long-time colleague Dr Derek Bell, a Queenstown-based Medical Officer of Health for Otago and Southland, who is retiring from his position after having enjoyed a long and varied career in public health.Over the last 19 years Dr Bell has played a pivotal role in leading the DHB’s response to many major public health challenges, including the SARS outbreak, the Pertussis epidemics of 2001 and 2005, Meningococcal outbreaks, the dramatic floods of Wanaka and Queenstown in 1999 and the Bird Flu epidemic - to name but a few. He has also taken a driving seat when it comes to establishing protocols around tourism health issues such as border control and dealing with cruise ship and bus tour outbreaks that have been shared nationally."I’ve been privileged to have had the role of a medic in a public health department,” Dr Bell said. He began his health career as a GP initially, but after a stint on the Wakatipu Health Committee his eyes were "opened to the world of public health and its many unique challenges”.Dr Bell spent time working for the Southern District Health Board as a strategic advisor in its very early days and also worked as the national director of training for the College of Public Health Medicine. He took on the position of Medical Officer of Health for Queenstown in 1998 and has held that role since.For heating and firewood, search Trades/Services in the Wanaka AppDr Bell will be retiring from mid-April and will remain based in Arrowtown, although he will be spending a lot of time in the North Island working on a conservation/ecological project.Public Health South staff presented Derek with a carved mauri kohatu (touch stone) from the local area as a recognition of the enormous contribution he has personally made to public health over many years. In his speech Dr Bell acknowledged "the fantastic teamwork displayed by my public health colleagues over the years, who are more than happy to swap disciplines, and all pitch in when the need arises.”Public Health South Medical Officer of Health Marion Poole said, "From his base in Queenstown, Derek has observed massive growth in the area and has had to respond to various high-profile public health issues in the resort and surrounds. His keen interest in environmental issues meant he took a "big picture” perspective to work and life in general. His strong working relationships with all staff, and other organisations were invaluable in ensuring effective responses to serious outbreaks of disease and developing good systems and processes for working with others on a range of issues.”PHOTO: Supplied