His business, Buzz Burrows, is a one-man band, operating quietly with Mac-driven technology from a humble workshop next to his house.
During Covid, the former film-maker’s passion project was to adapt his former garage, from which he now makes and dispatches lighting art to the world.
"It is a creative itch really.
"The business has to support the creativity.
"I don’t get motivated to create a little financial empire," he said.
Winning Xero’s New Zealand "Trailblazing with technology" category (worth $20,000) and the overall global award ($50,000) was a resounding personal success.
"I have a great track record of not winning competitions. It was a surprise.
"It is always a gamble. You invest two weeks of time getting it right and 99% of time it goes nowhere.
"But it [entering competitions] is a very useful exercise.
"It is not often that you get an investment in your business that is relatively obligation free," Mr Burrows said.
His new laser cutter is an xTool, manufactured in China, and he finds it really interesting that the first software to drive a laser cutter from a Mac was written just four years ago.
"But my wife Tracey’s eyes glaze over when I start banging on about it."
Wānaka is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere — 425km to Christchurch and 1490km to Auckland — and he admits the cost of getting materials and reaching markets is "a bit silly".
"It would be a whole lot easier to do in Christchurch or Auckland. But it is an artistic endeavour.
"I am just not quite sure where I sit on the continuum of being a factory and being an artist.
"I don’t know and I will let that resolve itself."
He concedes there’s also plenty of competition in lighting from China.
"I rationalise the challenge by saying you have to come up with something very desirable ... how do you make yours really desirable so people want to buy it?"
Mr Burrows is originally from Christchurch and when he was young he worked his way from best boy in lighting departments to cameraman to film-maker, travelling all over the world before settling into Auckland’s film industry, he said.
"I spent a lot of time working with light.
"When you are a director of photography you are adding light or taking away light.
"Every day you go on a job and for 10 hours or 12 hours of that day you are thinking about light."
About eight years ago, he and his wife decided they had done their dash with films and Auckland and would give their son and daughter a taste of the South Island.
In the 1860s his great-grandfathers had land in the south. One lived in Christchurch and the other in Hokitika.
"I wanted my kids to come back to their roots," Mr Burrows said.
The children went to Mount Aspiring College before moving on to university and the workforce, but their parents are planning to stick around.
The family did not know much about Wānaka in the beginning, but they thought the area and lifestyle seemed quite nice, Mr Burrows said.
"We’ll give it a crack. And it has been nice ... I am not going to worry about it.
"I am going to stay here and make it work," Mr Burrows said.
