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

Ex-triathlete and mother-to-be Nicky Samuels spoke at the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce women’s coffee morning on Wednesday (April 19) about her life as a professional athlete.During her eleven year tenure as a triathlete, Nicky competed in both the London and Rio Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, before throwing in the towel after a sooner-than-expected pregnancy late last year. Nicky and her husband Steve Gould were told because she was an elite athlete, conception could take "a couple of years” but she was delighted to become pregnant faster than planned.Nicky was refreshingly honest about the ups and downs of life as a professional athlete. She said for a long time her life was "eat, sleep and train” as she juggled back-to-back summers with strict training and competition schedules. Not being able to do certain activities like skiing and waterskiing for fear of injury, and missing out on holidays and trips with friends were some of the downsides.Being successful in professional sport came down to motivation, she said. "I’m a real believer in ‘what you put your mind to you can achieve’,” Nicky said.Attending Whangarei Girls High School, Nicky played sports and particularly enjoyed field hockey. She wanted to become a vet, but was put off by the seven-year-long course in Palmerston North, and decided instead to head to the University of Otago with her friends, where she studied physical education and teaching.Keep fit, search gyms and pilates in Trades/Services in the Wanaka AppIt was through contact with professional triathlete Sam Warriner at her summer job as a lifeguard that Nicky became interested in triathlons. She began swim training with Sam, who wanted company, and soon found herself biking and running with her too.In 2003 Nicky competed in her first triathlon, and her third place finish meant she qualified for the World Championships. "My goal for that race [the World Championships] was not to come last,” Nicky said.After finishing second, Nicky realised: "I might be quite good at this triathlon thing. Maybe I should give it a go.”After finishing university and struggling to find a job in physical education, Nicky was offered a place on the TCG 79 Pro Triathlon team in France. It was the beginning of what became a very successful career as a triathlete. "It was an opportunity that changed my life and my direction, and I’m glad I took it,” she said.As well as being a two-time Olympian, Nicky has won the 2012 ITU Triathlon World cup, the 2013 Xterra World Championships, the 2014 OTU Sprint triathlon Oceania Cup and more. She said she was lucky to be injured only twice during her sporting career, once shortly before the Rio Olympics, and despite the setback, Nicky came in at thirteenth place. "With hard work and patience you can get where you want to be,” Nicky said. Despite all the achievements during her career, Nicky seems to have no regrets since announcing her retirement in February this year.Nicky now runs for "only an hour a day” and she hasn’t been back in the pool since discovering she was pregnant. "I originally thought I’d keep going [after having my baby] but I really just want to focus on being a mum,” Nicky said.Nicky and her husband have just finished building a new home here in Wanaka and she’s ready for a change of pace, allowing more time with family and friends while she waits for the arrival of her baby, due in August.PHOTO: Supplied

TIM BREWSTER"Hitting the wall,” after nine years of top end endurance racing was a seriously low point for Wanaka’s Floortje Grimmett."Feeling the signs of over-training etc, being scared, not to be able to exercise again as you are so exhausted, no energy, immunity low.” Her description of last year’s slump might surprise anyone who witnessed her mashing the pedals down last weekend. As the first woman across the line and 11th overall in a time of 7.31 in the 160km Centurion MTB event of the Contact Epic, she has shown her class as an athlete after a remarkable comeback.Originally from Holland, Floortje immigrated in 2000 to live permanently in Wanaka, marrying Darren who manages Outside Sports (useful for the never ending equipment requirements for multisport) and becoming the mother of Ella and Liam.She had competed in athletics as a youth in her home country, but only started competing seriously here ten years ago. [I have a] "big passion for the rugged back country in New Zealand. I like to achieve, pushing limits for myself and also together with my teammates and not knowing what's around the corner.”In the summer of 2015 she had been on a high after her team Tiki Tour had placed third in the Godzone event and the experience had given them the belief in themselves to compete against the world’s best. "We had huge confidence after that,” she said.Floortje Grimmett was the first woman across the line in the Contact Epic Centurion event last weekend.An insight into the world of adventure racing at that level was her recollection of having a few hours sleep on the Pisa Range as a snowstorm halted night travel. "My bike pants were frozen onto the ground; I had to peel them off to put them on.”Determined to keep her fitness up after that race, and despite advice to the contrary about her early warning signs of the stress of overtraining, Floortje entered in the ironically named "Ultra Easy,” a 100km mountain run over Mt Roy and the Pisa Range. It was in the midst of that gruelling event she realised that while she "absolutely loved” endurance racing, her body was shutting down and she needed rest.But for the relentless competitor that she is, overtraining and a thyroid condition simply became another teachable moment she was determined to overcome. A year later after her worst experience in sport (well, eight months of rest to be precise), the mother of two who celebrates her 40th this weekend - "I won’t be an Open women anymore” - had her highest point ever with her team Tiki tour winning the Godzone 2017 in February by a large margin. "It was the best feeling ever. It's absolutely about being in a good team. There’s no ego.”Her Tiki Tour team mates from Queenstown, Mike Kelly, and brothers Tom and George Lucas are now looking for sponsors to assist them to compete in the World Adventure Racing championships in Wyoming, USA, in August.Godzone was followed with a second place in the two day Red Bull Defiance sports category with a new training partner, Cardrona Valley farmer Hamish Mackay."Floortje is probably the most dedicated trainer I have ever met,” Hamish said. "There are countless hours that go into gaining the fitness levels needed to succeed as she has. Probably the one thing that sets her apart from most is mental toughness and the ability to get through the toughest of physical situations.”The two feel they have "unfinished business” in the Red Bull event, Floortje said, after being overtaken in the last leg of this year’s event to leave them in second place. She now feels she is training and competing smarter after her setback. She’s also grateful for strong support and mentorship from fellow Wanaka multisporter Jo Williams. Jo is also heading to the world championships competing with team Seagate who are the current world champions.With both Wanaka women entering the World Adventure Racing championships with formidable reputations as competitors focussed only on the finish line, the race will generate a lot of local interest.PHOTO: LMS Events

For two weeks every other year, Lindsey Schofield becomes one of the most high-profile members of the Wanaka community. She’s in the Wanaka App, on the radio and all over social media. Then she disappears - but not because she’s stopped working. That goes on year round.Lindsey is the general manager of the Festival of Colour, Wanaka’s own biennial celebration of the arts, and of the annual Aspiring Conversations festival of ideas. She has held the position since 2007, when she took over ahead of the third Festival of Colour, which took place in 2009; 2017 was her fifth. "It will be 10 years in September,” she told the Wanaka App.Originally from Leeds, Lindsey studied Media Studies at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) with plans to be a journalist - she went to polytechnic instead of university because the course she wanted to do was not available through university, a decision she said was a little controversial with friends from her high-achieving private girls’ school, and family. "It’s the only rebellious thing I’ve ever done,” she laughed.After poly, she decided journalism wasn’t for her, so fell into work that, indirectly, led Lindsey to where she is today: working at a call centre in Leeds. "The guy in the corner had a sign on his desk that said ‘marketing manager’, and I thought that’s cool, I could do that,” she said. She got a job as a marketing assistant for the Leeds Permanent Building Society, where she worked for a couple of years before heading to London, where she started working for a marketing agency.A job with KLP Media Ltd, a world-wide media conglomerate, followed, with Lindsey working her way up from a position as a "measly” account manager to be on the board - as part of the job she spent a year in Brazil, setting up an office for the agency in Rio and running Coca Cola Brazil’s promotions for the 1998 Football World Cup.The story of how Lindsey ended up in Wanaka is a familiar one, similar to that of many a foreigner who has ended up permanently in this beautiful corner of the world. "I came with my first husband on our honeymoon in 2001 - we were stopped in our tracks and, like everyone does, we decided we wanted to live here.”After moving to Wanaka, Lindsey saw the Festival of Colour job advertised, and decided it was for her. "It ticked all the boxes for me, I’ve always loved the arts,” she said. (She’s particularly into music, and is currently taking bass lessons, part of expressing her "inner rock chick”.)In the time Lindsey has been involved, the festival has gone from success to success, developing a national, and international, reputation as one of the best little festivals around, something she attributes in part to the fact that it is a truly local endeavour. "It’s got a core local community that really want it and really support it. It came out of Wanaka, driven by a group who could see a need for it. There are so many people here who are interested in the arts who previously had to travel for culture.”She explained the festival works hard to make sure the community is involved, with locals able to take part in many facets of the event, including as audience members, patrons, volunteers and performers.She also pointed to the sense of pride Wanaka has about the Festival of Colour, especially around the high calibre of performers who take part. "Time and time again, we get comments along the lines of ‘I can’t believe this happened in our town’,” she said. "Festival directors from other festivals always remark on how everybody just loves it.”As for what she does for the 102 weeks between festivals, "I have lots of meetings,” she said. "Actually, one of the things I love about the job is the variety. No two days are the same.” Her off-season tasks include completing funding applications, contacting sponsors, database management, marketing, updating the website, social media and doing all the accounts.She says one of the highlights for her during the time she’s been involved with the Festival of Colour has been seeing local performers, such as the local students in Sing It To My Face, the members of The Blue Moments Project, and Liz Breslin, who spoke at the ‘True Stories Told Live’ session in 2015, on stage: "You feel pride when you see local people you didn’t know could do that kind of thing.”The next Aspiring Conversations is scheduled for April 6-8, 2018, with the Festival of Colour set to return April 2-7, 2019.PHOTO: Supplied

Wanaka’s Nicky Blennerhassett has just walked the length of the South Island, but she’s not sure why."It’s funny because I don’t really know what the reason was. Why do you decide to do anything?” Nicky had tramped before but not in the last few years, and had never done a walk of significant length.She began the Te Araroa trail in Bluff on February 10 and finished at the top of the South Island two months later. Nicky had hoped to complete the whole trail in one go, but curtailed her trip after short days and cyclones made the going difficult.She described the walk as a great experience. "One of the amazing things was seeing the changing landscape over the course of the track. Lots of these places I’d never been before and it was so varied.”From drainage to dog training, kitchens to curtains, find it in Wanaka App Trades/ServicesNicky said it was hard to pick a favourite spot, but thought the Mavora Greenstone Walkway, in Mavora Lakes Conservation Park, was particularly special.Nicky, who is 57, estimated that 80 percent of the people she came across on the trail were in their 20s. "I probably came across about four people my age,” she said. The overwhelming majority of people she came across were foreigners. "I probably only met about eight or nine Kiwis on the trail.”Nicky said she has been asked a lot why she chose to walk the trail alone. "People were surprised, but the huts are very social,” she said. The longest amount of time Nicky spent without seeing anybody was about four days, but the isolation didn’t bother her. "I really do really enjoy the solitude of walking on your own and taking that time out to think”.Nicky said her only sticky situation was while crossing the Richmond Ranges. "Up the top of the range I was in really misty conditions. The forecast was for 70km winds and I think they were about that. It got a bit spooky because occasionally I couldn’t quite see the markers for where to go, and then they’d appear out the mist."There’s the odd day that you don’t like what’s happening but you just accept it and carry on. I missed the Takitimu section [approximately three days long] due to a broken pack, and also had to escape from the trail for a few days when Cyclone Debbie was coming through, missing about four days of the trail south of the Pelorus River section.”"Afterwards I thought I was done with long walks, but after basically three weeks of rest I was ready for it again,” she said. Nicky plans to walk the two South Island sections she missed and the North Island leg of the trail next summer.The Te Araroa Trail is New Zealand’s longest-distance tramping route, spanning 3000km from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Completed in 2011, it is one of the world’s longest walking trails.PHOTO: Nicky Blennerhassett

Mount Aspiring College Year 12 students Max Hall and Leo Munro Heward have both recently received awards recognising their contributions to the community in leadership, acceptance and encouragement for all. The teens caught up with the Wanaka App this week.Leo was the recipient of a Giving Back Award in the leadership category at the 2017 New Zealand Youth Awards, while Max received a Diana Award, an international award for young role models who are "selflessly transforming the lives of others”.Among other things, the two 16-year-old students are active members of Sticks ‘n’ Stones, a student group dedicated to promoting positive action online. Max became a member in Year 9 while Leo joined in Year 10. "We raise awareness about what can happen online for young people and also in real life,” Leo said.Max decided to join Sticks ‘n’ Stones after observing bullying happening around him. "I have never been a bully and I have never been bullied myself, but after witnessing bullying happening around me it occurred to me that something wasn’t right, and that it had to change,” Max said.Need help? See Useful No's in the Wanaka AppLeo, on the other hand, had experienced bullying firsthand when he was in primary school. "I didn’t want anyone to go through what I went through. It was a short experience for me, but it was still a bullying experience,” Leo said.Leo traveled to Wellington to receive his award at Parliament alongside other nationally-recognised youth. His Wellington-based uncle attended the awards ceremony with him."It was an incredibly proud moment and an amazing moment,” Leo said. "There are some phenomenal things that young people are doing in this country”.Max was one of just two Kiwis ever to receive a Diana Award. He said he was surprised to receive the award. "Everyone in Sticks ‘n’ Stones is so phenomenal in what they do in their work so it could have been anyone,” Max said. "It was very honouring.”Neither Max nor Leo thought there was a lot of "serious” bullying in Wanaka, but there was definitely teasing and lesser forms of bullying going on."MAC is a very mellow school and a mellow town, but we do have quite a lot of teasing and people can be very judgemental,” Max said. "You’ve got bullying and then there’s what comes underneath it.”Their work with Sticks ‘n’ Stones encourages acceptance for all people. Both Max and Leo are also active in the community outside of their work with Sticks ‘n’ Stones.Max is an artist and particularly enjoys painting and photography. He’s spent time teaching painting at primary school. He also enjoys acting, which he started doing at a very young age, and likes outdoor activities like rock climbing, mountain biking and kayaking.Leo loves to dance, focusing mainly on jazz, hip hop and contemporary styles and teaches dance to primary school-age kids. He also loves to sing and spends a lot of time online. After finishing school Leo hopes to study Performing Arts at University.The Wanaka’ Sticks ‘n’ Stones group has 18 permanent members who meet weekly or fortnightly. They are currently setting up a peer support programme at MAC, and also promote events through the school including Random Acts of Kindness Day and Pink Shirt Day - which is coming up later this month (May 26).PHOTO: Wanaka App

Wanaka ultra-distance runner Mal Law will be one of the Kiwi story-tellers featured at this year’s NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival in Wanaka.Festival audiences connect most strongly with content that bears a cause beyond adventure for adventure’s sake, festival organisers said this month, and Wanaka’s Mal Law represents this contingent of filmmakers able to balance adventure and art on the big screen.From early childhood Mal Law devoured stories and Great Walks back to back in just seven days raising a serious amount of money for Leukemia & Blood Cancer NZ. As a nine-year-old he had lost his older brother to this disease.Next mission on the list was to run 50 mountain marathons and climb 50 peaks in just 50 days – The High Five O Challenge. Mal completed the mission on behalf of the Mental Health Foundation of NZ, with more than 300 support runners signed up to join him for a day or so each. The challenge raised a staggering $510,000 for the charity and was instrumental in helping reduce the stigma around the topic of mental health.The festival will offer a chance to hear from Mal about his experience preparing for and running the High Five-0 Challenge, as well as stories behind the making of his award-winning film ‘FIFTY’. Physically, not everything went to plan, with injury, illness and weather forcing the shortening of some days, but 50 peaks were climbed on 50 consecutive days and the equivalent of 40 rough, tough off-road marathons were achieved.The 15th NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival will run from 30 June to 9 July in Wanaka, Cromwell and Queenstown. The festival programme will be announced when tickets go on sale on 1 June.PHOTO: Supplied

The travelling pianist has moved on, but we haven’t seen the last of him - a local film-maker is working on a documentary to tell his story.Vojtěch ‘Pango’ Zámečník caught local attention recently playing his piano, mounted on a wheeled platform, on the beach in front of That Wanaka Tree, the lone willow in Roys Bay that has become an Instagram sensation.The Czech pianist arrived in Wanaka last month, having travelled around New Zealand for a year playing his piano in public places. The right kind of freedom camper, he’d been travelling in, and living out of, a customised Land Rover, which he retrofitted at a cost of $11,000 to carry his piano into off-road locations (the piano itself cost him considerably less - he won it at an auction in Auckland for $1).It’s the sort of story you couldn’t make up, and it’s one that caught the attention of a Wanaka-based creative, film-maker and photographer Pedro Pimentel.A trained mechanical design engineer, Pedro, who is originally from Portugal, has always been "crazy about visuals”. His dad is a photographer, and he said he grew up surrounded by cameras, slides and drawers full of photographs. Professionally, he started out doing mostly editorial photography, particularly working with high performance athletes and expeditions, covering sports like highlining, mountaineering and BASE jumping. He then moved into film - today, his paid work includes everything from large projects like doing marketing and instructional videos for a big ski company in China, down to local jobs such as a promo shoot for a Wanaka water taxi company. But when it comes to film, his true love is telling stories. "Human interaction, our stories and our memories, is what makes us different from animals,” he said. "We exist in the stories we tell each other.”Pedro ran into Pango when he was down by the lake with his family. "I heard music, which didn’t make much sense. This guy was just there with a piano in front of the Wanaka Tree, with about 50 people looking and listening - there was even a girl in her wetsuit who had come by kayak. I said, this opportunity is too good!”Pedro went home, googled Pango, and sent him a Facebook message. They met up the next day and a plan was hatched. It was a very simple plan ("there was no storyboard, no pre-production - it was literally have a coffee and go shoot”) and the time frame was short, as Pango was about to leave town.With editor and film-maker Whitney Oliver on board to lend a hand, they set out to get as much footage as they could, in as many beautiful places as they could, in one day. It didn’t go that smoothly. The weather was awful, there were low clouds everywhere, and they broke the piano before the shoot even started.The piano came to grief on a rough section when they were driving off-road to a spot on Glendhu Bay. But it turns out Pango has many talents. "He went from Pango the romantic poet / pianist to Pango the jack of all trades,” Pedro said, repairing the damage with some of the "arsenal of tools” he keeps in the Land Rover. Pedro filmed the repair action - it’s all about stories after all - and they made it to the location, and got on with the shot.Further filming at a sun-bathed paddock on Mount Aspiring Road followed, and despite the dramas, Pedro said he has enough footage to put together "a cool 10- to 15-minute piece”. But he hopes to take it further. Pango has said he plans to return to Wanaka, and several local businesses have expressed interest in supporting the project going forward. Who knows, it could even go global. "How about Pango at the Great Wall of China?” Pedro suggested, adding he’s already discussed the idea with a contact from China who has shown interest. Either way, he said, he’s made a friend, and captured a story for all of us. "Pango believes he’s not giving people music, but memories: a memory of space, sound and time, all in one.”Visit the Pedro Pimentel Visuals Facebook page for updates and sneak peek clips from the shoot, or to get in touch if you’d like to get involved in the project (click on MORE below).PHOTO: Pedro Pimentel

Moving to Wanaka from Christchurch was a spur of the moment decision for Graham Berry and his family."We thought of it one Friday night, and within three weeks we were here. It could have been even quicker but we wanted to wait until after [daughter] Bella’s birthday.”Graham is the managing director of BellaBerry Chocolate Works, named after his daughter - although it wasn’t until after Bella’s name was chosen for the brand that Graham joined the company."A friend of mine started it. He needed to change the name and at the same time I’d just sent him a video of my daughter Bella for her Board of Trustees rep position at MAC, and the video was really funny. He thought it was so good he wanted to call the chocolate BellaBerry Chocolate.”It was about a year later that Graham and his friend, Giles Barker, decided to merge their two companies. Graham has a degree in chemistry and had been making natural health products for the last twenty years under the name Botanica.It was around the time that Graham joined BellaBerry Chocolate Works that the business - which sells boutique chocolate in a range of unique and often humorous packaging - started to really take off. The company now has manufacturing in America, Europe and Australia and has warehousing and businesses in Singapore, Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand. Head office is in Wanaka, with a team of six working out of an office attached to Graham’s house, which he shares with his wife Sarah and daughters Freya and Ellie, who are 11 and 8. Bella has left home now, having completed school last year.Since taking on the role at BellaBerry, Graham said he’s never been so busy. "I’m absolutely extending myself,” he said. Despite the busyness, he’s loving the challenge of running BellaBerry."It’s much more fun than selling products for head lice”. (One of Botanica’s top-selling products is called Mr Nits, a single application headlice treatment.)Companies often approach BellaBerry to design a chocolate packaging for a special occasion. Paper Plus Wanaka had a design made for its 30th anniversary recently, and from there Random House got in touch to have chocolate designed for them. Additionally, retailers around the world stock the product, including Typo, who sell the chocolate globally.Graham said people are often surprised by the quality of the chocolate. "People expect it to be not very good chocolate, but it’s really good. There’s an expectation gap there.”The company is currently working on a range of vegan and sugar-free chocolate, and even a paleo chocolate. They also plan to diversify with a range of different types of gifts being created.Graham particularly enjoys the collaborative team approach with BellaBerry, having worked solo on Botanica in the past. "Change is good. I think it’s good for you to do something completely different.”Despite being the managing director of a global company, Graham says running BellaBerry Chocolate Works from Wanaka isn’t a problem. "Everything is on email nowadays. Working from here is easy.”PHOTO: Wanaka App

Jody Direen said she is honoured to have won the Best Country Album of the Year Tui Award at the 43rd annual New Zealand Country Music Awards, presented in Gore last Thursday (June 1).Jody, who grew up in Wanaka and attended Mount Aspiring College, won the award for Shake Up, her third album. This year’s nomination was her second for nomination Best Country Music Album, and Shake Up is her first album to win a Tui.The first single off the album, ‘Gimme The Beat’, reached number one on the New Zealand Heat Seekers Chart. Jody shot the video for the song last year in a hangar at Wanaka Airport; she worked with local stylist Trudie Millar, Wanaka makeup artist Janine Joseph and hair stylist Shannon Vanwalt van Praag for the shoot.The other finalists finalists for Best Country Music Album were Hamilton County Bluegrass Band for the album These Old Hands and Phil Doublet for Endless Highway.Recorded Music NZ CEO Damian Vaughn said New Zealand country music like Jody’s is some of the best in the world. "New Zealand produces an incredible amount of quality country music. Year in and year out the talent at the Country Music Awards continues to impress. Shake Up is an absolutely fantastic album and Jody Direen truly deserves this Tui,” he said.Jodi said she’ll be shooting a video for her next single soon, and is asking fans to let her know which song off Shake Up it should be. To have your say, visit Jody’s Facebook page (click on MORE below).The New Zealand Country Music Awards are hosted by the New Zealand Songwriters Trust as part of Gore’s Gold Guitar week, which attracts more than 5000 fans.PHOTO: Wanaka App

It’s not every day you’ll come across a book that packs references to Wanaka, climate change, aliens and the origins of the band name Foo Fighters all into 250 pages, but local businessman Derek Lilly has written one.Invasion AI, released last month, is Derek’s first novel. Set between the present and 2035, with events taking place in and around Wanaka, as well as in America and beyond, the book explores a future in which global warming is threatening mankind, and artificial intelligence is helping to save the world - or is it?The genesis of the story came about approximately eight years ago, when Derek witnessed an unexplained ball of orange light in the sky above the Pisa Range. He combined this experience with his knowledge of Foo Fighters, which before becoming the namesake for Dave Grohl’s band, was what Allied pilots in World War II called the unidentified flying objects they witnessed in the Pacific and European theatres of operation. (The military attributed the sightings to ball lightning, or St Elmo’s Fire. That’s what they told the public, anyway.) "That’s where the storyline came from,” Derek said.Derek is a big fan of sci-fi, especially of the Alien films, with their "mixture of horror, sci-fi and suspense, plus a few guns.” He thinks it’s an enduringly popular genre because of a natural human inclination to look to the future and wonder what it will be like. He said the response to the novel has been very positive so far. "Lots of people call it a page-turner,” he said.The book includes a wealth of information, both scientific and historic, which Derek said involved a huge amount of research, mainly on Google and Wikipedia. He says he likes to think of the book as "science faction” as opposed to science fiction: "it’s not Star Wars, in a galaxy far far away, it’s here.”As for publishing his work, he said it’s not hard to do these days, thanks to services like Amazon’s CreateSpace, which he used for Invasion AI. "What took the time is the writing - it was about three months start to finish,” he said.Originally from Plymouth in England, Derek is a trained mechanical/marine engineer. He spent five years as a soldier in the British Army working in the Royal Corps of Transport (his miltary experince was "handy” when it came to writing some parts of the novel). Although this is his first full-length book, Derek has done a bit of writing in the past. He used to sing in and write songs for a punk/new wave band, a sign of the times he grew up in. "I went to see the Sex Pistols in Plymouth, but they wouldn’t let me in. I was too young,” he laughed.Today, he is the CEO of the kitchen refurbishment company Dream Doors in Australasia and North America, a business he co-founded in the UK. Derek ended up to Wanaka after selling 50 percent of Dream Doors and embarking on a world tour to decide where to settle; he had a friend who lived in Wanaka and invited him to come have a look, saying he’d found "the best place in the world.” He visited in 2006, and came back to live for good with his wife and two kids in 2007.Funnily, it was Dream Doors that launched Derek’s foray into novel writing. Richard Prout, his business partner in Wanaka, said he thought Derek should write a book on franchising and entrepreneurship, as it would be good for the business. "So I went home and had a good think. A long weekend was coming up, and I just couldn’t do it – it’s what I do all day, every day. But then I thought, ‘I wonder.’ I started writing a sci-fi novel instead, and within a weekend, I’d written four or five chapters.”The book will be especially interesting to Wanaka locals, with many familiar landmarks appearing, including the Pisas, Mount Aspiring College and the Lake Hawea Hotel. And while he explained he doesn't yet think of himself as an author as such, his writing career isn’t over with the publication of Invasion AI. He said there will definitely be more than one installment of the story, which could possible become a trilogy. And several readers have indicated they think it would make a good film. "If Peter Jackson rings me up one day, I’d say, great.”For now, though, Derek said, "I’ve been really pleased that people I trust and respect really enjoyed it. They have been so lovely in their responses. It’s been humbling.”To read more about Invasion AI, and to order a print or digital copy, visit the book’s website (click on MORE below).PHOTO: Supplied

Sarah Parkinson (left) and Jessica Wolfgang at Rhyme and Reason.LAURA WILLIAMSON"The name just popped into my head - I decided we had every rhyme and reason to do this.”This is brewer Jessica Wolfgang’s explanation for the name of Wanaka’s newest bar and microbrewery, Rhyme and Reason, which opened for business at the start of June.Jess has started the business with her partner in work and life, Simon Ross. It is Wanaka’s sixth microbrewery, and the town’s first one with an on-license - an open-plan setup lets patrons watch the brewing in action while they enjoy a drink."We wanted people to feel like they’re in the brewery,” Jess told the Wanaka App, and you do. For those of us uninitiated in the art of brewing, it’s fascinating to peer at the big stainless steel tanks, pumps, dials and valves, and wonder what they’re all for. It’s also a setting that’s a tad funkier than your usual Wanaka setup. There’s a foosball table in the middle of the bar, the toilets are are decorated entirely with lovely items found at the beach and the recycling centre, and the wall decor includes skate decks painted by Oamaru artist Ryan Moore with portraits of two of Jess’ favourite beer gurus: Michael Jackson (no not the singer - this Michael was a legendary beer writer) and famous homebrewer John Palmer, author of the definitive text ‘How to Brew’.On offer at Rhyme and Reason is a permanent roster of four of Jess’ beers, complemented by a revolving menu of at least two more seasonal brews (watch out for a coffee stout, coming soon) plus products from other microbreweries - currently these are all Wanaka-based ones, but Jess said she plans to bring in craft beers from around New Zealand in the future. The bar doesn’t have a commercial kitchen ("I want to be focussed on the beer,” Jess said),so Jess and Simon have thought outside the box: they sell TV dinners on-site, allow patrons to bring BYO picnics and are teaming up with local food trucks - they’ll be a pop-up Asian food truck parked out front next weekend.Originally from Coffs Harbour, near Byron Bay in New South Wales, Jess said a move to Wanaka about two years ago was about enjoying the activities our region has to offer, especially mountain biking, hiking, camping, skiing and snowboarding. "Moving here was a lifestyle choice,” she said.Prior to coming to New Zealand, Jess was the lead brewer for six years at Hunter Beer Co. Much of her training to be a brewer was on the job, but she also did a course through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.She explained that many skillsets apply to the brewing process, so it’s an industry that attracts people with varied backgrounds, including chefing, engineering and chemistry. (Case in point: John Palmer worked for the American space programme and contributed to hardware currently aboard the International Space Station.)When asked about her brewing style, Jess said she makes many different types of beer, so her focus is mostly on doing what she does well. Her goal is to make "the best beer in the world”, and she has her sights set on a Best Small Brewery award at the annual International Brewery Awards, also known as the "Oscars of brewing”.She’s certainly creative in her approach to her craft. Not long ago she brewed a frozen black India pale ale (IPA) for the Beervana Festival in Wellington. The beer was brewed at the Craftwork Brewery in Oamaru, but then, instead using a traditional freezing process, she took the beer up to Ohau Snow Fields and stuck it in the snow.And one of the most in-demand brews at Rhyme and Reason has been the Big Banana wheat beer, which uses a German yeast strain that produces clove, banana and bubblegum flavours. Part of Jess’ inspiration was an attraction from her home town: Coffs Harbour’s famous giant banana. One of Australia’s original "Big Things”, it is part of The Big Banana amusement park. Jess originally made the beer as a seasonal offering, but it has proven so popular she’s put in on the permanent menu. "It’s definitely a point of difference having that on tap,” she said.As for running the business, from "brew day” to pouring takes about three weeks (give or take depending on temperatures and the type of yeast), and the bar is a open every day. It means working seven days a week, and the days are long. At the moment Jess and Simon have one full-time staff member - barista, marketing manager and brewer-in-training Sarah Parkinson - plus two casual employees, but they’re hoping to bring on more seasonal staff as things progress.Their space on Gordon Road also serves as a workshop for Simon, who is a mechanical engineer by trade. However, "he loves beer” Jess laughed, and he has put his engineering knowledge to good use by designing and building automated bottling machines, which he sells in Australia and New Zealand - his machines are now filling, labelling and sealing bottles at 17 breweries.It’s a lot of work, but for now, Jess says they’re enjoying the combination of making great beer and mixing with the people consuming it. "I love working in the bar, seeing people loving and enjoying the product,” she said.As for the beer Oscars, could Jess Wolfgang be the Jane Campion of small breweries? Watch this space.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Simon Williams, as featured in Nikon’s ‘I Am New Zealand’ series.LAURA WILLIAMSONMost kids in Wanaka know Simon Williams as the man who comes to their schools and teaches them cool things like how to make a compost bucket using an old milk bottle, newspaper and some worms, but other people are starting to get to know him for something else: his photographs.Simon’s work is currently featured in Nikon New Zealand’s ‘I Am New Zealand’ series, which so far has showcased eight photographers from around the country and is part of the larger ‘I am Nikon’ campaign, which runs in more than 60 countries (www.iamnewzealand.co.nz/simon-williams). His work is beautiful, and unusual, but it’s something else too. As the Nikon site explains, "Simon has used photography to navigate difficult moments in life; his internal feelings being captured to discover himself.”Simon is the enviroschools facilitator for Wanaka Wastebusters, a job which sees him spending a great deal of time working our region’s children. His aim is "to create a generation of people that instinctively think and act sustainably,” but when he talks about sustainability, he means more than just trees, recycling and the colour green.For him, sustainability is also about communities in general, and about ourselves, especially when it comes to our mental health - ideas he connects to in his photography as well. Originally from North Wales, Simon moved to Yorkshire, where his mother is from, when he was 18. He went to the University of Leeds where he did a degree in Astrophysics, which didn’t lead to a career in science, but did, in the long run, help with his photography."I haven’t studied photography, but I have studied light,” Simon said, pointing out he did two papers on waves and optics as part of his degree. "When I’m going to manipulate something, I can understand how the colours are interacting; for example, when the cloud comes over, that will change how the light comes through. The degree also exposed him early on to the internet. "The first image I ever saw on the internet was from the Hubble Space Telescope. We crowded around and waited three hours for it to download. It was probably 3 MB. It wasn’t very clear,” he laughed.When Simon began to engage with the visual arts in the mid-nineties, he didn’t start with photography, but with videos, centred around skateboarding, a passion since his teens. Back then, he said, you shot something on tape, digitised it, edited it on computer, then put it on a CD and gave it to your mates. It was slow going. One 13-minute video he made - on a Pentium90 computer with 24 MB of RAM - took two days to render.His first "proper job” was working for Planet Online, a business internet service provider in Leeds, on their electronic marketing team. It was when football clubs first started to have websites, and the ISP had Leeds United as one of their clients - Simon would interview players and put the videos, which ran at about eight frames per second ("everyone was still on dialup back then”), online. He then got a job with the UK’s biggest bookie, William Hill, as their frontline designer, helping to set up the world’s first fully-functional online bookmaker. It was early redundancy from that job that gave him the chance to travel. Simon decided to come to New Zealand about twelve years ago, a decision he started to regret after six months in the North Island where he found nothing but sheep and rain, reminding him of home. "Things started to change” as soon as he went through Arthur’s Pass, and in Wanaka he "stood at the lake and took a ride in the forest, and I knew that it was right.”The photography began in earnest about seven years ago. "I think I started to understand the DSLR market was in place, it was achievable – all of a sudden the price was doable, plus having had so many year of experience using photoshop as a digital design tool, it wasn’t that big a leap to start editing photographs.”In the beginning, his work was a lot about the mountain biking scene in Wanaka. But for Simon, photography, like sustainability, has become a much broader thing, a source of community, and a way of looking after himself, and others.Through his website and Instagram, Simon posts regularly and honestly about depression, grief and mental illness, speaking to these both with words and images. He has used selfies, for example, as a way to navigate his state of mind:"If I wasn’t doing great, or I even if I knew I was doing good, I would shoot a selfie. I understood that I intuitively would do what needed to done, and once I was finished I would say, ‘what do I look like?’ It would help me unpack what was happening.”He believes strongly in openness and honesty as mental health solutions. "Depression is something that community solves,” he said, adding that people often write to him privately in response to his work, which, along with selfies, focusses on places, landscapes, bikes, and, delightfully, sneakers (he calls himself a "sneakerhead”).Simon’s work has to date been primarily high-volume and shared digitally, but on Friday (June 23) he launched a new project, ‘Authentic As’, producing limited edition gallery-quality prints.They are stunning, and profound: landscapes that are not just landscapes, sunsets that are more than pretty light. So does Simon have any tips for us? "When the sun goes down, look the other way. Some of the best sunsets I’ve done have been looking east,” he said.PHOTO: Simon Williams

The crema of the crop: Sarah Veasey in action at the the Atomic Latte Art Throwdown.LAURA WILLIAMSONThere are those of us who really believe that making coffee is an art, and now Wanaka can claim to be home to one of its top artists.Sarah Veasey, a barista at Florences Foodstore & Cafe, beat out 32 competitors to win the Atomic Latte Art Throwdown at World Bar in Queenstown on Thursday (June 22).The Throwdown is an annual event which tours the country, challenging New Zealand’s top baristas to create their best latte art. The designs are created by pouring steamed milk into espresso, and are judged on factors such as the position of pattern in the cup, the sheen and texture of the milk, and whether there is a high contrast between the white of the milk and the brownish crema. The Queenstown event was the last stop of this year’s tour.Sarah said the competition, which is run in a series of head-to-head knockout rounds, was "nerve-racking”. For the first round, the baristas had to create one of five patterns chosen at random from a stack of cards: a swan, a three-tier tulip, a five-tier tulip, a rosetta or a heart.A overhead camera recorded the action and projected it on a large screen, while the judges were seated directly in front of the competitors and pointed at their favourite design - the majority winner went through to the next round. For the next three rounds, the baristas were able to choose their own patterns, but were not allowed to repeat themselves; in the final round, a pattern was chosen at random again, but the design had to be executed in a smaller, more difficult, espresso cup.As for her win, which came with a $1000 winner’s purse, Sarah said, "I was very surprised”. She said she was so nervous she couldn't even bring herself to watch the judges: "I turned around and waited until I heard my name over the microphone.”  Sarah has been making coffee for "quite some time” - she worked at Soul Food when she was in high school, and has been doing latte art since she started working at Florence’s, about 18 months ago. Rather than going for overly-intricate designs, Sarah told the Wanaka App she tries to stick to the basics, and do them really well. It’s a strategy that obviously worked. Her win aside, Sarah said she enjoyed the fact that three of the four semi-finalists were from Wanaka, with Sarah joined at the coffee machine by Sumin from Alchemy, and Bonnie Lam, who is planning to open a coffee shack next to the crepe truck on Brownston Street. Bonnie even knocked out the winner of the Christchurch Latte Art Throwdown, who had come down to have a crack at the Queenstown contest. Sarah said in this sense the competition was really positive for Wanaka. "The MC was going on about how we’ve got some of the best baristas in country,” she said.PHOTO: Supplied

Paul van Klink and Hoki at work up the Routeburn.CAROLINE HARKERThe passions of Paul van Klink are an unlikely combination of birds and bikes. The birds are the feathered kind, preferably native and usually endangered; and the bikes are ideally motorised, often step-through, and generally small - no more than 50CC.A Wanaka resident for the past five years, Paul’s longest home base to date has been the West Coast. He lived there for 15 years working in conservation, but came to Wanaka five years ago. Two years ago he took a job with Fish and Game, hoping it would give him more time at home.Conservation is his greatest passion, but back-to-back field trips meant he was always away.As a wildlife contractor on the coast, Paul spent most of his time in the bush. He still loves the bush, and spends a lot of time there, when he’s not tinkering on old motorbikes, that is."Bikes have been breeding in my garage,” he said. "There are five of them there now.” His favourite is a 1971 Suzuki 50. Paul is passionate about classic scooters, mopeds and 50CC motorcycles. He’s the man behind the annual Upper Clutha Scooter Hooter. The sixth event is scheduled for September 23.However birds were, and will remain, Paul’s first love. While his job at Fish & Game involves managing numbers of game birds (mainly ducks and quail) and sports fish (trout and salmon) he doesn’t shoot birds himself."I prefer bigger game, such as deer. I can’t bring myself to shoot birds. But I love fly fishing, and whitebaiting.”The main bird species Paul has been involved in helping protect are whio (blue ducks), weka, kiwi and kea. On Thursday (June 29) he gave a public talk on surveying whio with the help of his conservation dog Hoki. He also spoke about the declining national kea population - down to between 3,000 and 7,000 birds - which is largely due to predators. Although kea have been legally protected since 1983, Paul said they are facing a wide variety of threats to their survival. He hopes to give a talk in Wanaka devoted to kea later in the year.Paul has been working on whio protection since he was 17-years-old, and that work alone has taken him all over the country. Male whio on guard."Whio are the iconic bird of backcountry rivers,” he said. "But there are only about 3,000 left. And they are crepuscular, which means you won’t often see them out and about except early in the mornings, or late afternoons.” Paul’s whio surveying work involves monitoring numbers, and locating nesting whio, which he couldn’t do without the help of his springer spaniel border collie cross, Hoki.Hoki has been specifically trained for whio and can pick up their scent when Paul can’t see them. "They’re usually hidden away, often under river banks, so it’s very hard to spot them. Hoki will let me know there’s a duck nearby and then it’s my job to find it. I wouldn’t have a show without her.”Paul said traps targeting stoats on both sides of rivers, together with the use of 1080 for possums and rats, has been very effective, and whio numbers have stabilised or are increasing where predator programmes are in place. Paul said taking eggs off whio nests very early on in the breeding season and hatching them in captivity, while leaving the ducks to renest, has increased numbers too.Monitoring whio involves a lot of time walking up and down backcountry rivers, so it’s no wonder Paul’s happy to be in his garage tinkering with old bikes when he’s got some spare time. Not that he’s got much of that. If you see a tall slender man on a very small Suzuki around town or heading up a backcountry river with a large white and black dog, chances are it will be Paul.PHOTOS: Supplied