Meet the People - 18

Top:Skiing in Wanaka. Bottom: Finding a playmate in the Galapagos Islands. Images Supplied.

Another in the series Meet the People – Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things – Brian Savage and Colleen Ryan of Queenstown’s Remarkables Lodge know a thing or two about the adventurous life of the inveterate traveller. They quit their fast-paced working lives in London in their forties – their only plan: to have no plan at all. They set off in their yacht in 1994 and spent the next decade circumnavigating the world, sailing across the Atlantic (twice), the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, the Red Sea, the Baltic and the Mediterranean. Having seen so much of the world, they had the rare opportunity of standing back and deciding where they would ideally like to live. They chose Queenstown. “It had an unbeatable combination of assets and a climate we enjoyed; and given the fact that we ski and we sail, it made sense to be near lakes and mountains. And ten years on the open ocean and in remote anchorages gives you a taste for tranquillity and privacy which cities do not deliver.” After all those years travelling, running a retreat for travellers made perfect sense. “Every visitor has a story to tell and in the last year alone, our guests have included a lady astronaut, an Oscar winner, an Olympic gold medallist and someone who has climbed Everest (twice). There’s an energy and a vitality here in Queenstown that we love too. Yes, it’s beautiful, yes it has spirit but Queenstown also believes in itself and we like that.” www.remarkables.co.nz