Who runs the world? girls!
Her words seem to ring true in the world right now, with the countries suffering the least during this world-wide pandemic all being run by women. It must mean something! So, it seems timely that this is our women's issue; the one that celebrates the adventurous women in our world. As Beyonce said in her song,"Who are we? What do we run? We run the world."
As the female member of the Adventure team, I always love putting together this issue and being reminded of our incredible achievements. It is also a time to reflect on what it means to be a woman in the world of the outdoors. In the past, a female outdoor enthusiast seemed to fit a certain mold; however, as the world has changed, the people participating in the outdoors has changed with it. Everywhere I look I see women of all ages, all sizes and all personalities entering into the outdoors and finding adventures where they can. On a recent trip to the South Island, we did the via ferrata in Wanaka with Wild Wire (see more on page 30). Apart from Steve (AKA our photographer) our group was made up of all women, even our guide (and owner of Wild Wire) was a woman. We ranged in age and adventure experience, yet here we all were, enjoying the same outdoor adventure together. Pacific Ocean. We were devastated by the news and contacted her team to offer our condolences. Angela was an incredible athlete who overcame a lifetime of setbacks to break numerous world records, however what really interested me was the woman she was behind the athlete; the mother, the wife, the daughter, the grandmother. We are really thankful to her wife Deb and film maker, Soraya Simi, for opening up and sharing her story with us (See page 10).
On a sad note, as we were putting together this issue, we woke one morning to the news that Angela Madsen, the multi award-winning athlete, had died during her solo attempt to cross the
This issue, our homegrown section features Fiordland and we hope it inspires you to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the wonderful world we have on our doorstep... Happy reading!