Latest news with #Queenstowner
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Mountain man leaving a legacy
Queenstowner Aaron Halstead's one of the lucky ones. He's managed to forge a hugely successful career from his hobbies, resulting in him receiving a King's Birthday Honour. He talks to Tracey Roxburgh about his journey so far. While Queenstown's Aaron Halstead may have been personally singled out this week, he credits the teams he's worked with over the past 30-odd years for his success. On Monday, Aaron, 53, was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in this year's King's Birthday Honours for his services to Search and Rescue and the tourism industry, something he's "immensely humbled" by. He notes he's been "pretty lucky" throughout his varied career, which has traversed the military, mountain guiding, mountain rescue, working in the Antarctic, for Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service, as Study Queenstown's manager and, presently, as Southern Lakes Trails chair. A lot of that 'luck', though, comes down to skill and hard yakka, though Aaron's also a believer in the law of attraction. "No matter what you do in life, if you cast it out there I think things come your way." Aaron grew up in Lake Tekapo because his hydrologist dad, a keen climber, who'd helped set up the Vanda Station in Antarctica's Dry Valley, did snow surveys, looking at snow melt and river flows around the Mackenzie Country. He recalls a "monumental" two-day trip over the Copland Pass with his dad when he was 13, going from Mount Cook village to the West Coast, which catapulted him into climbing, something he further advanced at Otago University. While he started studying psychology, "I never finished it", ultimately getting a degree in applied management instead, and going on to do a master's in social entrepreneurship. He also decided to join the military while at uni — "it was a great way to earn extra income being in the reserves". He's been "in and out" over the years, and is still technically a captain in the army, having had a couple of overseas deployments, including to the Pacific in 2022 with the Five Eyes. In his second year at Otago, Aaron joined the cliff rescue team, in part, to get some professional training, "rather than me just bumbling about in the outdoors". "It was probably like joining the fire service — there's an excitement to it, there's a camaraderie, there's a training element, there's a skill level upgrade. "Then I kept going." He quips he's accidentally turned his hobbies into a career, "and I love it". His first intro to Queenstown was in 1999 when he was cast as a climbing double for American survival thriller Vertical Limit and was based here for a year. "That just catapulted me — I worked with a bunch of professionals, other mountain guides, and then made a bunch of money — probably should have bought a house, but just went travelling. "Some people are focused on finance and they make a lot of money in their lives. "I've been focused on adventure." For a long time, Aaron's year was split between ski patrolling for NZSki, guiding in Antarctica, mountaineering at Mount Cook and stints in the Himalayas. "Not very conducive [for] a family or a relationship, to be fair, but very good to have that outdoor career adventure." Wanting more of a commercial career, he heeded advice to get out of Queenstown for a bit and moved, with his now-wife, Megan, a doctor, to Melbourne for three years, where he worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The couple's daughter, Scarlett, who turns 10 this week, was born in Aussie, but the family returned to Queenstown where he took on the Study Queenstown gig. Then, in 2019, he became a Southern Lakes Trails trustee, and was appointed chair in 2023, responsible for the governance of a new walking and biking trail network, which will link Queenstown to Dunedin. It will, he believes, be a huge economic driver for the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago and open up massive business opportunities. "We're building tourism infrastructure for this region. "It's incredible being part of that, and I'm definitely keen to do more of that sort of thing." In between, Aaron's set up his own business, exploreGO. Established as "like a for adventure", it's morphed into looking after high-net-worth individuals wanting bespoke adventures. Simultaneously, he's still hugely involved in a variety of alpine rescues. "People think, 'alpine rescue team, you just go in and rescue climbers'. "I've been to aircraft crashes ... cars off the road, cars down Nevis Bluff or off Arthurs Point, anywhere that's steep or inaccessible, it's not just climbers." But technology's also making things "really interesting". While it's been a saviour for people in the outdoors, who can now "push a button" when they need help, there are "a couple of downsides". "People get into what they could probably get themselves out of, but go, 'oh, I'm a little bit cold, a little bit scared, I'll push [the] button'." There's also an increase in rescues involving what Aaron dubs "the Instagram generation", where "the wow factor doesn't necessarily align with the skill factor". "The technology has allowed everyone to see the wow photo, but not realise there's actually a lot of skill, experience and hard work [required] to get that." While not every rescue effort has a happy ending, his continued involvement in Search and Rescue, and his many other passion projects, speaks to his ethos in life. "I think if you can use your skills, experience, knowledge just to help people around you ... that's one of the great joys in life — giving back and being able to help somebody else. "For me, it's about leaving a legacy for the community, for my daughter and for my friends."
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Rowers on world stage
Wakatipu High's Seb Watson, left, and Harry Lightfoot proved their rowing chops with a record win in the U18 double sculls at this year's Maadi Cup on Lake Karapiro. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Two Wakatipu High 17-year-old rowers are furiously training and fundraising to represent New Zealand at world under-19 champs this winter. They are Arrowtowner Harry Lightfoot and Queenstowner Seb Watson, who sensationally broke a record of about 20 years' standing when they claimed gold in the U18 double sculls at this year's national secondary schools Maadi Cup regatta. Following trials, Harry's made NZ's team for the U19 worlds in Lithuania in August, which will be preceded by six weeks' training in Cambridge. He'll row in the double with Nathan Strachan, from Auckland's Macleans College, who won the U18 single sculls at this year's Maadi. Seb, meanwhile, has made the U19 NZ development team who are off to the Continental Challenge Cup regatta in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States, where he'll compete in multiple events including a mixed eight. Both trips are solely self-funded, Harry's costs reaching $20,000 and Seb's $8500 — a Givealittle page is running for the pair who are also fundraising themselves, including a raffle in Harry's case. Both have been rowing since year 9 at Wakatipu High, but have come on particularly over the past two years under Whakatipu Rowing Club coach John Morrison. Last year they won golds at Maadi in the U17 double and coxed quad, and they repeated the dose at U18 level on Cambridge's Lake Karapiro this year. For their upcoming worlds they've upped their training to 10 or 11 times a week including gym, rowing machine and on-water work. "Normally there's the big group trainings but at the moment there's just like me and Seb in a double or we'll be in singles, and it's freezing," Harry says. Both boys say they enjoy the social side of rowing — "I just enjoy being with my mates", Seb says — but also the competitive side. Both intend carrying on when they finish school this year, initially with the Whakatipu Rowing Club this next season — Seb's off to Canterbury University, and Harry's still deciding his next move. Harry follows in the wake of local rowing star Marley King Smith who competed at the past two U19 worlds.
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Martial arts club moving into Frankton
Queenstowner Diego Hernandez, who won a gold medal at the recent World Taekwondo Championships in the United Kingdom. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Queenstown's newest martial arts club is getting ready to open its doors. Kman's Martial Arts Club — established in Cromwell in 2023 — will launch a second club in Frankton on June 9. Owner and head instructor Kman McEvoy, a multiple world champion and 5th Dan Black Belt, says he's been getting an increasing number of requests to open a club in Queenstown, noting many of his students already travel from Queenstown to Cromwell for training, and others "want to travel to Queenstown ... for extra training". He says the club's a friendly, family-oriented one, with members ranging in age from 4 to 63, some of whom train for self-defence, fitness and self-confidence, along with competition. Classes include Taekwondo, judo and kickboxing — McEvoy says they've already produced multiple regional, national and world champs, including assistant instructor Queenstowner Diego Hernandez, a 3rd Dan Black Belt, who's a Taekwondo national champ and was one of five gold medal-winners at last month's World Taekwondo Champs, in the United Kingdom. The club also brought home seven gold medals from the recent Canterbury Judo Champs. McEvoy also has high hopes for his team of 20 fighters competing in next week's Otago Southland Regional Karate comp, being held in Dunedin, and will take a team to the national kickboxing champs, being held in Auckland, and the World Taekwondo Cup, in Canada, next month. The Queenstown club's new home will be at 1085 Frankton Rd, within the Frankton Village complex — for more info, see
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Golfer off to junior worlds
Golfer Ricky Kang, 17. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Selection for the New Zealand under-19 golf team for the Toyota Junior World Cup in Japan next month confirms Queenstowner Ricky Kang's steady rise up the ranks. The South Korea-born golfer, who turned 17 yesterday, is one of three boys chosen for the strong-looking team along with three girls. Ricky, whose sister, Sumin, 20, is on a four-year golf scholarship at Northern Arizona University, in the United States, has enjoyed some good results in recent months. He won the Southland strokeplay, was second in the Canterbury strokeplay and debuted for Otago. He was also part of the NZ squad who travelled across the Tasman to play the Aussie juniors. Ricky came close, too, to qualifying for this year's NZ Open at Arrowtown's Millbrook, where he's a member. "I was four-under playing a qualifier and I really needed to birdie the last [hole] and just missed out." At 910th in the world junior rankings, he's set some ambitious goals on his 'Ricky Kang's Supporters' Facebook page — he wants to win the US junior amateur champs before he turns 19, aims to play the PGA Tour and wants to represent NZ and medal at the Olympics. His coach of five years or so, Millbrook's Ben Gallie, applauds his goal-setting. "Those goals are really good just to keep you motivated on the lonely days out on the range. "He's getting better and better and he's starting to understand his own game, in particular, situational preparation." Everything's solid about his game, Gallie says, "and he's got good work ethic". Ricky, who was first taught by his dad, Moon, when he was five, came to Queenstown with his family in 2011. He used to play with Sumin, "and do bets really often". What he loves about the game is "it's challenging always". "Even in the good times you can always look for something better." Unlike his sister, Ricky's not looking to go the US college route, but instead wants to join the Korean Tour as a pro. His favourite NZ courses are Jack's Point, near where he lives, Invercargill's Otatara, Christchurch's Shirley and Waikato's Tieke Golf Estate, and his hero is Aussie Min Woo Lee. This week he has gone to Sydney for a month's prep ahead of the Toyota Junior World Cup in Nagoya from June 24-27. Meanwhile, his father is appealing for anyone who'd like to help sponsor his son, "because the training and tournament costs are quite a lot".
Otago Daily Times
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
From inspired to inspirational
On Sunday night, Queenstowner Cam Marshall, 21, settled in with a pizza to watch Runn, a documentary detailing Nedd Brockmann's journey to run 100km a day, for 46 days, across Australia. "I just got super-inspired and thought, 'what am I doing?' "I'm just sitting on the couch eating pizza. "This guy's out here running 100km a day for 46 days." Having just returned from a working holiday in Japan, and not due to start back at Queenstown's NZONE until tomorrow, Mr Marshall figured he had nothing else planned on Monday, so on a whim decided to attempt his first 100km run, setting out to raise $100 for I Am Hope. The farthest he had previously run was 27km, about seven months ago. Mr Marshall promptly took himself to bed, woke up about 2.30am, made a rough plan for his adventure and set up his Givealittle page, "Running 100km for Mental Health — No Training, Just Purpose". "Obviously mental health [is] such a big topic in New Zealand, especially among young people," he says. "I feel like I've had my own sort of battles with mental health growing up, especially like leaving high school. "It's not easy being a young person in New Zealand, I find. "There's a lot of bad things that people can focus on, but I wanted to sort of bring some light and ... donate money to mental health and help out." He set off from his parents' Threepwood home about 4.45am, intending to do the entire distance unsupported. But as soon as he started posting on Instagram, "people started reaching out and wanting to help". His jaunt took him into Queenstown, where he stopped at FreshChoice for some food, then to Frankton, where there was another stop at New World, and then on to the Kelvin Heights golf course. He doubled back and headed towards Arrowtown — his mum's cousin dropped off some more food at Morven Ferry — but around the 75km mark he blew out his right foot. 'It just got worse and worse ... so I just had to walk it out. "I knew it was going to be a long 25km." By then, though, he had a growing support crew, who were with him every last step of the way. Mr Marshall finished about 9pm, "right outside my house" with about 10 people, including his sister who travelled over from Wānaka to keep an eye on him overnight. By Wednesday, he had obliterated his fundraising target, with over $3100 donated to the cause. Mr Marshall said he intended to keep the Givealittle page open and was considering another fundraising challenge down the track. "I love keeping fit, and I think there's potentially some room down the line to be doing a bit more of this."
