Adventure Magazine June - July 2020

looking for the positives...

Over the last few months, we have seen massive change; to our lifestyle, communities, and economy. It’s easy to throw out platitudes about ‘silver linings’, but the reality is there are a lot of people, friends and associates whose businesses have been devastated, years of work undermined. Now a murky grey future of uncertainty still awaits them. Sure there are positives as in every situation, but we need to look squarely at the future and know that what was in the past will not be coming back any time soon – if ever. But it is equally important to look at that which does not change – here at Adventure we were astounded by the support that our online ‘free to the world’ issue received, which we brought out mid-COVID. I…

behind the cover

Photographer Christian Pondella, explains taking the cover shot while on an expedition with Will Gadd to Greenland. See page 10 for the full story. "In this kind of environment pretty much anyone with a camera or a phone can take a really amazing photo because it’s such an amazing place, so as a pro photographer you’ve got to find ways to exceed that. You’ve got to be dynamic, evaluate the situation and give depth, use foreground, middle ground, background, tr to do something that evoked emotion ,puts the viewer into the picture, use dramatic lines and shadows, and then draw them into the subject. On this shoot, sometimes it was just a matter of hanging on a rope taking photos, going up and down to line things up differently, shooting into the…

cocktail on the rock

Here is an Irish whiskey that apparently will make you think twice about it. The engaging backstory behind the birth of the Glendalough distillery, was created by friends from Wicklow and Dublin, with a desire to set up a craft distillery in Ireland to reflect the heritage of the gone by distilleries. They took a risk by giving up their jobs and created a distillery in the Glendalough mountains, which was a favourite spot. Coupled with the sweet notes of cherry, raisins, and fig flavour notes of the award winning double barrel Irish whiskey, it was the right choice to use with a combination of persimmon, pear, citrus and ginger. The tasting team commented on the fruity, sweet but smooth whiskey flavour that shone through. It was described as heavenly…

beneath the ice

In the remote, icy wilderness on the Greenland ice cap, a gaping hole marked the spot where climber Will Gadd and his support crew and film team would descend into the unknown. A moulin is basically a giant hole in a glacier, created when surface water finds its way into a crack in the ice and melts through. And in this dream project, the plan was to climb into one and go deep inside the Greenland ice cap to a place nobody has ever been before. What they discovered was a sparklingly beautiful, but terrifying 90m-deep cavern, with a roof made of hundreds of tonnes of cracking, creaking and groaning ice. Having become the first person to ice climb up Niagara Falls, Will Gadd is no stranger to perilous situations. But the…

aoraki/mount cook national park

Located in the central part of the South Island, Aoraki/Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. It boasts 19 peaks over 3000m with Aoraki/Mount Cook standing at 3,724m tall. Climbing the mountain is a technical challenge crossing large crevasses with a risk of rock and ice falls, avalanches and rapidly changing weather conditions. The first attempt to climb the highest peak was in 1882 by two Swiss climbers and it is believed they came within 50m of the summit and it was successfully summited in 1894 when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, John Michael Clarke and George Graham reached the top. Unfortunately, Aoraki/Mount Cook, is also NZ's most deadliest mountain, with over 80 people perishing on it’s slopes. However, the area is not just about extreme mountaineering. There are plenty of activities…

aoraki/mt cook

As people were coming to grips with the travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 epidemic and the loss of their potential overseas travel plans, the focus turned to New Zealand and what we have to offer the intrepid traveller and the adventurer at heart. The strange thing is, that for overseas visitors, New Zealand is considered the adventure capital of the world, yet we often look overseas first for our next adventure. So while in isolation, as most New Zealanders did I am sure, I got to sorting out the spare bedroom and came across photo albums from back in the day. "The faded images brought back memories of a summer spent road tripping around New Zealand with a backpack, a tent, a sleeping bag and a great group of friends (many…