How a washed-up raft guide, a 45 year old snowmaker and a dog are disrupting the outdoor industry.

It is an unlikely pair, Rocky and Dan. One from the USA, the other from Yorkshire, both brought by their wives from across the globe to the South Island New Zealand.

It was a love of the outdoors for Dan and a lifetime worth of experience in the outdoor industry for Rocky that brought them together, with a dream to bring the grassroots of a local outdoor store back to New Zealand.

These guys might be from the Northern part of the world, but it is NZ they love and call home. With adventures every weekend, you won’t find the shop open on Sundays, and to be honest, they want you out there adventuring too.

They were not born yesterday, however. The online store is open 24/7 and they happily take your calls and answer your messages whenever folks drop them a line. It is true, you call, they answer. No call centre, no outsourcing. Just real talk from real people.

You place an order and Dan will take it straight from the shop shelf. No warehousing and no drop shipping.

This is a local’s store and being New Zealand and digitally minded, let’s face it, it is local to anyone in New Zealand who wants to be part of it.

The guys wanted to build a community of adventure seekers, and to do that they built a shop in Christchurch. A place a bit out of the way, a place that is fun and beckons you to tell your adventure story (especially on Friday’s beer o’clock review!).

There is always a brew to be shared and usually a dog to pat with a load of banter to boot.

Someone recently described the place, ‘It’s not like a regular shop at all, it is more like a back-country hut where you rock up after a hard day on the trail, and meet an unlikely group of new friends’.

Written by Jules and Badger