As well as managing the station’s 30,000 merino sheep (Icebreaker’s key suppliers of merino wool), Kate and Jack are busy raising the station’s youngest farmhands, Jess (2 years) and Tom (5 months).

“Bringing up kids on Mt Nic is fantastic,” Kate says. And she’d know. She and her brother grew up on the station, homeschooled by their mother until leaving for boarding school. After continuing on to Lincoln University, Kate lived the corporate life for twelve years, before deciding to return to the land.

A thirty-minute boat ride away from the nearest town, life on Mt Nicholas has its challenges. “It’d be so cool just to ring up Little India and order takeaways,” Kate says. But living on a property that’s practically self-sufficient  –  electricity is self-generated, fruit and veges are home grown  –  there’s little to pine for.

Kate only needs to step out her back door to indulge in her passion for mountain running, and she, Jack and the kids love jumping in the truck and going exploring.  Jess and Tom thrive on farm life, enjoying  the company of more animals than most kids dream of. As well as the 30,000 sheep, there are cattle, horses, dogs, pigs, hens, goat, deer and plenty of native birds, including tui and bellbirds.

“I love the wide open spaces and being outdoors all the time,” Kate says. “It’s a great place to work and play, and have your family all around you.”

Looking back on your Icebreaker adventure: what is your biggest achievement?

“Personally, I’m most proud of building a close-knit team. The direct result of this was being able to realise my idea and create a new product group. There were plastics and there was wool. And then there was merino wool − both technical and natural. This inspired our name: ‘breaking the ice’ − it was a metaphor for this new product group.”

What’s your opinion on the internet − in relation to manufacturers, customers and retailers? It seems that traditional retailers feel threatened by developments like online retail and social media.

“The physical shop is generally the start of a relationship between customer, manufacturer and retailer. The retailer must learn to embrace the internet as a means to maintain that relationship. Three factors can undermine the relationship: Social risk − you bought the wrong product. Financial risk − you paid too much. And performance risk − you bought the wrong size.”

“For an online retailer, performance risk is the essential one. A wrong size has to be returned, and this causes disappointment, loses time, and (sometimes) creates additional costs. My vision for the near future is to change your living room into a dressing room. When a customer orders a size L shirt, the retailer sends three shirts (sized M, L and XL) and a prepaid return parcel. The customer then tries the shirts on, chooses the best fit, and returns the others in the parcel. The risks of unreturned shirts need to be included in your operational costs.”

What, in your opinion, is needed to convince consumers of the need for sustainability?

“Be transparent − provide insight into the operations of your organisation. True sustainability is realised through the entire business model of your company and product…”

“Icebreaker believes that it is essential for our wool to be of exceptional quality. This does not only apply to the wool, but also to how the sheep that provide it are treated. Every product that you buy from us comes with its own unique code, something we call the Baacode, which is traceable through our website. With it, you can see the living circumstances on the farm that has supplied us the wool that’s in your product. You can see who the shepherds are, how many sheep they have and the area on which they graze.”

Now that you head a successful business, we’re curious to know how you find the time
to pursue your outdoor activities yourself?

“I don’t head our business, I make sure it can be lead. I see myself as oil in the machine. I don’t care how many hours someone works, I care about the passion, judgment and responsibility they bring to the table… The same applies to me as to anyone within Icebreaker. It’s always possible to take time out to ski, mountain bike or be with your family.”

Hayco Volkers, founder of Xhike.com and gearxtreme.com

Grant is a unique athlete who chose sport over a possible career as a stand up comic. And not only is he a pro on the ski slopes, he is also a PGA qualified goIfing coach. This makes him the perfect competitor for the Ski and Golf World Championships in Austria, which started yesterday and runs until the 23rd of May. We caught up with him before the start to ask him some questions about the upcoming champs.

Why have you chosen to compete in the Ski and Golf World Championships?

It’s every athlete’s dream to test yourself against the very best in alpine skiing and professional golfing. It’s the most authentic way to put myself and Stockman Sports out there.

Ski and golf is an interesting mix. Do you find there is a beneficial relationship between training for both sports?

I feel there is a strong connection relative to the individual who both ski’s and plays golf. The biomechanics are in many ways similar, it’s just the way we execute the movements can be very different. It’s very interesting to coach the higher level skiers and ski coaches when you bring in the mental strength of what golf and skiing is about. The main hurdle is helping them to see the relation between the two sports from the same perspective as I see it.

What makes you most passionate about golf?

I love coaching golf as it is always a challenge to improve every level of golfer as well as your own game. I find the mental toughness, ethics, history and evolution of the sport so fascinating. Also, it is a great way to relax and meet people. You can certainly learn a lot about someone by playing golf with them!

Who are some notable names you have coached over the years?

Shania Twain (Grammy award-winning country-pop singer/songwriter), Steve Hansen (All Blacks coach), Kevin Nealon (US actor/comedian), Grant Dalton (Emirates Team New Zealand yacht racing Managing Director). Current and former World Cup alpine ski racers I have coached include; Kjetil Andre Aamodt (Norway), Lasse Kjus (Norway), Dominique Gisin (Switzerland), Rainer Schoenfelder (Austria), Leif Christian Haugen (Norway), Christoph Gruber (Austria), Nicole Hosp (Austria), Nadja Kamer (Switzerland) and Fabienne Suter (Switzerland), to name but a few.

Check out how Grant’s going through his Facebook Page and for images check out his photos on Flickr.

Speed-riding is a combination of skiing and paragliding with a very small paraglider that only goes down, and goes very, very fast.  The sport was originally about launching off the top of a mountain with skis on and landing at the bottom. But it’s evolved to include much more skiing and interacting with the terrain, tapping the tops of trees, touching down and making ski turns before skiing off thousand foot cliffs. Amazing!

We were super excited to be fully stocked with the best merino wool out there – Icebreaker!  The team relies on the versatile nature of IB products to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It’s crucial for our clothing to be able to handle hiking up the mountains while we’re sweating and carrying our gear. It also needs to keep us warm while we’re waiting at the top in the snow for the weather and winds to cooperate before we fly down.

While it’s usually hidden under our speed flying harnesses or wing suits, Icebreaker is the only brand we trust in the mountains to push the limits of human flight.

The Bomb Squad

Here’s what I knew about NZ merino sheep before my visit:

• They produce the finest, whitest, wool fibre in the world.
• Their coats insulate to keep them warm in winter; in summer they shed their wool to stave off the heat.
• They’re fluffy and white.
• They say ‘baa’.

Here’s what I know about NZ merino sheep now:

• Their eating habits are similar to that of a goat, preferring dry twigs and shrubs to the lush clover other sheep thrive on.
• At night they feel compelled to climb to the highest peak they can find. (Kind of like a meerkat, but perhaps a bit lower on the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder spectrum.)
• The mountain peaks on which the Mt Nicholas sheep roam are so steep that the musterers and their dogs arrive for work via helicopter.
• They’re more petite than your average sheep.
• They’re also quite tasty.

But, it wasn’t all about the sheep. Or, the cows, pigs, hens or horses. Over my two-day stay, I discovered plenty of other things, including:

• It’s possible to raise two young children and 30,000 merino sheep simultaneously (just the former is ample for me).
• Deer and goats make great domestic pets – this is something Buck (deer) and Sally (goat) will attest to. Though, Jackson (dog) may beg to differ.
• A ‘crutcher’ is a person responsible for crutching sheep − removing wool from sheeps’ behinds − and is not to be confused with ‘a support to assist a lame or infirm person in walking’. Or anything else.
• New Zealand is home to some of the most awe-inspiring landscape in the world (and this is coming from an Australian…)
• Seven Icebreaker layers, including a trenchcoat, won’t weigh down your pack. GHDs, laptops, and phone chargers, on the other hand, will.
• Mountain running is not a sport I will ever consider taking up.
• Homegrown veges are delicious – even brussell sprouts!
• Some people don’t think twice about tucking into a venison pie after patting a pet deer. RIP Buck Senior?
• Electricity is something most of us take for granted (less so, people who generate their own).
• My workmate, Jo, is a competent truck driver, and not one to be deterred by the dark, a bumpy dirt road, or roaming animals (thanks for keeping my life intact, Jo!)
• Only one Icebreaker base layer is required (in conjunction with a sleeping bag) to keep a person toasty warm for a night in the shearing quarters, despite it being a measly 0 degrees outside.
• Sleeping bags are not conducive to sleeping, and should, accordingly, just be referred to as ‘bags’.
• Humans can survive without cafes.
• It’s possible to travel from Mt Nicholas to the airport − via water taxi and land taxi − within one hour.
• Under pressure, Queenstown taxi drivers are among the fastest in the world.

*No animals were harmed in the making of this trip. (I’m assuming the ones we ate died of old age.)

Jennifer Lane – Copywriter

Rain, rain and more rain. The rain was so loud that it was hard to even have a conversation as we sat at a beachfront restaurant in La Libertad, El Salvador. Not really what we had expected when we sent in our registration to participate in the Masters World Surfing Championships in Punta Roca, a world famous right hander on the El Salvadorian coast.

Johan Cargelius, Henio Skaldin and myself, Binge Eliasson, three veteran surfers from Sweden, had been nominated to represent Sweden at the world masters in El Salvador. The chance to travel to the tropics where both the air and sea temperature are around 30 degrees celsius sounded too good to be true and to surf against surfers like Tom Curren USA, 3 times world champion, Mike Latronic, Hawaiian big wave surfer, and Layne Beachley AUS, 7 times world champion, even better.

All of us have surfed for years. I started in the mid seventies; Johan and Henio started in the eighties. We have all competed in an number of World and European championships and traveled to the far flung corners of the world looking for surf. It’s funny how you stumble upon something at an early age and it stays with you over the years. We have all built our lives around surfing, not a day goes by without us doing something surf related.

We spoke to Icebreaker about the possibility of them sponsoring us. It’s not as crazy as it sounds choosing a manufacturer of wool clothing when you are going to the tropics. In my work as a travel photographer I have had the opportunity to wear Icebreaker gear on a number of occasions, even on trips to warmer climates so I know it works well. One quality I like is how quickly it dries after being hand washed in a hotel room – especially important when you need to travel light. Another thing that my fellow travellers love is that you don’t smell, even after long flights!

Meanwhile in El Salvador after two days of free surfing we got caught in one of the country’s worst disasters. After 12 days of rain, the sewer system broke down, then the fresh water disappeared. We ended up eating in international-style hamburger restaurants, they were the only ones that had fresh water being delivered on a daily basis. That together with the fried food gave us a fighting chance to stay away from food poisoning as we had had our share of stomach problems before the rain even started. We were really happy to have our Icebreaker t-shirts and hoodies as we sat, soaking wet, in air conditioned restaurants.

Henio said that, for the first time ever, he didn’t want to exchange clothing with the other teams!

The constant rain turned the ocean into a sewer and we really didn’t want to go in the water to compete. And for a good reason, Punta Roca is considered, on a good day, to be one of the more polluted waves in the world and we knew surfers who had been really sick. A small cut can lead to big infections.

Fortunately the rain stopped two days before my heat but I wasn’t that happy when I jumped in to the ocean to compete. It’s funny how people always ask you if you have seen sharks but I never have. I have been chased out of the water by angry seals, lovesick sea lions, blue bottle and man of war jellyfishes, lightning striking in the line up, crazy big waves and the ocean turning into a sewer but never sharks.

The sun came out in time for the finals and despite small waves it was fun to watch the talent that still exists even when you pass the 50 year old mark. Tom Curren, at 47, is still one of the best surfers alive. Sweden finished in 17th place – not bad considering our home breaks!

Binge Eliasson – Swedish Masters Surfer

It has been a long road and a lot of work, almost harder than any long distance adventure that I have ever undertaken. I am pleased to announce that my book has finally been passed off to the printer. It will be hot off the press and ready in about 2 weeks.

Trail Tested: A Thru-hiker’s Insights Into Hiking and Backpacking will be ready and on the shelves by the beginning of May. I look forward to giving back and making it easier and more enjoyable for people to get outdoors and go backpacking. I have hiked over 35,000 miles in the past 10 years and have learned countless lessons along the way. I share all of the knowledge, tips, advice, and thoughts that I have picked up, one example (not to shamelessly plug Icebreaker!) being why merino wool performs so well and is the best for any outdoor activity. I have included a sneak peak of one of the pages on hiking clothes for you to see.

I hope you are all as excited about the book as I am. I can’t wait to hold the printed copy in my arms and flip through it, partly because it feels like the culmination of a big project, but mostly because I look forward to helping people – and most of all so I can finally shut off my computer and go hiking again!

Justin Lichter – Ultrahiker

Justin will be making stops at some of our US TouchLabs to promote his book – more details coming soon.  For more information on Justin’s amazing adventures, check out his website: www.justinlichter.com

What inspired you to do the Motatapu Adventure Run?

I wanted to try something different – although I didn’t expect it to be quite so long and hilly (we call them mountains, Piret!). I was going to do the mountain bike first of all, but changed my mind and I’ve run a marathon before so this seemed like the next obvious challenge. More fun!

What were the high and low points?

The mountains! And the low point had to be reaching the second to last hill only to see the track stretching all the way down and all the way back up again.

Would you do it again?

Too soon to say. At the moment, no – the memory is too painful!

What now?

Competition-wise, orienteering over Easter at the New Zealand National Champs (Piret represents Estonia at an international level).

Check out some great footage of the run – you might want to do it next year…

1. Planning is everything. Know where you are going to go; get the maps, and also work out plan B in case the weather packs up.
2. The group on the tramp is of the utmost importance. You can only go as far and as fast as your weakest member, so select your group well.
3. If you are going on-track take a map. If you are going off-track you also need a compass and these days a GPS is also useful.
4. Always take a set of dry clothes to put on when you get to the hut/set up camp. Do not be tempted to put your dry clothes on the next day if the track clothes are wet. Wear the wet ones; you will soon warm up when you are walking.
5. In the New Zealand bush (and most other countries as well) boots will get wet. Get over it! Put them on the next morning, walk quickly and your feet will soon warm up.
6. Avoid wearing any cotton when tramping, particularly jeans. Instead wear wool, polypropylene or fleece*.
7. Your boots and raincoat are the most important items when you tramp. Make sure the first are comfortable and the latter is waterproof.
8. Your most important accessories are your hat and gloves (wool* is best); you can use them to manipulate how warm you feel.
9. Packet soups sachets make a wonderful treat when you first get to a hut, warming one up and replacing lost salt.
10. It always pays to take a thermarest or equivalent; you never know when you might get to a hut and find it full. There is always room on the floor.
11. Join a tramping club; it will enhance your ability to go and enjoy a whole variety of outdoor experiences within New Zealand or Australia. They also have bushcraft, navigation, leadership and alpine instruction courses.

*Editors note – Icebreaker merino wool is obviously best – please remember that polyproplyene and fleece are synthetic and ultimately stink!

Some useful links
http://www.fmc.org.nz/
http://www.ttc.org.nz/
http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/Safety-Tips/Seven-Rules-of-Tramping.asp
http://www.trampingnz.com/index.php?pageid=tramping_tips
http://www.walkingaccess.govt.nz/
http://www.adventuresmart.org.nz/
http://www.bushwalkingaustralia.org/
http://www.aussiehiking.com.au/

Visitors had the chance to take pictures in the interactive photo booth, make their own trail mix, and load up on great gear from Icebreaker, Keen, and other companies. While most of the stops on the tour are closed to the general public, Subaru and friends will be hosting events at several REI stores around the country – events where everyone is welcome!

Subaru’s 2012 Work, Play, Love Tour – REI Events (www.rei.com):

3/24/12 – REI Sacramento

3/31/12 – REI Hillsboro

4/1/12 – REI Greensboro

4/7/12 – REI Raleigh

4/14/12 – REI Fairfax

4/14/12 – REI Denver

4/22/12 – REI Pittsburgh

5/5/12 – REI Milwaukee

Matt Hazel, US Customer Service Representative