Connecting The Community: Events For Everyone At Patagonia

This gift, along with a simple yet profound collective mission, “We’re in business to save our home planet”, is the foundation for the brand in Aotearoa, connecting with community, mana whenua, activists and nonprofits. The Tāhuna Queenstown store is the first Patagonia store in Aotearoa and the intentionality behind this chosen location is easy to see. As a place where all Patagonia’s core sports come to life—world-class fly fishing, hiking, mountain biking, snowsports, trail running, alpinism and climbing—the area has a significant network of nonprofits and community environmental action.

Providing a space for local nonprofits to share critical issues facing the region’s environment and ecosystems is at the core of Patagonia’s ethos.

With its commitment to supporting nonprofit groups in their own backyards, Patagonia’s Grants Council contributes 1% of its sales (a program called 1% For The Planet) to the preservation and restoration of natural environments for suitable applicants. Organisations in the Queenstown Lakes District who have already benefited from the program include Arrowtown Choppers, Mana Tāhuna Charitable Trust, Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust, Southern Lakes Sanctuary, Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, Friends of Bullock Creek, and WAI Wānaka.

Dedicated to saving the home planet, the store’s speciality sport is fly fishing, with many grant recipients and sponsorship schemes advocating for healthy waterways.

 Wai Wānaka is one of them, aiming to accelerate local action for fresh water and empower communities to understand their local waterways, and the natural and human pressures they face. Patagonia hosted a community event with Wai Wānaka, where marine scientist, lecturer, and PhD student Veronica Rotman shared her research into the health of the region’s waterways and the increased presence of microplastics.

Rotman reminded the 40-strong crowd that ‘you don’t have to be an expert to care’ and that it’s possible for ‘everyone to do something small’ in supporting solutions and community action. One such solution that is a fun and easy way to get involved in reducing pollution is the now nationwide ‘adopt a drain’ project’.

A Women’s Fly Night community event held at the Fly Bar in the Queenstown store opened with local fly fishing guide, Shelen Boyes, inspiring a captive audience with tales of her solo overnight adventure into the Greenstone and Caples Valleys to hunt wild trout. Boyes’ enthusiasm for her favoured recreation was palpable:

“Fly fishing provides time for reflection, empowered by your own means, it’s the coolest thing a woman can do,” But “it’s not always about catching fish, more about the amazing experiences you can have,” she said.

Local Queenstown women from diverse backgrounds and generations signed up for the Women’s Fly Night to hear Boyes’ 60-minute presentation that not only covered cool excursions worth checking out but also provided information on the basic fly fishing kit requirements, using equipment safely, reading water conditions, and local fish behaviour, and casting. The application of casting was described as a skilled technique requiring expert tuition and practice for beginners, and Boyes encouraged her audience that evening to forge community connections to learn more and keep the community growing.

Although Women’s Fly Night aims to bring together a small, yet growing, community of female anglers, the team at Patagonia Tāhuna Queenstown is encouraging anyone interested in fly fishing and fly tying to attend weekly learning sessions hosted each Sunday at the Fly Bar.

Patagonia Queenstown’s free event space welcomes all kinds of speakers and subjects, while aiming to appeal to common passions among residents and visitors.

Queenstown, internationally recognised for its world-class bike parks and cycle trails, has a thriving bike community, so a screening of mountain bike film Fire Lines proved particularly popular. Set in California’s Lost Sierra, which suffered significantly from the 2021 Dixie Fire, the film followed incredible footage in an increasingly threatened bike trail network, the film also spoke to community resilience and recovery, conservation and connection.

In collaboration with Queenstown Mountain Bike Club and Forward Whakatipu, the event supported conversations on local trail advocacy, responsible trail building and grassroots community building, it was an opportunity for mountain bikers to learn why they are perfectly placed to act on our climate and biodiversity crises.

A recurring theme of Patagonia’s diverse event schedule has been that of community and connection. A place to find friends with a shared passion for the outdoors and conserving the environment we all enjoy spending time in.

Patagonia has provided Queenstown’s close-knit climbing community with the opportunity to  enjoy an event showcasing the film ‘In Sequence’ following Katie Lamb’s love of climbing and sewing. Activities that may at first seem poles apart, but both providing an opportunity to slow down, take time and reflect on ‘a life learned better, not bigger’. In a world becoming more conscious of waste, even simple sewing projects can allow us to repair, reuse and recycle.

To find out more on Patagonia Queenstown’s upcoming events check out their website here, or if you are interested in hosting a community event at Patagonia please reach out to the staff at the store.