ENVIRONMENTAL AND TRAIL SOLUTIONS
Each summer the huge number of visitors walking the Tongariro alpine crossing puts a massive need for wharepaku along the trail to ensure that the environment is respected. Let’s face it, people doing ‘their business’ anywhere that takes their fancy is no way to take care of one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Meet my wife, Traceylee. She’s the one that keep all this website and blog stuff up to date. I tend to be a little too busy (she’ll definitely confirm this) to sit longer than I need to at the computer.
We met during the winter of 2003 on the Whakapapa skifield and it’s been a love story ever since. Tlee (that’s my nickname for her) supports me with doing the majority of the parenting of our two kids, and is the best cook you could ever wish for. She’s so good that I dared her once to enter Masterchef, and she did, competing alongside the My Food Bag front gal, Nadia Lim. Tlee came 4th in the 2010 series. I was damn proud. So it’s no surprise that when the Impel team is away on remote jobs for extended periods of time, she fills chilly bins with the most delicious kai, and baking tins keep energy levels high. I reckon the guys who join me on these remote jobs may only come along for the good food.
When she’s not busy supporting me, and being mum to Blake and Amelia, you’ll find Tlee at the kindergarten she co-owns. It’s a pretty special place with a wonderful philosophy. You can check out Four Seasons Rudolf Steiner Kindergarten here.
Chad was part of the team that created the Great Lake Trail for Bike Taupo in 2010 and it has to be said that it has been one of the coolest projects that Chad’s worked on. Taking two years, working right through sweltering hot summers and a couple of winter seasons where snow and heavy frost was common, the labour of love has been now been visited by both walkers and mountain bikers to the tune of 30,000 visitors a year.