Mr Mactaggart (34) launched his Ardmore St ice creamery business at the weekend, realising a long-held dream that he has shared with a life-long friend, Heath Anders (34), of Australia.
He has been delighted with customers' feedback about his dairy-free sorbets and fruit flavours and says it is too hard to pick the most popular.
"It has been a long time coming. I've been looking for a lake-front premises and that's what has been holding me back.
It's been four or five years to get the right premises. Lake-front premises are very hard to find. I am really happy," Mr Mactaggart said yester-day.
Mr Mactaggart and Mr Anders have known each other since pre-school and grew up together in the small tourist resort of Bright, in northeast Victoria.
Mr Anders and his Clyde-raised mother, Diane Anders (nee Sanders), own Le Blanche Ice Creamery in Bright.
His brother, Dean, runs another Le Blanche Ice Creamery in the neighbouring town of Beechworth.
Mr Mactaggart spent a summer learning the ropes with the Anders family several years ago.
Mr Anders is in Wanaka this month to help his friend set up Black Peak Gelato in a former fashion store at the Waldmel Centre but he is not a business partner.
"The ice creamery I run has been in Bright for more than 30 years. For the first 15 to 16 years it was run by an Italian owner, Mario Scardigili, and for the last 15 years by myself and my mother. Mr Scardigili is now in his 70s and passed on all his recipes to me and my brother," Mr Anders said.
Mr Anders said he would return to Bright in two weeks, but his brother, Dean, would visit in the summer and he was sure his mother would also call in to make sure things were going smoothly, next time she visits her mother, Dorothy Sanders, in Clyde.
Mr Mactaggart worked as a ski patroller in Australia and Europe before moving to New Zealand in 2004.
He worked at the Craigieburn ski area in Canterbury before moving to Treble Cone three years ago.
Mr Mactaggart is married to 1791 Diamond jewellery designer and product manager Alice Mactaggart (nee Herald) and they have a 1-year-old daughter, Laia Snow Mactaggart.
