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Jo McKenzie-McLean / Stuff
Aucklanders Mel Gimblett and Michael Goldstein have changed corporate life across the country following the closure and collapse of their event management business.
With careers collapsed and businesses bombarded due to Covid-19, some kiwis have forged new futures. Jo McKenzie-McLean stands Mel Gimblett and Michael Goldstein, who have changed business life for the country.
Dust rises on Central Otago’s dry gravel road. Cows look curiously from their grazing on one side of the road, while sheep look solemnly from the other side.
A nearby red brick house sits in the middle of vast farmland with unobstructed views of the Hawkdun Range.
The windows swing open to alleviate the 32-degree Oturehua heat outside, and a Brian Turner book sits on the coffee table with torn paper markers peeking between the pages.
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The New Zealand poet and author is the town’s most famous resident.
Five months ago, two new “and very green” faces arrived in the remote village, during a frost, with their belongings packed in a Ute that they had driven from Auckland six days earlier.
RNZ
Queenstown has launched some heavy artillery in an attempt to attract domestic tourists this summer, as it tries to make up for the absence of international visitors.
Business couple Mel Gimblett and Michael Goldstein, to the surprise of family and friends, left their central Auckland apartment to move into a country house “in the middle of nowhere.”
“We decided to go on an adventure… take a break from life. So we packed up the car and drove down, ”Goldstein said.
The couple, who run an event management company, were in Mexico hosting a global motorsports event in March when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand would be closed.
They were on the first flight back to Auckland and were locked in their “tiny” 70 square meter apartment. At first, they realized that their business was in trouble.
“Our business was badly affected by Covid and we really didn’t need to be in Auckland. We just existed, we paid a lot of rent, and we decided what to do. It was an opportunity for us to say ‘do we want to do something different?’ “
The couple had spent time in Queenstown and Arrowtown for the past nine years running the NZ Golf Open, but chose to put themselves “completely in the middle of nowhere”, about 60km from Alexandra.
Supplied
The couple say that during the lockdown in Auckland “they just existed, paid a lot of rent and decided what to do.”
His friend’s uncle had bought the Oturehua property earlier that year, and despite being told that the place was “barely habitable,” they set out on their adventure.
“We became geeky hikers and bikers and got hiking boots. Our friends say, ‘who are you?’, ‘They have alpine you’.
“When we got here it was so strange… we thought, how are we going to survive? They gave us a bread maker when we moved because people didn’t think there would be stores. Our biggest fear was where we would have coffee. “
Fortunately, coffee is available – the town is home to the historic Gilchrist’s General Store and Oturehua Tavern, and there is a coffee shop at Hayes Engineering. Life in the valley is “amazing,” and what was originally intended to be a two-month break has turned into a permanent move.
“The locals are so friendly… we have a very busy social life. People here just fall down like old times.
“We are meeting all these people who have exciting jobs and careers. The whole remote work thing is now an option and it makes everything quite doable. “
