‘‘I remember in November I was sitting in traffic thinking I needed to come up with a plan.’’
After checking out some options, he landed on an inflatable dinghy with a two-stroke outboard, which he has deployed on Lake Wakatipu about four days a week since January.
‘‘I had a few options, but you just needed something you could pull up on the beach and don’t have to worry about.’’
Mr Phillips said it was not only fun and woke him up, but had been a huge time-saver.
The journey takes just over four minutes and, allowing for a bit of ‘‘admin’’ on either side, 15 minutes maximum.
‘‘In the summer that makes quite a difference to what you can do in the evenings.’’
He sometimes also ferried over one or both of his daughters and a colleague or two.
He said the dinghy was very fuel-efficient — ‘‘you fill up once every three weeks; it’s like 40 bucks’’.
And especially since the fuel crisis began — ‘‘we look like a genius now’’.
As for lake conditions, Mr Phillips is not bothered by the chop.
‘‘It’s like a stick in the water — it just sort of bobs up and down if you get the speed right.’’
Only the rain had been a bit off-putting — ‘‘the umbrella doesn’t quite work in the rain’’.
