Bex SarginsonBex Sarginson is all heart. That’s what stands out when you meet her, whether or not you know she runs Food for Love and spends more hours a week than she can count coordinating the delivery of home-cooked meals to people in need all around the Upper Clutha.That’s on top of being a wife and mother to husband Karsten Ludwig (a local gasfitter and plumber) and their daughters Bella, 13, and Zoe, 8. And working five days a week as a cleaner.Bex has been the coordinator of Food for Love since July 2016. She and her team provide meals and baking to families or individuals who need a little help. Food for Love was the brainchild of Wanaka’s Louise Carney who started it in April 2016. Bex joined her soon afterwards."I heard about that little boy from Auckland with a brain tumour who was coming down here for a holiday with his family,” Bex said. "I thought, the least we can do is fill the fridge. So I joined Food for Love.”Fifteen months on Food for Love has 70 volunteer cooks who provide a home cooked meal about once a month and 30 more who do baking."If they can, I like my cooks to take the meal they make to the family it’s for. When meals are delivered for the first time there’s often lots of tears,” Bex said. "And I often get messages from my cooks saying it’s the best thing they have ever done.”Of all the people cooking for Food for Love, only one has pulled out. But as more people are referred to help, Bex could do with more help, especially with pick ups and deliveries."All the running around is a bit of a killer.” She would also like to form a committee, to share the load of organisation.Food for Love was runner-up in the Health and Wellbeing section of the Trustpower Queenstown Lakes District Community awards earlier this week, Bex was thrilled."I cried and cried. I was so happy for everyone who helps Food for Love. I want to use the prize money [$250] to have a party for everyone.”Food for Love was runner-up to Baskets of Blessings, a similar organisation based in Queenstown which has been operating for four years.In the bus on the way back to Wanaka after the awards ceremony everyone was trying to think of ways to help Food for Love, Bex said. One result was Gina Dempster of Link Upper Clutha has offered to help Bex find some funding for delivery expenses (namely petrol).Whatever happens, Bex has no regrets about joining Food for Love and becoming the coordinator."It’s incredible to be able to help. There are so many people out there without support who could do with a hand.”People receiving meals from them for all sorts of reasons, but the main ones include sickness, surgery and childbirth. Others need help after a separation or sudden unexpected financial hardship."Just having someone turn up who cares, when you are just home from hospital, or in some kind of trouble, is amazing,” Bex said. "There are a lot of people here with no family around to support them.”People are referred to Food for Love by phone or through the group’s facebook page. No explanations are required.  "All we want to know is how many people we are cooking for and if they have any food intolerances,” Bex said. Some people just get one meal, but if there is a need for ongoing support Food for Love will try to provide it.She has approached some local food businesses for support, and some have come forward, so some food is provided for free, which is always a great help, Bex said. Individuals who have received meals often give something back when they can too. Individuals also often supply fruit and vegetables from their gardens, or other treats. Bex has access to a chest freezer so is able to store food which can be frozen."People are so kind and generous and I’ve met so many amazing people. That’s the best thing about doing this. The people I’ve met.”To volunteer, nominate or learn more, visit the Food for Love Facebook page.PHOTO: Caroline Harker

Marty Cornish. PHOTO: Wanaka AppSUE WARDSA life in shearing sheds has left Marty Cornish with a gravelly voice, a colourful turn of phrase, a stock of tall tales, and a deep cough, but the semi-retired Lake Hawea shearer has no regrets about his choice of career.Marty loves the business, and despite being retired still has 300 sheep and works the local lifestyle blocks with his mate Ken McLeod.Marty can pick up a merino jumper and tell you straight off how many microns the fibre is. He has a passion for fine wool. "It's the combination of the softness and of the fibre. You get a merino and you're clipping that beautiful white wool off the sheep and it opens up like a flower. It's the best natural fibre in the world.”Marty grew up in Glenorchy to farming parents. (He was in Glenorchy last weekend in time to have a last look at his grandparents’ house in the Rees Valley before it was demolished.) After his father died in a logging accident when Marty was five, the family moved to Dunedin.Marty said he’s not a town person. "As soon as I did three years high school I was gone. I haven’t been back.”He joined the three year farm cadet scheme in 1967 with a $200 scholarship from the Otago Savings Bank. The course, which included a year at Telford, was his introduction to shearing, and after a year of farm work in Central Otago, he joined a shearing gang, starting with rousing and pressing."I loved it. I shore 300 before I was 21. I loved the lifestyle, constantly being on the move and meeting people.”It wasn’t unusual for the shearers to work 50 days in a row. "You just kept on going until it rained. That’s why it’s called ‘party drops’.”Marty had a strict but respected boss, Freddy Peyton. When he turned 21 (on a Saturday), his boss said: "If you’re not here in the morning you won’t have a job.”"I was too scared not to turn up!”Back in the 70s shearers had a bad rap, Marty said, but he didn’t let the lifestyle affect his goals: "I had targets: X amount of sheep and X amount of dollars in the bank. We respected our jobs. The money was good. $1.10 an hour rousing or pressing - I thought I was made.” He bought a brand new Mini after his first year of shearing, for $2367.By the age of 29 Marty had a wife, three children and a small farm (135 acres at Knapdale). "I had to shear harder then.” Australia beckoned.He has some cracking stories to tell about his experiences within the ‘wide comb dispute’ which tore the Australian shearing industry apart in the early 1980s. Australian shearers used narrower combs than their Kiwi counterparts, meaning shearing took longer (keeping prices up). Their stronger unions also stopped them working weekends. When Marty went to Australia in 1975 it was "man’s last frontier”.He considered Aussie shearers were holding farmers to ransom. "They were saying the wide gear would blow your wrist up and things like that - pathetic talk.”He went back to Australia in 1985, the year wide combs became legal. There was still a lot of tension around, and the Aussie shearers didn’t like Kiwi shearers, he said.He recalls shearing for a station in New South Wales. "I said to the other Kiwi shearers, do a good job boys and just take it easy.” At the end of a two-hour run, he counted out the sheep with Bruce, the station owner. With the introduction of the wide tooth comb, Marty told Bruce he should be pleasantly surprised with the numbers of sheep shorn in the timeframe and the quality of the job."There was tension and nervousness with all the propaganda but Bruce's fears were unfounded and he said, ‘You've got a free hand - away you go boys’. The Kiwi boys were nearly doubling shearing numbers by using the wide tooth comb. It took eight days what had taken five weeks the previous year, owing to Australians stopping when it looked like a rain cloud, or if a woman came into the shed, including the farmer's wife. We saved Bruce and his good lady $1.08 cents a sheep. That was a lot of money then.”He recalls another occasion when he was the only Kiwi in a gang, using a pulled comb (standard New Zealand issue). "They looked at the tally book, looked at my gear, and they stormed down the board. ‘Did you bend this comb Kiwi?’ I said no, you can buy them like that at home.”Marty apologised and put his comb away. But when he dragged out the next sheep he saw his fleeces still on the board, looked over and saw the shearers and rousies leaning on the board watching him. "I was really backed into the corner. I thought, ‘this is just lovely’.” He knew the Aussie boys wouldn’t have seen the impressive Kiwi trick of winding up their handpiece and letting it swing in a big arc before catching it. "I was hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself. But I caught it. Then I walked up to this little stirring Victorian guy with my handpiece in my hand and said, ‘If this is shearing Australian style you can stick it.’”It was a victory. "None of them could look at me. I was out of there like the bald man.”Marty went to England for the first time in 1990. Timeframes weren’t important to the English farmers, he said. "It was like that scene in Easy Rider where they throw their watches away.” The first day he went to three jobs in order to shear 70 sheep. He enjoyed the experience but didn’t go back for 16 years.Marty first visited the USA in 1989. He spent the best part of 10 years touring the Northwest, three months at a time - Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, Nevada, Utah."For every sheep we shore we’d drive a mile,” he said. The temperatures were also a shock. "I remember one winter we were shearing sheep with ice dags half the size of your fist on their bellies, it was so cold.”He loves the country, and went back last year for his former contractor’s 80th, and again this year to Alaska. "It really is the last frontier.”Kiwi shearers have always been in demand overseas, Marty said. "They’re the best in the world.” It comes from the days when New Zealand was shearing more than 100 million sheep a year: "You had to go fast.”In his 19 years of shearing overseas Marty has only spent four nights in a city (three in London and one in Los Angeles) - but he has shorn on five different military bombing ranges in the USA, in the desert country.He gave up full-time professional shearing in 1994, but was still shearing 10,000 sheep a year, including 5000 on his leased property near Bendigo Station, where he and his wife channelled their energy into fine wool. In 1997 they broke the New Zealand fine wool record with a 14.2 micron fleece.Marty in 2001. PHOTO: SuppliedAs an ex-shearer turned fine wool breeder he was an oddity. Marty remembers going to a party with sheep farmers: the snide comments made to him, like "starvation’s finest fluke”, still rankle. In 1999, when wool prices went crazy, Marty produced a bale of 13.9 micron. "We got $362 a kilo for that one. So much for the fluke.”It’s all in the bloodlines, Marty said. He got all his sheep from Russell Emerson’s Forest Range Station. "I’ve shorn a lot of sheep and I’ve shorn around the world but there’s no sheep like the Forest Range bloodlines.”Marty’s pace has slowed since he was diagnosed with emphysema about five years ago. He has never smoked, but thinks the cempie wool fibre off the back hocks and top knots of crossbred sheep, when cut off with the handpiece and inhaled, is responsible for his lung disease. "I’m as good as a man short.”Despite that, he doesn’t want to sit at home. "I’m meeting interesting people with the lifestyle shearing trailer. It just keeps me involved in the industry. I’ve got to do something.”"I have had a very fortunate life really, and if I pass away tomorrow it’s without any regrets,” Marty said. "I’ll be here for a day or two yet I hope.”

Liz Collins with sons Ethan and MaxSUE WARDSAlmost 20 years after starting the clothing label Chalkydigits right here in Wanaka, founder Liz Collins is putting her business "into hibernation” to focus on family life.Chalkydigits came about when Liz, a graphic designer, and her then boyfriend, local lad Matt Squires, teamed up to develop his idea of a website to provide information about local rock climbing routes around Wanaka."We hung out at Cafe Zone and dreamed up Chalkydigits. Every company has a branded beanie or a hoody, so I started to add those onto the idea,” Liz said.They created a basic website and Liz added pictures of T-shirts and hoodies with designs. "We thought we’d put a bit of a teaser line at the end of it: ‘coming to all good climbing stores near you soon’.”Liz was shocked when, the next day, a large outdoor retail chain rang her and asked to see the products. "I said, ah - we haven’t made anything yet. Okay, um – sure, we’ll see you in six months.”That decision sparked a clothing label which has become a "lovemark” brand in Australasia with the tagline (true to its word) ‘ethical fashion made in New Zealand’."We had the concept as there really wasn’t any cool clothes for climbers or outdoor enthusiasts,” Liz said. "There were obviously cool clothes for skaters and surfers, but the outdoor and climbing world only had really naff taupe zip-off trousers. I really felt like there was a gap there so we created some designs that people with a love of the outdoors and quirk could relate to.”Liz was visiting Wanaka during a road trip around the South Island reconnecting with her homeland after a big stint in advertising in Sydney."I think i just stopped here on the way through and never left, because I loved it. I was over the whole world of advertising and the commercialism of it. It was just too intense and didn’t really align with what I was into or my values.”With six months to create a small range of clothes, Liz and Matt started researching. "We didn’t have any idea. We went to Christchurch and found a pattern maker, found the zip people, the fabric people, and started talking to people.”It was a challenging introduction to a challenging industry. Luckily Liz loves a challenge."When I have a vision in my head about something I obsess about it. If I can picture it I just have to get to that point. I really loved doing the designs then seeing them come to fruition as three-dimensional garments, it’s so satisfying. Seeing others love them and wander down the road wearing them was awesome too.”After six months they created a small range which they took around New Zealand to sell to retailers, some of whom stocked it. "We had a classic contrast of people we showed: some very old school outdoor retailers who wanted to stick to what they knew and some really openminded encouraging retailers who were keen to try something new.”She and Matt would drive to Christchurch from Wanaka, often sleeping in their little Honda Civic by the beach, madly go about creating a range of garments - until their phone bills got to $500 a week and they realised they really needed to move to Christchurch.Now as a mother of two young boys, Liz remembers this time with disbelief. "Such a huge amount of energy I must have had. It feels like a lifetime ago.”Having the garments made in New Zealand was not negotiable for Liz. "I can’t imagine anything else. That’s where my values lie - supporting local communities and local industry, and with that the quality, the ease of it, the boutique nature of being able to do smaller runs.”An image from the last (for now) Chalky Digits rangeOver the past 18 years Liz has mostly kept to providing seasonal ranges, but has done a few other things, including two fashion ranges and a kids’ range ("Chalkymidgets”). Chalky was the first brand to print on merino in NZ, pushing some boundaries to learn how to create something different the market hadn’t seen before.The "lightbulb moment” for Liz was when the business got involved with conservation projects. The first was raising money, through marketing a wee pin badge of the South Island robin, to contribute to a fund for DOC to relocate the robin to Chalky Island in Fiordland. ("It’s not our island!” Liz said. "It’s called Chalky Island because of its amazing white chalky cliffs.”)"That was an incredible project. When I realised we could do that, with people who share the same values, I thought ‘this is why I’ve been working so hard to keep the business going’. Otherwise yes, we’re creating awesome clothes, we’re employing local people, but we’re just making more clothes, in a world that has lots of clothes.”Since then Chalky has been involved with "heaps” of conservation projects. "I’ve always had a real love for nature and the outdoors and birds. My inspiration has always come from there so I was stoked to be able to give back to something I feel I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from,” she said.At its peak (around 2009) Chalkyigits was sold in about 60 retail stores around New Zealand and Australia. Since then, the industry has changed radically as online shopping developed."That was a massive change for us and for all the retailers we were stocking,” Liz said. Finding retailers who shared the value of New Zealand made clothing - a much more expensive option - was a challenge."Without open-minded and value based retailers like Bivouac Outdoor, Chalkydigits wouldn’t have survived,” Liz said. Decode in Queenstown has also been a long-standing supporter of the brand and Liz said she is grateful for these retailers who cared more for supporting New Zealand made and independent designers than the bottom line.Retailers started dropping them because they were too expensive compared to brands made offshore. Liz (by then she was managing the company; she and Matt had gone their separate ways) had staff and overheads and needed to produce more units to break even.Lots of people wanted to buy the brand, but it was hard to find retailers to stock it. Liz set up the Chalkydigits website and it started cranking. It was a harder business model (you have to hold all the stock yourself and take the risk you’re going to sell it), but the website gave Liz the freedom to control how the range was presented and she was able to get it to the small corners of the country.The clothing industry in New Zealand has been decimated in the past ten years, Liz said. "Everybody’s gone off shore, it’s hard to get fabric, there’s no training for younger machinists coming up through the industry. There’s not much manufacturing capacity in New Zealand anymore. It's here but you have to work hard to find it and make it work for the demands a fashion label has competing with a lot of international brands. It's a shame because there is a lot of skill here.""It is expensive to make New Zealand-made, because people get fair wages here and work under fair conditions so it costs a huge amount to make a good product here. A lot of people probably look at it and go, that’s so expensive; but actually what we’re making out of it, in terms of paying wages and overheads, is just enough to keep going. It’s such a fine line.” (Liz recommends people watch the documentary China Blue to put the costs in perspective.)The Christchurch earthquakes had a big impact on Liz’s business, making it challenging to get anything done. After her son Ethan was born (he’s nearly four) Liz realised she couldn’t continue successfully with the business and being present in motherhood."It requires 120 percent effort to keep a business going in this difficult industry. You’ve got to be on top of your game, a step ahead of the rest all the time. Until I had kids that’s pretty much all I thought about day and night,” Liz said.She stepped back from the business a lot, and moved with her partner Ian to Lake Hawea. Since then they’ve been joined by baby Max (he’s almost one)."I’d like to say I’m putting Chalky into hibernation. I work better with just leaving things open-ended.” She feels too protective of her business to sell it and see the manufacturing go overseas and wants the option to grow on what she's built.Who knows what the future holds, Liz said, but for she is looking for other pursuits, having realised in the past week how much she misses creative expression. She’s keen to do more local conservation projects, hands -on and using her marketing/design skills, is looking forward to getting back into climbing and spending more time with her boys."I’m at an interesting transitional stage, but I’ll need ways of expressing myself artistically - more hands-on, more crafty and less commercial,” she said.Meanwhile the brand’s last summer range - for now - is for sale online (click MORE below to check it out) and also available at the Chalkydigits design store in Christchurch, which will remain open until mid-January. It may be your last chance to secure something from this lovemark brand conceived in Wanaka.PHOTOS: Supplied

Chris Arbuckle on the shores of Lake Wanaka.MADDY HARKERAfter spending his early life on the remote Mount Aspiring Station then heading off to work in environmental management in New Zealand and abroad, Chris Arbuckle has now returned to the place that first inspired his deep love of nature.Chris moved back to Wanaka just a week ago, and has set up home in a caravan on the shores of Glendhu Bay."I don’t think I’ll ever leave this place now,” Chris said.As a child, Chris’s family alternated between winters in Wanaka and summers in the remote Matukituki Valley. His father was a deer culler, killing deer for meat. "It was a pretty sparse existence,” Chris said."Thinking about it, that probably explains why I’ve gone back to a caravan.”Chris works as an environmental management consultant under his company Aspiring Environmental. He’s also one half of the Wanaka-based Touchstone Project, alongside Eddie Spearing. Chris began Aspiring Environmental while living in Dunedin, but Wanaka inspired its name."I love that space up at Mount Aspiring and I thought to myself, ‘you had to aspire to do something’ too. There’s a link to the mountains there in the name.” Environmental management wasn’t Chris’ original plan: when he left school he planned to become a wildlife ranger at the Department of Conservation."DOC was full, so I decided I better head off to uni,” Chris said.After obtaining a Diploma in Wildlife Management, and a Masters in Zoology (looking at the effects of farmland use on freshwater), Chris managed a research project through the university, called the Taieri and Southern Rivers Programme.After university, Chris spent 20 years working in an impressive range of roles focused on freshwater science, policy and leadership, particularly management of freshwater.The work was satisfying and aligned with his passions, but in 2013 Chris decided to step out on his own. It "was about a need to re-engage with my children after years climbing ladders,” Chris said.A few years on, Chris’s daughter Danielle is now 19 and attending university in Dunedin, while his son Braden, 15, lives in Dunedin with his mother but plans to spend summers in Wanaka.The Touchstone Project is one of the things that has drawn Chris back to Wanaka. It is a direct action initiative supporting those concerned about the Lake Wanaka water catchment, raising awareness of impacts around the lake, and looking at how individuals can have a positive influence on the water in the lake.Chris and Eddie met after a Chris returned a wayward biking helmet to Eddie’s son after a biking competition: they quickly connected through their shared love of Lake Wanaka.Touchstone is amping up now: it has received government funding for a citizen lake monitoring project. Chris loves working closely with people who care about the environment. It was this group that discovered the sewage leak on Stoney Creek recently."The work I’m doing is educational, it’s not trying to find blame. The point of Touchstone is to raise awareness.”

The UCCMT committee celebrating Christmas and looking forward to yet another year of fun fundraisers. (Back row, from left: Noeline Harridge, Mary Holland, Jill Schaefer, Pam Horne , Laurel Gilks, Diana McLachlan, Derek Valentine, Dave Evans; front row, from left: Yvonne Gale, Dazza Sherwin, Kate Lovell. Absent: Sharyn Mathias) LIZ BRESLIN Fun fact: Here in the Upper Clutha we are further away from the sea than almost any other place in New Zealand. Not-so-fun fact: We are also one of the furthest away from hospitals, making accessing medical care a challenge for some people, especially families with young children.So thank goodness for the Upper Clutha Children’s Medical Trust (UCCMT), who, since 2009 have provided financial assistance to more than 200 local children in need of medical care. In 2016 they gained recognition in the Trustpower Community Awards as regional winners in the Health and Wellbeing category and they continue to go from strength to strength in the community.Current chairperson Noeline Harridge explained how the UCCMT works. Set up by Bev Rudkin in November 2009, there are five trustees and 12 people in total on the committee.Committee members have changed over the years, with Bev, and others, moving on to other volunteer projects, while new people come in to take their places. Jonette Hodge, who recently passed away, is one member who will be missed for her wisdom in discussions and her expertise with tickets at events.Fun fact: None of the members are born and bred locals, Noeline said. They’ve all migrated here in the last decade or so, and they make sure to use their big city experience and connections in fundraising to the max for the UCCMT.They certainly aren’t short of ideas. Noeline highlighted the importance of keeping fundraising functions new and fresh, so while they know that Ladies’ Lunches will be well-supported, they always want to make sure they’re well worth attending. Hence themed efforts like the ‘Old Bags Lunch,’ where everyone who attended brought along bags and jewellery to be resold to raise funds.Committee member Sharyn Mathais’s favourite fundraising event so far has been the ‘Vintage Champagne Brunch’ held at Corbridge Barn last year."It was seeing all the generations together,” she said. "The school kids who did the modelling, their mothers, who volunteered to help and then the grandmothers. Us. And all the businesses who helped too.” Sharyn also mentions the three years of Melbourne Cup parties at Lone Star as putting the fun into fundraiser.The amount of community support the UCCMT receives is widespread. People can donate through the website (uccmedtrust.co.nz) and in person, and frequently do. Last year saw Dazza and Leon’s Team Kiwi Kite Surfers at the Mongol Rally with the UCCMT as their charity of choice. An Enterprise group at Mount Aspiring College partnered with Wanaka Chocolate to create a limited edition fundraiser chocolate bar. And then there was young Lily Wilson who sold homemade Christmas cards and donated an impressive $60 to the cause.All the monies raised goes towards helping school aged children from the Upper Clutha who are referred by professionals to the UCCMT for medical assistance.They cover a comprehensive range of physical and mental health needs, with the committee discussing each application at length to see how and where they can best assist. Some examples of costs that can be considered are specialist medical appointments, speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, supply of health care needs and equipment, counselling, assessments and tutoring for specific learning disabilities. Travel and accommodation may also be covered.Further information on eligibility, how to apply or make a donation is available on the website - click MORE below.PHOTO: Supplied

Isla Burgess LIZ BRESLIN An eminent medical herbalist who has made her home near Wanaka has finely tuned herself to the natural world, and is helping others to do the same.Isla Burgess has long been searching to understand and move within the natural world as if we’d had no artificial Cartesian split between humans and everything else.One of the focal points of her master’s degree in holistic science addressed the question: Can quantum physics provide an understanding of the tohunga’s world?Four and a half years ago, Isla moved ‘back’ here, to the area where she feels connected. Though she grew up in Dunedin, it felt like coming home. As a child, she’d go on family holidays to Middlemarch and remembers the utter peace of sitting in a raincoat by the river in the rain. As the third of four children, peace wasn’t always an easy commodity.Walking around town now, Isla notices plants and their connections in the same way other people might casually study shoes or haircuts. She explains, "I had a tutor who said ‘Every subject well studied creates a new organ of perception,’ so when you are finely tuning yourself to the natural world then you study the phenomena in a different way.”Isla revels in 14 and a half hectares (35 acres) of land and she’s been busy planting natives and deciduous trees and creating herb, fruit and vegetable gardens over a whole hectare.She’s a Fellow of the NZ Association of Medical Herbalists, teaches online courses and has, this week, brought out her second book, The Biophilic Garden, through her own publishing imprint, Viriditas Publishing. The cover shows the life cycle of a rose and the inside pages approach plantlife from the angles of thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting. It’s a Jungian thing.Other than a bit of skiing at Treble Cone, Isla’s commitment to her passion is total and it’s been quite a journey from science teacher to an international speaker on the herbalist scene, with a focus on the area of women’s reproductive health.At school, she says she was "not very good at being confined and prescribed from 8.30 to 4,” but found her own rhythms in running her own herbal medicine college, which she established in 1990 in Cambridge (the one in the North Island). She describes the time as "a decade of real excitement in the herbal medicine world.”During that time, Isla was keen to be mentored by the best in "different ways of seeing the world and our relationship with that world”, and so, every week, she would call Tuhoi tohunga Hohepa Kereopa, and ask him to take her on. Every week, she recalls, "he would say ‘phone me next week’ and one day I phoned and he said ‘come tomorrow’ so I had to drop everything and go.”That first time, "we went into the bush, he stripped the berries off a tute plant, which I knew was poisonous, looked me in the eves, said "hold out your hand,” squeezed the juice out and said "drink”. I realised it was a test of trust and I drank it. But I found out afterwards the juice is the only part of the plant that is not toxic.”That was the start of a series of really challenging tests. Next year it took Isla only one phone call, and his influence is still huge in her life. "He’s not alive now but his presence is definitely in this book.”Through her teaching and her books, Isla feels a "huge responsibility to educate people about how to use local plants to enhance their health and wellbeing.”She’s blogging about the book launch, facilitated by "the wonderful people at Wanaka library”. Click MORE below for the blog, and to find out many more details about her work.And as to the quantum question? Well, Isla says, she "can’t give a definitive yes/no answer to that, but can say that if one fully engages in that world an understanding of both is enhanced.”PHOTO: Supplied

Jane Stalker with her Local Heroes medal. MADDY HARKER Two Wanaka locals have been recognised for their work in the community at the 2017 Kiwibank Local Heroes Awards held in Dunedin on Monday.The Local Heroes Awards celebrates people whose selflessness and determination has made a difference in the community.Wanaka’s Jane Stalker and Sonya Palmer were awarded medals, along with 17 other outstanding Otago people.Jane, whose involvement in the Wanaka A&P Show for the last 20 years has helped it become what it is today, described the experience of attending the event as "humbling”."It made me feel really good to be a part of it,” Jane said.It was difficult for Jane to accept the award as an individual when so many people were involved in the A&P Show, she said."I accepted it on behalf of our committee members and all the people that put the work in to make the event happen.”The evening included drinks and nibbles for award winners and their families, as well as representatives from Dunedin City Council and Kiwibank.Meeting other award recipients was a highlight for Jane."They were lovely, lovely people. People from all walks of life, lots of different types of people who had done a variety of things in the community.”Sonya (17), who was celebrated for her contribution to anti-bullying group Sticks ‘n’ Stones, was not able to attend, but told the Wanaka App she was honoured be recognised."It’s pretty incredible because I’m just a young person and I didn’t think I’d get anything amongst all these adults that have done far more than me,” Sonya said.Sonya has been part of Sticks ‘n’ Stones for the last four years. She’s helped facilitate Pink Shirt Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day at school; visited Christchurch last school holidays to be part of the Vodafone Change Accelerator programme where she built a website for the group; attended a Wellington-based conference, ‘Positive Behaviour for Learning’; and is currently creating a new programme at school called Project Connect."I’m working with two other friends trying to make this programme that offers, especially new students, help with making friends and feeling a connection to the school, and to help promote friendships between seniors and juniors,” Sonya said.Project Connect will be implemented at Mount Aspiring College in 2018, which is also Sonya’s final year of school.Kiwibank received a total of 750 nominations for the awards from all around the country. Jane and Sonya were two of the 350 people around the country who were recognised for their exceptional work in the community.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Rick ‘Stumpy’ Johnston in actionSUE WARDSFor anyone who believes Mark Twain’s maxim that "golf is a good walk spoilt”, a few hours in the company of Rick ‘Stumpy’ Johnston is likely to change your mind.Stumpy (the name bestowed on him at boarding school hints at his height) has just been renewed as club captain of the Lake Hawea Golf Club - his fifth year in the position. A great ambassador for golf, Stumpy has been a member for 10 years and as club captain has introduced some new tournaments to "mix things up a bit”."It’s just a matter of trying to keep people interested in playing golf. Some people think it’s too serious,” Stumpy said. Twilight games on Thursdays, ‘Ambrose’ tournaments and other games throughout the year "put a bit of fun into it”, he added.Hawea also plays interclub with seven other local clubs, including Millbrook. Hawea (with a nine hole, 70 par course) beat Millbrook (a 27 hole course) a few years ago. Since then, "we call them our sister club - because the courses are so similar,” Stumpy said.He can take the game seriously when he has to, but he loves the social aspect of golf. Hawea likes to put on a free meal for the visiting clubs ("It’s just the little things that make it go easier”) and unsuspecting visitors might be surprised by awards like ‘the person who played the most golf’ (read: the worst golfer of the day). "It’s a good talking point in the club.”In Otago, golf clubs are the only sports clubs where numbers are increasing, Stumpy reckons. There are a few younger players coming through, perhaps because of more golf on TV, Stumpy said, and the handicaps help to mix people with different skills and ages. But Hawea, with its 50 or so members, is always keen to welcome more people."I play quite a bit of golf,” Stumpy said. Three or four times a week: nine holes on Tuesday and Thursday, and 18 holes on Sunday. Yes, he admitted, he probably gets a game in on Saturday too. His handicap is "about average” at 13 (actually, in the top third of New Zealand players).Stumpy grew up where South Otago becomes Southland - Waikaia, on Glenary Station where his father was head shepherd. "I used to go out fishing and rabbit shooting every night after school.”When he started at boarding school in Oamaru (Waitaki Boys High), he moved from a school of 30 to a class of 30.After his parents moved to Wanaka, and he was working as a barman at "the Gardies” (the Gardens Tavern) in Dunedin, he would spend summers here - and even came over to play rugby (he was on the winning B-grade team in 2004).He moved here in 2000 and worked as a barman at Barrows Pub for two or three years, before working with his father (Skip Johnston), chopping down trees. (Stumpy the lumberjack? "Yep - Stumpy working with bloody trees.”) He’s been a builder with Breens Construction for the past eight years.Stumpy’s life isn’t all about golf. He does "a bit of hunting” too - actually quite a bit, it seems. He got back into hunting in his mid-20s and said it was quite something to go back to his home patch at Waikaia to shoot his first deer. (He and a mate often hunt off the Waikaia Bush Road.)He also goes to the West Coast for a couple of weeks for the Roar, and has "locked eyes” with a few stags, and spends a few weeks in the remote Waiatoto Valley every year. "It’s pretty awesome - just being on the West Coast, and being in the bush.”Stumpy turned 40 this week ("1977 was a good breeding year”), and he celebrated with a game of golf, with more planned this weekend.But Stumpy agrees Mark Twain was right about golf - some days. "There’s always luck in golf - you’ve got good luck or bad luck.”"When you do play that one round, where everything goes good, you think: ‘I can do it.’ And you’ve done it once, why can’t you keep doing it? It’s pretty much a mind game.”"If you’re in the right frame of mind, and you have that good day, you go back a week later and shoot over par - and think how did that happen?”There’s a whole heap of factors, Stumpy said, in deciding how you’ll play. "Some people have a few beers and come right - then you have a few more and it’s terrible.” Heineken drinkers think they play better, he’s noticed.Town is a lot busier since Stumpy moved here 17 years ago. "There’s a lot more people around. You’re losing the friendliness a bit. But,” he said, "everything changes!”In the short time this writer spent with Stumpy, at least four people stopped to greet him enthusiastically. With Stumpy in town, friendliness isn’t going anywhere. And golf - that’s here to stay too.PHOTOS: Facebook

Andy VauseMADDY HARKERWanaka’s Andy Vause and two friends are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: a 2000km journey across India by rickshaw.The journey is made more hair-raising by the fact that it has to be completed in just over two weeks, and Andy’s description of their vehicle as a "7-horsepower glorified lawnmower”."The distance is about 200km per day,” Andy said. "We worked that out at 20km per hour, we’re talking about something like 12 hours a day on the rickshaw.”Andy, along with Matty Lovell (Christchurch) and Jalen MacLeod (Canada) will travel from Jaisalmer in India’s north to Cochin in the far south.The trio will traverse diverse topography along the way. "The top of India is very hot desert, and the bottom is a rainy area, so it’s going to be a mixed bag,” Andy said.The Rickshaw Run will begin in Jaisalmer and end in Cochin.The two rules of the journey, organised three times a year and named The Rickshaw Run, are: you can’t drive at nighttime; and you have to get to the finish line with your rickshaw by January 15."The only certainties are that you will get lost, you will get stuck and you will break down,” the Rickshaw Run website states, comfortingly.If you’re wondering what has possessed these three men to take on this epic, you might be surprised to hear it’s not a joyride, or crisis-induced: it’s to raise money for charity.And raise money they have. The trio have surpassed their ambitious $50,000 goal by $25,000 already.The funds will be divided equally between the Cricket Live Foundation (India) and The Inspire Foundation (New Zealand).Andy, who works as a paramedic in Wanaka and also runs Black Peak Media, came on board after meeting Matty, and being enticed by the adventure."I met Matty earlier this year. Initially [my company] was to be one of the businesses that was to provide media for him. We didn’t know each other from a bar of soap and I started asking questions. ‘How many in a team? We’re looking for a third. What if I came on board and filmed the adventure? Yeah.’”Andy was also inspired by Matty’s commitment to raise money for charity along the way (it was one of two things left on his bucket list, and he thought it was time to tick it off)."I come from a background of volunteering and providing services to charity and our values were aligned,” Andy said.The two charities were chosen for their commitment to helping people from all parts of life."Some of the young people the Inspire Foundation is supporting here in New Zealand are just amazing. These are our world leaders they are supporting. That’s one end of the spectrum and the Cricket Foundation is the other end of the spectrum.”The objective of the Cricket Foundation, founded by kiwi Alex Reese, is to bring cricket to the children of Sri Lanka and India who currently live in underprivileged environments with limited opportunities."Using cricket as a medium, the foundation is changing people’s attitudes towards school and life,” Andy said.The journey itself is expected to test the three men both physically and mentally. Andy described the team’s rickshaw as a "7-horsepower glorified lawnmower”."It will be a good test of our abilities and our character,” Andy said. "Traffic in India has no rules, so we have to be very careful how we drive. I think the horn is going to become our greatest asset along the way.” "And if people think we’re crazy enough, and it is worth it, then hopefully they can consider supporting our two charities.”The trio plan to post on social media daily, with videos and photos provided along the way to show what they’re up against. Ultimately, they hope the trip will inspire others to go on an adventure of their own, for a good cause.To learn more, donate, or sign up to social media updates, click MORE below.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Rod AndersonLifelong local resident Rod Anderson has received a Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) in the New Year’s Honours list for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community.Rod has lived in Luggate, on the same property, since 1972, and his service to the Luggate community spans more than 40 years.He has been Luggate’s chief fire officer, is a life member of both the Luggate-Albion Cricket Club and the Wanaka Rodeo Club, and is a local Civil Defence coordinator and deputy chairman of the Luggate Community Association.Rod told the Wanaka App he hadn’t "got my head around” the award, even though he’s known about it for a while."It’s an odd sort of feeling. I am humbled by it but also quite proud of my family”Typically, Rod’s pleasure in the award relates to how it may help Luggate."It also raises the profile of Luggate in a positive manner. We’ve had so much negative stuff recently with the hall and water chlorination. You never know what might come out of it - maybe more positive action such as getting the hall back in action.”Rod said he feels he’s been doing his thing in the Luggate community for so long that he’s "a bit of a bloody dinosaur”, but there are still things that need to be done, such as the hall, development of the Red Bridge historic reserve, and keeping the fire brigade operating.Rod has been an advocate for the restoration of Luggate’s town hall since it was closed in August after being assessed as an earthquake risk. He is concerned about the hall particularly from the point of view of civil defence. "If we have an emergency now where the hell do people go [in Luggate].”Rising property values in Luggate make it hard to keep volunteer fire fighters in town when they have to leave to afford to buy a house for their family, Rod said. He is committed to recruiting more members for the fire service.Rod is also a key member of the group developing the Red Bridge historic reserve, a project "which is very personal for me”, he said.Rod’s history to this area goes back generations, and his great-grandfather ran the punt at Albert Town.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Snow Sports NZ athlete of the year Zoi Sadowski Synnott.SUE WARDSWhile some Wanaka high school students are spending their summer holidays enjoying sleep-ins, sun and socialising, 16-year-old Zoi Sadowski Synnott is back on the snow, training hard for the Olympic Games.Zoi, a Mount Aspiring College student, will represent New Zealand in snowboard slopestyle and snowboard big air at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in February.The young snowboarder was selected for the New Zealand team in October after she won both a World Championships silver and World Cup gold in slopestyle. The Snow Sports NZ Snowboarder of the Year 2017 and Overall Athlete of the Year 2017, she is currently ranked third on the FIS slopestyle list.The Wanaka App caught up with Zoi by telephone as she was enroute to Breckenridge, Colorado this weekend.Zoi has lived in Wanaka since she was six, moving here with her family from Sydney. Her parents leased the Snow Park back then, providing their five children with plenty of access to the snow. Although Zoi learned to ski as a pre-schooler, she remembers not particularly liking it."I just didn’t like skiing. It was weird having two separate things on your feet,” she said. Trying out snowboarding for the first time at the age of nine, she thought: "This is so much more fun, so much more free.”Zoi in action.Zoi’s competitive side surfaced quickly. "I started off playing soccer and I always wanted to win,” she said. Her first snowboard lesson at the Snow Park was with her older sister Reilly, who had had lessons before."I was so competitive about it and tried to surpass her. I was always trying to keep up with my older brothers snowboarding.”Zoi is also a skateboarder, and in those first years in Wanaka the family owned the property with the ‘dream ramp’. "We were really lucky to have that in our backyard. In winter all the ski and snowboard pros would come out and we’d get to see them skate.”She has been dreaming about the Olympics since she was 10-years-old. "At school we made pictures of what we wanted to do in our lives, and mine had the Olympic rings on it.”Being selected for the Winter Olympics team in October was a thrill. "It was really exciting, then we realised we had to keep putting in the work. I guess it’s a waiting game until then.”Despite being a little nervous about getting injured before the event, she said, "I feel like I’m in a pretty good place. Just as long as I’m snowboarding, it will be fine. Just like any other comp.”A podium or a gold medal would be the best, she said, "but anything else: I’ll take it.”Zoi has been described as "snowboarding like a boy”, which she thinks may be because she mostly snowboards with boys. She also thinks she has a lower stance on the board than some female snowboarders. "I try to look like I’m putting in an effort to ride,” she explained."When I watch other people ride, I watch people whose style I like and try to adjust my style to be more like theirs.” She cited Cardrona’s Christy Prior as an example. "I’ve always liked her riding, she has her own style.”Zoi thinks living and training in Wanaka has given her a competitive edge in the sport. "When I first started properly competing I was only doing New Zealand winters, so I was putting all my effort into two or three months rather than nine months like other girls. I was trying to catch up to the girls I wanted to compete with, and asking myself, ‘am I doing what they’re doing’?”Her coach Mitch Brown helped, pushing her to do things she sometimes didn’t want to do, such as learning the dub-cat ("It’s just like a double flip”) about a year ago. "I didn’t want to do it, it was real scary. But I learnt it.”"If you commit, you’ll most likely land, and if you don’t, just get up and try again,” she said matter-of-factly.Wanaka’s weather has also been an advantage, she said. "In Wanaka we don’t get the best weather, it’s really on and off. But we still get up there and train.” So in overseas competitions, "you know you can snowboard in really bad weather”.Another advantage has been attending MAC, which allowed her to attend two or three days a week in the winter. "It’s been really, really good. They’re really cool about it.” Having friends at school who snowboard with her has helped too, she said. "It’s the life everyone ‘gets’.”Zoi will spend the next two weeks in Colorado, and compete in one or two World Cup events, then it’s on to Japan for a week before heading to South Korea for the Olympics, which take place from February 9 to 25."My family keep me really grounded. I’m really grateful for their support - and my coaches (Mitch Brown, Sean Thompson, Tom Willmott), and all my sponsors - Red Bull, Snow Sports NZ, and High Performance Sport NZ.”PHOTOS: Red Bull

Tim Zeestraten with his honey boxes.LIZ BRESLINLavender. It’s great for reducing anxiety and stress, improving sleep and maximising brain function.Still, it’s definitely not just surrounding themselves with hectares of lavender plants that accounts for the growing successes of the Wanaka Lavender Farm. Experience, hard work and meticulous planning are part of how they’ve built their business.It was six years ago that brothers Tim and Stef Zeestraten bought the land along Morris Road and State Highway 6. Lavender ran in the family before this purchase: their parents were owners of a lavender farm up in Kaikoura so the guys had plenty of prior knowledge. Still, it was a decision that Tim said "many friends found funny – two boys starting a lavender farm - but we always wanted to live in Wanaka and if we’re going to live here, then we’ve got to do something that sustains us living here, and this is it.”The Wanaka Lavender Farm is now open for its fourth summer and business is booming. Tim puts this down to ticking the small boxes on the way to the big vision – "making sure the rabbits can’t get through the fences, making sure we’ve worked out there’s a viable market and then cranking into it and thinking large scale. If you get the right numbers in and line them up then you can prepare for it and say, ‘OK, we can’t do it this year but maybe in a few years.’”The farm comprises twelve hectares in total, so they’ve got land to expand further on their vision, preparing, this summer, for another 20,000 plants and hoping to have 50% of these in by April/May and then the rest by spring. The family has expanded further as well, with Tim’s wife Jessica now an integral part of the business and the Zeestraaten parents, who can’t resist helping out almost every day, around the edges or right in the thick of things. "Dad’s the perfectionist – always in the garden, tidying and weeding,” Tim says.And there’s lots to do apart from the gardening and harvesting – making the oil, infusing the creams and the honey, and working on the business as well as in it. Planning is a crucial part of the business cycle. The gardens are mapped out on computers, creating the lines, squares and circles of lavender around existing trees, a very healthy veggie garden and the other complimentary plantings. The main lavender season is from November through to February and the gardens are looking stunningly purple just now with around thirty varieties in total. Some so tall, Tim said, that "you could lose your children around the corner in them.”He may be speaking from experience as Tim and Jessica’s two-year-old daughter Maple is now part of the Wanaka Lavender Farm clan. The lavender planted includes the well-known Grosso and Pacific Blue, the intriguingly-named Violet Intrigue and the sensitive Dentata that will only grow in the shelter of their buildings. As of 2018, the Wanaka Lavender Farm will be open officially in the winter so part of current planning is working out a way to continue the guest experience when there aren’t so many flowers flowering. They’re putting a fireplace in and thinking visually and interactively.Not all the planning is so fun. Consents are part of the process, Tim said. "Dealing with them, building and car parks, it just costs time and money and you’ve got to have thick skin, if you’re here for the long haul it’s not going to be an inexpensive exercise to get there but you can get through that, tick all the boxes and it is not impossible.” And, Tim points out, it’s good when the council has a strong plan for the area, because that helps everyone working in the area. Getting the coveted brown highway attraction signs signalling the Lavender Farm from State Highway 6 is another example that took "years worth of paperwork and a whole lot of money, with criteria like opening so many days a week, being an attraction with interactive experiences and an educational aspect … but the main one is road safety,” Tim explained. Plenty of people would stop or turn sharply on seeing the friendly purple tractor and the stunning fields of blooms anyway, so it made sense to have warning signs.And it’s not just passing travellers who visit. The farm is firmly on tourist itineraries now and locals bring out their friends. Tim calls everyone who visits "guests, not customers, or visitors. It’s important that they’re guests, because that’s how we want them to feel.” Listening closely to guests is a major part of deciding how the family will develop the business. "They tell you everything. What they like. So we give them the same, give them more.” A great example of this is with the veritable farm of fun animals on site. It started with a sheep, and lambs, and people loved them and now guests can also visit with Milly and Kristen the highland cows, Koko the pig, a bunch of alpacas, and of course the bees.The bees are a fairly recent venture and the home blend of lavender honey has proven to be one of the most popular purchases from the on-site shop. They also sell honey sourced from partners around the South Island and this has proven popular with guests, who have often read about it on Instagram, TripAdvisor or WeChat. Word of mouth is almost the only way they advertise, and it keeps the car park almost as busy as the bees.While many people may turn to lavender for a calming break, Tim says the only way for them to destress is to leave town completely, which is more possible now they are not working seven days a week. Either that or go for a bike ride or a surf or a fish. All part of living the Wanaka dream.PHOTO: Wanaka App

Jodie RainsfordLIZ BRESLINIt’s fair to say that Wanaka local Jodie Rainsford is busy. In fact, she’s probably the epitome of busy, what with her marketing consulting business, her two photography businesses, her volunteer work as a senior firefighter and the Daily Mole (aka The Mole Prince of Squigglepanthia, aka Benson) - her alarm clock, trainer and bedwarmer of a dog.Quite the life to juggle, and although Jodie wouldn’t leave mid-photoshoot to go to an emergency callout, many’s the time she’s raced to the fire station straight afterwards in her wedding outfit. She’s also had to cancel quite a few photoshoots with real estate agents because of fires and other emergencies.The recent fire on Mt Alpha was a case in point."Luckily we don’t have fires that big very often as it takes a lot of time and resources from a lot of different people,” Jodie says. "It definitely had me pretty wrecked the first week with three weddings in amongst the mix of staying up until 4am in case the fire spread. Thank goodness for lots of local people dropping off food to the station - that was very much appreciated.”Jodie is a senior firefighter in the Wanaka Volunteer Brigade and has done a range of week-long trainings and courses around the country to get experience of how to deal with a lot of different aspects of the role – motor vehicle accidents, first aid, driving, pump operating and live fire training.In 2016, one challenging day of coursework included entering a building that was 800 degrees, which she describes as "pretty toasty”.As to the nature of the fire brigade being run by volunteers, Jodie says, "I think it’s great that it is volunteer, however I didn’t realise how much time and energy it would actually take up - it’s like having another job some weeks.”"It has completely opened my eyes as to how much and how difficult some of the jobs that the emergency services do in our country - not only fire and ambulance but also the police. Many of the people have been doing it for the majority of their lives. There are a lot of very undesirable, upsetting, tough jobs that I don’t think anyone would want to do but unfortunately someone has to do it. Some weeks it has a pretty big toll on your personal life, especially living in a small town.”She’s very clear that photography and emergency assistance are two very different parts of her life. "I would never be a photojournalist of emergencies for the news. There are too many stories where people see their loved ones online before they hear about terrible accidents and I think it’s just not on.”She feels strongly about media outlets which intrude during an emergency. "All these other volunteers have dropped everything in order to help these people - and the media are swarming like hawks. I am pretty sure if it was their loved ones in that situation they wouldn’t want some stranger in there taking photos in order to exploit them for their own benefit. I just wish they would show some respect and give these people the dignity they deserve.”Growing up in small town Wanaka, Jodie didn’t have a burning desire to get into photography, but remembers her mum had "millions and millions of photo albums that I used to spend hours looking at”.After her schooling at "good old Mount Aspiring College”, Jodie took the not unknown local path of two degrees at Otago University followed by some quality ski bum time. Eventually she became marketing manager for a big outdoor clothing brand, but quit when the fun factor wasn’t high enough, to come home and concentrate on her photography.Her latest photography project, alongside her business Jodie Rainsford Photography, is The Good Wedding Company, which she describes as "an awesome collective of wedding professionals working together to make something cool to be a part of and an awesome product to offer our clients.” Their strapline: ‘Well, that’s bloody excellent news. You bring the love. We’ll supply the mountains.’Jodie’s enthusiasm for the business is obvious. And it’s not just in taking the photos that she gets a buzz, but in looking at the results. "There’s something about it when you get a feeling from a photo, it’s like a mental high five. That’s what makes me want to take them,” she says.In between all her businesses, the odd push bike and motorbike ride, the daily outings with Benson and the occasional beer, Jodie is planning to work more on her personal photographic projects. It’s exciting to see where all her hard work and enthusiasm might take her.PHOTO: Andy Brown

Chocolate confection from The Chocolate Workshop. PHOTO: Supplied"I’m a chocolatier not a chocolate maker. There’s a big difference. A chocolate maker can be likened to a music composer - a chocolatier to a musician.”Chocolatier and maker of delicate, confectionery creations, Tanja Schwindt, is proud of her work, so much so she has named her company The Chocolate Workshop.Chocolate has always been on her mind, she said. She trained for three years with a Master Pastry Chef at the MARITIM Parkhotel in her hometown of Mannheim, Germany and spent 15 years developing her skills in Europe.She had visited New Zealand a couple of times "just for a holiday” but was enticed to move here by a former colleague who emigrated and worked in Wanaka. "I didn’t pick Wanaka. Wanaka picked me.”Settling in small town Wanaka in 2005 meant adapting to part-time hospitality work; from the Purple Cow backpackers, to the internet cafe, then a stint at Tuatara Pizza and finally full-time employment as the food service manager at Elmslie House. The work paid the bills but she found it stifling. "You had to follow menus designed by dieticians… it wasn’t very creative.”"I never dreamt of owning my own business but I guess the New Zealand ‘can-do’ attitude rubbed off. If I was still in Germany I wouldn’t have done it. New Zealand encourages you to do things.”"I love working for myself. It’s a challenge. I’ve always had a secure income which I don’t have anymore,” she said. "But I have no regrets at all. It can be bloody hard but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”Tanja making chocolate cups. PHOTO: Wanaka App.She juggled her new business, established in 2012, with part time work for two years before a business opportunity allowed her to quit Elmslie House."The owner of Wanaka Chocolate invited me to buy her out,” Tanja said. Production of the well-established chocolate bars meant she had a regular source of income to balance the creative lines of confectionery.She admits to being a purist when it comes to chocolate and prefers European chocolate - "it’s creamier”."My chocolate has only cacao and cacao butter - none of this palm oil stuff. Some big producers put vegetable oils into their chocolate to cut the costs because cacao butter is so expensive. But I think you should get the best available product for your money.”"Chocolate confectionary though is made with other ingredients, like cream, alcohol and tea, and usually confection has a soft centre surrounded by chocolate, like a truffle.”She uses the highest quality chocolate (couverture), from all over the world, enriched with locally sourced, fresh New Zealand ingredients, including Central Otago walnuts and hazelnuts and pinot noir, Wanaka ales, local herbs, spices and fruits.Local beers and wines are her favourite - "I love to play with booze, quite frankly - it’s just a different flavour when combined with chocolate.”She said she likes to "challenge her palate” by trying different combinations. For example, she created a box of Japanese inspired chocolates for a festival which included flavours like apple wasabi, sake (sourced from Queenstown - NZ’s only sake producer) and yuzu (a fragrant Japanese citrus fruit)."Yuzu and chocolate is mmmm - one of my favourite combinations.”Lavender infused chocolate confectionary might be her next artistic challenge but, like anything new, it takes time to perfect the balance of ingredients and flavours, she said.Her handmade chocolates aren’t all weird and wonderful flavours. Even though those inspire her the most, she also makes standards like delicate peanut butter cups and soft salted caramels.Alone, she produces by hand around two tonnes of chocolate each year but her goal this year is to have another chocolatier regularly working with her so she can step back and be more creative.Christmas is her most demanding market - "I have no life between October and December” - but Mother’s Day also keeps her busy.Tanja’s handmade confectionery and chocolate bars can be purchased from local gift shops and speciality food stores, such as the Mediterranean Market and Florence’s, and at Cardrona skifield.Soon, however, when her website is completed, her products will also be available to order online. "I came up with the idea of producing a monthly chocolate box that people can order by subscription; each month would have a theme like Easter or autumn, and they would be delivered by electric bike!”Being a fan of leaving the car at home and biking/walking where possible, she dreams of "a cargo electric bike with insulated containers,” she said, "and I’ll pay some young kid, wanting a fundraising opportunity, to make the deliveries.”She has other dreams too - like regularly paddle boarding (her latest passion), and teaching the art of the chocolatier, perhaps starting with Wanaka’s annual Autumn art school - which will all have to wait until she finds the time.To sign up to the Chocolate Workshop newsletter touch on the link at the bottom of her website (click MORE below).

Jason and the motorbike used in the Louis Vuitton shoot at Poolburn.His family has owned and operated Wanaka’s National Transport and Toy Museum for decades. He’s been involved in the museum since before it was constructed and opened in 1995 - most of his adult life. Branching into the movie business though, that was all his idea.For Jason Rhodes, 49-year-old businessman and company director, the museum "is what I do for a real job,” he said, "but the film industry, that’s what I like to do on the side.”His commitment to the museum is as a parent to a child - it’s 24/7. But his involvement in the film industry "gets me out of my little space and switches my brain over to something else. I find it’s a lot of fun,” he said.Studio South, as he has named it, is Jason’s ambitious dream to build a permanent film studio. The finished multipurpose building will spread across eight acres behind the current museum complex. It will encompass a multitude of indoor filming options, including a wet tank the size of an olympic swimming pool, as well as being suitable for aircraft displays, trade shows, events or even indoor sports training. The roofline will stand around five stories high and the basement will extend nine metres underground.It’s been a frustrating project though, he said. "There’s a whole lot of little things which aren’t allowing us to move forward,” he said. "I’m more or less just stalled at this stage on the whole project.”Even without the studio in action, Jason’s regularly fielding requests from the advertising world and film industry.The museum houses 650 vehicles, 16 aircraft and more than 60,000 toys and collectible items and every week there’s another industry request."Mostly, it’s just supplying bits and pieces,” Jason said. "Often it’s for advertisements or movies we will never see here. Sometimes I’ll have no idea how the props we provide will actually feature in the end. We’ll just get someone approaching us saying ‘this is what we need - can you supply it’.”The museum’s Louis Vuitton display is extensive.For instance, the museum was involved in Disney’s "A Wrinkle in Time” production filmed at Hawea last year, but in a manner that will never appear in the credits."We supplied the space for calibrating the cameras. When their equipment was flown into New Zealand, it all had to be recalibrated for our light stream. So we had half of hangar one rented out to them for a few days.”Sometimes his involvement is so slight it barely registers as a business transaction."They’ll want small, very random, off-the-shelf stuff like cameras, bottles, stuff you see in the background, but it’s got be authentic,” he said.Other times… "With Pete’s Dragon (filmed in Tapanui in 2016) we were involved for about six months; we had two to three staff working on it permanently; and then there were all the vehicles we provided as well.”The film industry, whether it’s movies, television or advertising, is huge and covers so much from accommodation to catering - "it touches everyone and it leaves money in its wake, and we just clip the ticket along the way.”His involvement in the film industry is not yet at the stage where it’s providing a reliable income, he said, but that’s the purpose of the permanent studio. He said this region is popular for filming but we don’t have enough infrastructure to make a viable permanent industry.About 80 percent of the industry work Jason does is with overseas advertising companies, often shooting clothing catalogues requiring props. While film production is proportionally smaller, it usually takes more time, he said.Jason said he never advertises with the film industry - it’s mostly word-of-mouth which keeps him connected. "I talk to art directors and people like that. I have spent a bit of time in the States to just keep in the picture, to be aware of things coming up, to see if it’s something we want to get involved in, and just keep our name there.”Jason admits he’s not passionate about movies but he’s fascinated by the historic settings and attention to detail employed in filmmaking. He likes the documentaries best and has been roped into "being an extra” on set on more than one occasion.The delayed momentum of Studio South is actually to the benefit of the museum, Jason said. He’s been able to focus on "getting the museum up to where we want it”. This means improving display lighting, wheelchair access and displays.One of the museum’s smartest new displays originated with the shoot for a Louis Vuitton advertisement. The shoot required a range of historic props, from suitcases to a vintage motorbike and sidecar, and was filmed in Central Otago.Seeing an opportunity to blend his film industry "fun on the side” with a permanent feature at the Museum resulted in a very classy display. "This is an example of how we want to change the museum and we’ll quietly work back through the museum and develop other displays,” he said.It’s a symbiotic relationship - the film industry and the museum - and one that Jason clearly enjoys.PHOTOS: Wanaka App

Jimmy with one of his waka on the shores of the Clutha River.MADDY HARKERIf you pass through Albert Town often, you’ve likely noticed two long hulls slowly being transformed near the river’s edge. They arrived in Wanaka as second-hand dragon boats, but the painstaking work of Jimmy Brennan is turning the craft into traditional Māori waka.When the Wanaka App visited on Wednesday, Jimmy had begun the process of adding traditional Māori painting to the waka, which he had already remodelled and refitted. Two elaborate taurapa (stern-piece) have recently been hand-carved by a master carver, which will be added to the waka in the near future.Jimmy decided early last year that he would build the waka in Wanaka. He parked up at the camping ground with his housebus and two hulls, and has been working away on the project ever since.His location, along the shores of Clutha (Mata-Au) River just above the Albert Town Bridge, has been good for many reasons."I meet people all the time,” Jimmy said. "People are very curious. And the further it goes, the more curious people get.”Being just metres from the river has its perks too, and affordable accommodation is a plus - Jimmy is working a 40-hour week as well as transforming the waka, a juggling act which Jimmy said can be "full on”.But the waka are much more than a hobby: Jimmy has a vision for an ‘eco-cultural tourism’ venture incorporating the waka. Drawing on his background in tourism, he wants to incorporate the traditional Māori waka with a water trip (either on the Clutha or the lake), indigenous music performance and education on the history of Māori waka.He’s got the right background for all aspects of the project: Jimmy has had extensive careers in tourism and joinery. He’s also a professional musician, and seven of his 12 guitars live with him in his housebus.Jimmy has two ideas for what he might do with the boats on the water. The first is to paddle out to a floating pontoon/catamaran on the lake, within 200m of the shoreline, on a war canoe which takes 18 people. They would reach a double hulled boat (decorated in traditional Māori style) where an indigenous instrument concert would be hosted.The second option is similar but on the river: clients could paddle to a yet-to-be-determined destination and have a concert there."Those are the two options I’m floating. I’m still information gathering and networking and figuring it out. I’m looking for advice for what people would like to see.”He’s eager to get onto water: "There’s nothing I’d like more than going down the river with the boats fully laden,” Jimmy said.If Jimmy was to choose the first option, the two hulls would be connected to form a catamaran-style boat where he could hold the indigenous music performances. The process of turning the waka, or war canoes, into a double hull craft, is likely to be laborious. "That’ll be the interesting bit,” Jimmy said.But it won’t be Jimmy’s first boat building venture, and his other boats in Rotorua will eventually join him down here too.While war canoes are the most commonly seen traditional Maori boat these days, double hulls hold an important place in Māori history, Jimmy said."It was a double hull that got us here [to Aotearoa/New Zealand]. But then we went to the war canoe to protect it. The depth is in the double hull. There’s a whole history there: it tells the story of the great migration.”"The canoe you came in represents your tribe. It’s the first thing you learn at primary school: your waka, then your mountain, then your ancestors.”As well as - and possibly before - the boat trips, Jimmy is interested in conducting educational visits to the waka on land. "I can start showing them soon - what they are, what the components are and what they signify.”For Jimmy to get his on-water venture off the ground, he will have to jump through a few hoops. The project will need approval from the harbourmaster, local iwi and the council, he said.It’s a project Jimmy hopes the community will get behind. "I think the idea could go really well here. In New Zealand, and especially here, people are environmentally conscious because of how nice the environment is.”In the short time he’s been here, Jimmy’s become part of the local community. Some of the curious people who have shown up to ask what he’s doing have turned out to be experts in the trade, and have become both friends and what he calls his "technical advisors”.His love for music has also been a way to connect with people, and he’s helping to organise a fortnightly open mic night at the Luggate Hotel (the first one is to be held on February 18, with special guests for the grand opening).PHOTO: Wanaka App

Tom JamiesonSUE WARDSEvery community has at least one member who lives on the fringe. Thomas (Tom) Jamieson - a familiar sight to locals as he wobbled between Hawea and Wanaka on his bike - was one of those people.On the hot, windy day Tom died (when his hut was destroyed by fire on January 23), everyone knew who he was, but few people actually knew him. Apart from the many times I passed Tom (who was dubbed ‘Major Tom’ by some locals) teetering along SH6 on his bike, the only interaction I had with him was late last year. Walking along the roadside, I watched Tom cycling towards me, leaning precariously to one side. "Morning,” I said as he drew near. "Precious little good about it!” he snarled, and continued on his way.That was characteristic of Tom, one of his friends told the Wanaka App.Tom used to live at the Lake Hawea Motor Camp, which Michele Cotter and her family ran, about 20 years ago. "When Tom first came to the camp, our kids were little, and when they saw Tom, they would all wave from the car,” Michele said. "One day he came to the door to say, ‘There is to be no more waving. I want to be incognito.’”"Tom chose to live how he did. He just wanted to be let be,” she said. He was a "suffering soul”, Michele said, who had endured some bad treatment in his early years.Tom was a Scotsman who came to New Zealand as a "ten pound Pom” (one of 76,000 British citizens who migrated here after the Second World War. The migrants only had to pay £10 to migrate and the government paid the rest). He had been in the British Army and served in Northern Ireland and the Emirates. After moving to New Zealand he worked on orchards in Cromwell before locating to Hawea, where he loved to chop down trees and cut up firewood - which he supplied to a select group of people.Tom lived at the motor camp for about nine years, and had been settled in his hut (which was a converted house truck) just off Domain Road for about 12 years. The small group of people who watched over him included his good friend Don Meyer, the Cotters, and his neighbours Peter and Dawn Ward.Tom always wore boiler suits. He had a box on the back of his bike and he would ride to Wanaka three or four times a week for exercise, groceries, books, and a gas bottle, strapping items on with a bungy.Tom would take morning tea to the ladies at the bank, go into the Sally’s, and visit the library. He enjoyed his life, Michele believed."Tom was a tremendous reader. He also was very sold on TV evangelist Benny Hinn. He had a strong faith, and a mean sense of humour. He kept abreast with current affairs, and knew more about Parliament than Parliament.”"He had a head for dates and would always acknowledge birthdays - mine, my mother’s, and mother in law’s,” she said.Tom was also very kind, Michele said. "He had nothing, but what he had he would share. We could never give without receiving back. Be it half a jar of jam, and a bit of fruit cake left in the letterbox, after we had taken him a meal, or something. He was never beholden to anyone.”"Tom was a person who liked to remain on the fringe,” Michele said. "Unless he was a little (or a lot) tipsy. He would then take a wobbly bike trip, that always ended badly.”Things had recently started to slide for the 75-year-old, with health problems making his regular bike rides difficult.Peter Ward had visited with Tom just before he died, and told the Wanaka App Tom had mentioned this might be his last summer in this place. He was considering moving into a cared facility. He was quite nostalgic about the thought of moving on, Peter said.Tom liked his dealings with others to be on his terms, and it’s unlikely he would have wanted a story written about him. But, far from being incognito, he was a well-recognised part of our landscape, and many people wanted to know more about his life."Tom has been through harsh winters and searing summers. He has had so little,” Michele said. "What if we all just looked after one person who lived on the fringe? What a difference we’d make.”Tom’s friends are planning a memorial service for him soon, after his remains have been returned to them. Rest in peace, Thomas Jamieson.PHOTO: Angelo Georgalli/Facebook

Bob McLachlan PHOTO: SuppliedCAT PATTISONAs a baby, Bob McLachlan had big hands and correspondingly big feet. You could say he was born to grip a paddle, and as an adult his Hobbit-sized hooves gave him stability in the mountains and the ability to pedal a bike along at speed.Paddling some form of boat formed the cornerstone of Bob’s life as he grew up kayaking, before embarking on a career as a professional raft guide. Living the endless summer dream he worked on some of the world’s most beautiful rivers. It was around this time he earned himself the nickname Big Water Bob.Bob also rafted competitively, winning New Zealand, Australasian and world championship titles in teams. His down-time was spent on pioneering kayak missions descending remote and difficult stretches of water. He later took up waka ama (outrigger canoe paddling) and pursued it to world championship level. He holds numerous national waka ama titles.Bob has also worked as a guide for trekking, mountain biking, sea kayaking and canyoning companies internationally and in New Zealand over the past 27 years.A move from Motueka to Wanaka in 2008 meant his other loves - mountain running and biking - could be integrated into his active life. It was here Bob began adventure racing. The vast talent pool meant there was always an abundance of strong athletes heading somewhere overseas to race.Highlights included winning the China-based Wenzhou Outdoor Challenge with Team NZ Adventure in 2014, racing with top Kiwi athletes Braden Currie, Dougal Allan and Jess Simson.In 2015, Bob also enjoyed racing with Simone Maier, Marcel Hagener and Hamish Fleming in China’s Baise Outdoor Quest, where they placed second.Bob also developed a love of rogaining (a navigational checkpoint-finding race) and has teamed up successfully with five-time adventure racing world champion Nathan Fa’avae. He also took his navigational skills to the snow and won the National Cross Country Ski Rogaining Championships. A little more time on cross country skis saw Bob claim two national age group titles.Conditioned to sleepless nights courtesy of his two young children, in 2013 Bob decided to compete in New Zealand’s gruelling, multi-day, non-stop Godzone Adventure Race. It started in Mount Cook and the teams of four mountaineered, hiked, mountain biked, canoed and kayaked their way over a 500km course to finish in Queenstown. During their five days of racing, Bob’s team operated on a total of about six hours sleep and finished fifth out of 50 teams.The team returned the following year as Torpedo 7 Adventure Race team and finished second behind Adventure Racing World Championship-winning Team Seagate.Bob continued to race with Torpedo 7 Adventure Race team in the Godzone event the following two years, finishing third (but unranked due to missing a checkpoint in 2015) and then third in 2016.Aged 44, Bob decided to have a crack at the World Multisport Championships Coast to Coast Longest Day. He achieved second overall and convincingly won the veteran category.Heading overseas later that year, Bob raced with United States-based team Adventure Medical Kits in China’s X-Trail adventure race, where they won silver.A change in focus for the first part of 2017 saw Bob captain and navigate a team of three novices – including his partner Cat Pattison – to second place in the Godzone Adventure Pursuit Race.Last year, Bob was called up to the dream team of adventure racing, joining defending World Championship-winning Team Seagate (Chris Forne, Stu Lynch and Joanna Williams) to compete in China’s X-Trail race in June. They won comfortably then set their sights on racing the Cowboy Tough World Adventure Racing Championships in Wyoming, United States in August 2017 - which they also won.Bob’s adventure racing retirement plans were put on hold when he was asked to race with Richie McCaw in the GODZone adventure race in March this year.The PWC-backed team for the Fiordland race also includes experienced Wanaka adventure racer Sarah Fairmaid and New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association boss Rob Nichol.Bob after the recent Red Bull Defiance event. PHOTO: Graeme Murray/Red Bull NZThe team split up into twos to do the Red Bull Defiance race in Wanaka, in January. Bob and Richie were stoked to win their sport category in the gruelling two-day multisport race and finished an impressive sixth overall.They banded together as a foursome for the ARC 24-hour race in the Coromandel in February - battling their way through the mud and rain to come away with a win.Not one to rest on his laurels, Bob and his team are racing this weekend as team PWC #7 (Richie McCaw’s rugby playing number) in the GODZone adventure race in Fiordland.

Bella Fraser and Max HallSUE WARDSMount Aspiring College keeps turning out impressive students for the roles of Head Girl and Boy, and this year’s pair is no exception, providing between them a balance of arts, science, sport, performance and service.Bella Fraser and Max Hall (both 17-years-old) are poles apart in some ways: Bella’s the approachable one, Max says, and the organised one - she brought her diary to the interview. A question about the number of Year 13 students leads her straight to her phone and the correct answer (it’s 146). Max - not so much. He has no idea how many Year 13 students there are, and hasn’t used his phone for a few months ("Where is my phone?” he wonders). But Max is super-approachable too, and clearly the talker of the two.Bella admits to being the sporty one. She loves running (she completed The Challenge with team member Sam Copeland, running the 21km in 1.56 and meeting her goal of completing in under two hours). She’s been in the First XI girls’ football team since Year 9, and is keen on orienteering, rogaine, adventure racing and mountain biking."I love just getting outdoors - I love the freedom of the outdoors,” she says.Bella is studying Spanish, Photography, Geography, Statistics and English, and plans to go to teachers’ college next year to become a primary school teacher. She’d also like to travel at some stage, and perhaps be a nanny overseas.Max is the arts student, he says (he is known for his dance and performance skills). But as well as studying English, Drama, and Design, he is also studying Physics, Maths, and Outdoor Pursuits. He hopes to study astrophysics in London (but points out he may change his mind about this). He likes to mix up the ‘right brain/left brain’ dichotomy, he says.It’s no surprise that in this year’s school musical (Catch Me As You Can - on stage next year), Max will be on stage (in one of the lead roles) and Bella is looking forward to organising things backstage.For all their differences, Max and Bella agree their mission this year is to contribute to improving communication and interaction between year groups in the growing college.Bella talks about bringing ideas to fruition across the age groups. "We want to improve that interaction between all the year levels, so they know we’re here for them - we’re the student voice for them - so if they have an idea for something that’s happening in their part of the school, we can try to help them get it done.”Max agrees, and adds: "We’re there as role models. It’s our job to set the tone for the school, making a positive appearance, and influencing the students to do their best.”They plan to visit the different year levels every now and then to let students know they are there, and they care.Both Bella and Max are founding members of the anti-bullying group Stick ‘n’ Stones, and both believe that MAC has built - and continues to reinforce - positive behaviour in this area. That happens through reminding students about the right thing to do with events such as Pink Shirt Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, and the ‘take a free compliment’ initiative - "to keep the positive behaviour going”, Max says.When asked what they’d like to achieve by the end of the year, Max is quick to say he would like to make a positive impact "from the perspective of the arts”, as possibly the first Head Boy who isn’t also captain of the First XV. Bella is determined to take up all the opportunities she’s given this year, as well as work towards making relationships within the school year groups more connected.Max and Bella have started as they mean to go on, visiting different year groups within the college, and they will also play a role in our community. Bella’s first community event is to read the roll of honour at the Lake Hawea dawn service on ANZAC day. Max has already started - he spoke at the Wanaka Primary School graduation late last year.Expect to see more of this well balanced duo.PHOTO: Wanaka App