Ian (67) died suddenly on October 17 after an aortic aneurysm in his stomach burst.
Originally from Palmerston North, Ian came to Queenstown almost 50 years ago and spent almost half his life as a retailer, before retiring at the end of 2018.
Like many, he initially intended just to pass through town, but fell in love with the resort.
He started working in the ’70s as a barman or porter for several hotels, and in Queenstown Gardens for long-time curator Nic Leefe, before starting his first business, a mini-golf course which he ran in Earnslaw Park for about three summers, before council pulled the pin on it.
He then opened Replay Sports in the mid-’80s, in Shotover St, where he sold pre-loved gear supplied by friends, on commission.
Next, he opened a Recycled Recreation franchise — later R&R Sports — and eventually gave that up to open his own store, 45 South, first in The Mountaineer, then in O’Connells and finally to the Shotover/Rees St corner where he traded till his lease expired in 2018.
In between times, Ian met and married his first wife, Jo, now based in Australia, with whom he had two children, Jordan, now 37, and Eva, now 34.
About 21 years ago, after that relationship ended, he met Nicole, nee Woodhouse, Mountain Scene’s former long-time sales manager, during the Aspen’s regular pool tournaments.
Starting out as just friends, Ian eventually asked her out for dinner and turned up, ‘‘in triple denims’’, to take her to Boardwalk — ‘‘the best restaurant in town then’’.
‘‘And I thought, ‘oh, this is a little bit more than just mates’.’’
The pair dated for ‘‘a long, long time’’ before Ian eventually proposed in Market Square in Bruges, Belgium, as the bells tolled.
They later married in Queenstown Gardens in March, 2007.
Nicole, now a real estate agent for Colliers, says her husband was ‘‘just the most amazing man’’.
‘‘I will really struggle to find a love like that again.
‘‘He was an incredible man.’’
The keen goldminer, who had a one-eighth share in a Skippers claim, took all the kids on their street goldpanning during the most recent lockdown.
They all found some, and he bolstered that with a few specks of his own, taped it all to black cards and returned them.
“Olive, the only girl on the street, it was her birthday on Sunday and she wanted a gold pan,” Nicole says.
“That’s how much he’s touched them.”
His sudden death was attributed to a cardiac arrest he suffered last year, during his first run of the season at Queenstown’s Coronet Peak, on July 27.
He ‘‘dropped’’ on the mountain after his first run, was resuscitated using a defibrillator and flown to Dunedin Hospital for a triple bypass.
Ian did one run this year, at Coronet, on the anniversary of his heart attack.
After he recovered, Ian took to e-biking as often as he could, and walking from Arthurs Point to central Queenstown a couple of times a week — partly for fitness, mostly on clean-up duty.
Rubbish bag in hand, he’d collect litter on the way, dispose of it in town, and catch the bus home.
While devastated, Nicole’s grateful to have met the love of her life, shared 21 years with him, and for the small mercies.
‘‘I got an extra 15 months with him, and I got to say goodbye.
‘‘If that had happened on the mountain and they didn’t get him through the other side, I wouldn’t have got that chance, so that’s special.’’
Jordan, who runs a ski/bike shop in Blackcomb, Canada, and Eva, a tattoo artist based in Berlin, Germany, have just arrived in MIQ facilities.
When they’re released, a special family memorial at his Skippers grave is planned.
Nicole also pays tribute to contractor Trevor Jones who made it possible for Ian to be laid to rest there last Friday, before his service at Cargo’s Tap Room, in Arthurs Point.
