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COVID, despite its downsides, saw many corporate types reprioritise work-life balance and move from the city to lifestyle resorts like Queenstown.
An example is Auckland-raised business consultant Sacha Adair, who’d been home for seven years after two decades’ overseas experience.
A keen skier, she’d been drawn to Queenstown since moving back to New Zealand, and settled on a Jack’s Point investment property two weeks before the first Covid lockdown in 2020.
"And then, during Covid, like a lot of people, it kind of really shifted what was important," she says.
"It was more around reprioritising work-life balance, and kind of being in a place where I was happiest and felt I was my best self."
She therefore decided to move to Queenstown — "there were so many people that moved down during that time" — even though she didn’t know anyone when she arrived in October, 2021.
"It was a complete leap of faith."
She also seeded the idea for her own business, The Tribe, packaging up her experiences in both brands and operations, during her five-day drive down to Queenstown.
Winding back the clock, Sacha says she wasn’t sure what she’d do after finishing school, but did undertake some tech business courses.
Then, at 21, wanting to explore the world, she moved to Sydney — "it felt like a big step in the ’90s".
She intended staying six months before moving on, but then stayed for 20 years apart from a stint in London.
An early job was working for telco start-up One.Tel, which had a very distinct brand and went global very quickly, she says.
"It sparked my interest in brand and marketing, so I went on to study marketing at a private college that specialised in advertising, marketing and PR."
Sacha took a break from her Sydney life with two years in London, doing big events for Serpentine Galleries and co-managing and launching a high-end events space in Belgravia.
Between the two she was introduced to a who’s who in the arts, music, fashion and business worlds.
"It was such a fun experience, and helped build my skills in how to engage with a wide range of people."
Back in Sydney she gained brand, marketing and digital experience working for listed multinationals and public institutions, including consulting to Microsoft.
A specialty was brand transformations.
While in Sydney, Sacha also trained for over 15 years in the martial art of Taekwondo and achieved a second dan black belt.
To be close to her family, she finally moved back to Auckland in 2014, consulting for five years for Fonterra, and then the likes of IAG, Callaghan Innovation and ASB before moving to Queenstown in ’21.
"My social circle, when I moved back to Auckland, was quite hard to rebuild, but in Queenstown I met like-minded people pretty much straight away — I think a lot of this was because I was based in Jack’s."
Besides her skiing, which she says frees her mind to think about her business — "it’s like an act of meditation" — Sacha says for her first two and a-half years here, she undertook a lake dip at day-break almost every day.
"I’d go down to Homestead Bay and just sit in the lake and meditate."
More recently she’s taken up strength training and contrast therapy at new gym The Mill.
In terms of life balance, Sacha says she’s also a fan of the food scene — "some of the establishments we’ve got, we’re just so lucky".
Meanwhile, her consultancy, The Tribe, has attracted a range of clients including hospo and tourism businesses.
Put simply, her aim’s to help businesses align their brand with their operations — "it’s all about helping businesses close the gap between how they position their brand with their brand promise and their operation".
"It’s called the brand experience gap — what happens when what you say and what you do don’t line up."
Sacha considers she’s more of a strategic partner than a consultant.
"I’ve been on the client’s side working with consultants and they generally go,‘this is what we’re doing’.
"But, in my experience, a lot of the time they haven’t come in and spent the time to listen and understand what the business is."
Sacha still flies back to Auckland every six weeks or so to visit family.
"I remember when I used to live in Auckland and come to Queenstown for holidays, my energy used to change.
"And that still happens when I come back as well, as soon as I see the mountains.
"And a lot of people say that around here."
