When I was in school, I remember feeling like you were either a creative type or a sporty type, but you couldn’t be both. As I was a teenager in the mid-2000s, I liken it to the dilemma that Zac Efron’s character faces in Disney’s High School Musical, forced to choose between his duelling passions for basketball and musical theatre. Thankfully, he gets to do both in the end, shattering the status quo that we were all falsely made to believe.

Likewise, we’re breaking this imaginary status quo every day here in Queenstown, Wānaka, beyond and between. There are countless locals in the district combining their passion for the arts with their love of sport. It’s a combination that makes complete sense here in a place that’s synonymous with adrenaline, adventure and innovation, a place that attracts people who like to think, and live, outside of the box.

Stop to think about it for a second – even if you aren’t one yourself, you probably know someone around here who’d identify as both a creative and a sporty type. I play ice hockey with talented graphic designers, photographers and tattooists. Local poets craft verses about hiking and running and swimming, and visual artists sell work inspired by their outdoor adventures at our artisan markets. Many of our resident filmmakers and crew got their start filming and photographing their mates up the mountain. And then there are examples like NZ SHRED’s annual Recycled Snowboard Exhibition, where snowboards themselves become canvasses for art and storytelling.

I’ve probably missed plenty of other examples, but that’s the point of writing this – to get us all thinking and talking more about the people and places that illustrate this collision of art and sport, and why it’s one of our district’s unique selling points.

I’ve been ruminating on this since it came up at one of the several hui facilitated by the Three Lakes Cultural Trust during the development of Te Muka Toi, Te Muka Tākata - The Creativity, Culture and Heritage Strategy for the Queenstown Lakes District. I remember one of the clever people in the room musing that our district’s moniker as “the home of adrenaline” could and should mean intellectual and creative adrenaline, just as much as it means physical adrenaline. That’s stuck in my mind ever since.

As the manager of the district’s regional film office, I see all of this exemplified in our local film industry. Think about the New Zealand Mountain Film & Book Festival, based largely out of Wānaka, which showcases filmmakers creating art about hiking, climbing, skateboarding, canyoning and so much more. Or the Natural Selection Bike Tour — held earlier this year in Queenstown, it was expertly filmed and broadcast to the world thanks to a talented production team comprised largely of local crew. Or the annual grassroots She’ll Be Right event at Cardrona, bringing together snowboarding talent with videographers and photographers for a weekend of riding and shooting.

Earlier in September, we also welcomed the first Depth of Field event, held at the Sherwood. The inspiring weekend brought together women in the action sports and outdoor media industry and featured speakers like Olympic photographer Alisha Lovrich, who has forged a career out of combining her love for sport with visual media.

During her talk to the group gathered at the Sherwood, Lovrich talked about how as an athlete, you “have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” She linked this philosophy to her photography, though it could really be linked to any creative discipline. No good creative wants to stay in their comfort zone. Whether it’s the imagination or the body, the canvas or the physical environment, art and sport are both about exploration and boundary-pushing, performance and the pursuit of excellence.

It turns out that artists and athletes have far more in common than I was made to believe in high school. And if there’s a place where you can wholeheartedly be both, I think it’s here.

Feature Image Credit: See You At the Bottom: The NZ Snow Movie – credit: Alex Stuart/NZ Ski

Gallery Image Credit: Lake Alta Kathmandu Shoot – credit: Diaries Downunder