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William Pike welcome to my podcast thank
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you it's a real pleasure to be here mate
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it's so good to so good to meet you I
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feel like I've um I feel like I've n you
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I feel like everyone knows your name in
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New Zealand everyone's like that name
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sounds familiar how do I know that name
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you reckon I reckon yeah yeah yeah oh
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well you know been around the traps for
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a while now I suppose so um yeah there
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was an incident that happened here which
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we'll get into but um I feel like it's
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what you've done since then which is um
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a remarkable part part of the the
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William Pike story actually you're
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wearing a t-shirt right now the William
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Pike challenge I am y yep look get The
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Branding out there you know so um how
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old are you now what are you I have to
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pause for a second there
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but 39 yeah 39 yeah CU I was um trying
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to think about it earlier so you've um
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when did the accident happen
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2007
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2007 okay so you've almost been without
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your leg as long as what you had your
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leg it's a few years away yeah but they
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will they will come that point you know
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okay so um I don't know how triggering
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this is but do do you want to take us
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back to September 25 2007 yeah how
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totally are you okay to talk about these
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things these days can you do you sort of
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talk about it on autopilot or does it
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when when I get on a stage as a speaker
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it's kind of a different mindset I'm I
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go on thinking like I'm acting this part
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out I kind of like distance myself from
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it away feel detached I kind of detached
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myself and and I I I don't go into
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autopilot I 100% tell it like I'm going
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to tell it for the very first time but I
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I think there's something that goes on
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my head to preserve that that head space
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you know that kind of wellbeing that
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I'll just like detach myself from it and
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it's not as kind of like I'm talking
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about someone else but but I'm not so
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when I go into presentations on stage
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that's my mindset for things like this I
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don't know I kind of feel like it's just
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having a bit of a yarn you know it is
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right and
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I kind of go into a bit more kind of
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detail and I I feel okay about it it's
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part of me it's it's it's my history uh
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it's it's made me who I am today and you
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know often I I get asked the question
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like if you could go back in time would
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would you not want to lose the leg and
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it's a bloody hard question to answer I
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kind of want my cake to eat it too you
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know say I want the bloody leg but I
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want the phenomenal experiences that
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have come from from um from it but yeah
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cuz I feel like you you you sort of um
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epitomize um the saying making lemonade
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from lemons you know you you really have
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um you've something terrible happened to
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you um but what you've made of it since
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then's um really cool so let me take you
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back to 25th of
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september7 yes so let's um start in the
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morning so it's you and
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James James and I had a very early drive
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down from ockland who's James by the way
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James is my good mate today and back
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then from Teachers College in fact I
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remember turning up in my very first day
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at Teachers College I was kind of like
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stubby single at jandals and turned up
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late and walked into this room and in
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front of me was 29 woman and James I
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thought this was a good start to my
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teaching and uh between the lines and
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kind I was a pretty shy kid you know so
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I go to the back of the class and sit
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with James I was 22 we got to know each
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other really well of course and we end
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up going on heaps of bush walks and
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adventures and fishing trips and kayak
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trips and things like that but worked
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out you know he'd never been
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mountaineering and I'd done quite a few
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seasons and I was like buddy Cal down
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man this is going to be a hoot like
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we're going to go and climb Mount Mount
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nahoi um and tongo as well it was going
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to be this this big trip probably a
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little bit above my school level and his
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probably uh but you know we're young on
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no no no you were um you're being you're
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being modest like you were you were
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quite experienced like you um
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you you you you went to this is in your
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DNA like when you were 13 you went with
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your granddad and you went to base camp
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of um mount iest in Nepal well we didn't
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quite get to Bas camp but yeah we did go
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to Nepal we did a bit of walking around
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the hills there but um let me go back a
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bit more because we're kind of
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backtracking out which is actually I
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think is good for kind of context you
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know talking about DNA kind of hold hold
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people out to the 25th of September you
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know
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so I was really I went to wh boys high
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school and and I have phenomenal
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memories of that place and I I think
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what was the making of me there was a
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the sport and play a lot of water Po and
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the friendships that I kind of developed
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there but the outdoor Eid class was
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something that I was asking about on day
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one it was only for six forers or what's
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that year 12 these days M I finally got
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to it I was just so pumped this teacher
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Mr Mullins and he was like hardcore di
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free diver he loved us hunting and
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anyway I knew we were going to do uh
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diving or snorkling first term I was um
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Bush walking term two kaying term three
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and shooting term four and I was like
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this is going to be the best right turns
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out I came first in the class anyway
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that's might claim to fame in the
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academic space but a particular trip
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went on to the KOMO Rangers big long
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walk in and Camp there for a couple of
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days and I remember Crossing these
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swollen Creeks with mates and sleeping
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in these wet chin cooking the pouring
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rain having uh an overnight bivy
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experience no sleeping bag uh just a
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fire and and a sh and a blanket survival
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blanket and I look back on all those
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times I'm like far out like like it was
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a bit hard yaker I was having whole lot
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of fun but I think as time and time's
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gone on I'm like well those were the
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experiences that was probably teaching
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me how to step outside of my compfort
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zone how to be resilient how to be a
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good team player how to be creative to
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get across those swollen creeks and
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stuff so you you were getting lessons
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without even sort of realizing the time
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you 100% you know I think we all have
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experiences in our lives end up
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appearing us for the future or for
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challenges or sting goals yeah 100% And
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and you don't necessarily know it at the
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time no you don't and and that those
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were the things for me and I think that
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kind of that really kicks outed my love
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for the kind of Great Outdoors and I
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guess I I just just built on that and I
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remember climbing top of a it's nothing
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right a big hill in the in the Kels and
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just look around being like far out if
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if I can do this like I I can do
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anything else you it was a huge
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confidence boost and I took that
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confidence with me and I don't think I
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knew it at the time but was able to you
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know run with it so yeah uh school I
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worked in a in a Dive Center um down on
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W Road when I was kind of um at school
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and then a year out of school and then
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decided it wasn't for me and I wanted to
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really share my passion probably just
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for the outdoors uh and going to tachas
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college and share that with with with
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kids that was my that was my thing met
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James and then yeah we we did a few
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trips and ended up um on Mount THU it
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was like today actually beautiful BL
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bird day we biged and borrowed some gear
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for James and our plan was to head up uh
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Camp somewhere on the mountain but we
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got halfway up and there's the new Zeal
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Alpine Club Hut which sits at about
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2,000 M and notice this great big snow
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cave which we were thinking about
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digging as well you know so we popped in
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and there's a school in there and had a
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yarn to them they fed us I think was
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Skitty bolog or tacos I think great big
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feed and um off off we went next next
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morning and headed up top of the
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mountain just in case I forget I've late
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and met some of those school kids that
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were in that snow cave many many years
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on anyway another story for later headed
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up the mountain and we were aiming for
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this little building called The Dome
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shelter and we weren't sure whether I
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was going to we were going we we're
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going to pitch a tent or dig a snow cave
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and we got there a bit late and we're a
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bit tired and can take 3 or 4 hours to
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dig a decent snow cave so we thought ah
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here's the option as you do we'll go on
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the Dome shelter so we kind of out the
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doorway hardly find it to begin with and
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cuz it was covered in like snow and ice
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yeah so paint a picture for listeners I
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suppose or Watchers um it's 2 and 12,000
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m above sea level uh it was- 8° up there
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it was a very small uh A-frame Hut that
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was very halfar halfar accommodation you
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so play with floors walls no toilet no
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bathroom no bedding no seats nothing
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just a basic box right and we s with him
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for the night and I was asleep on well
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no sorry I was just about asleep and it
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was about 8:00 at night James just saw
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me he's like snoring like a chainsaw and
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I was struggling to get to sleep because
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of that but also I was so excited about
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the next day it's it's it's hot rules
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it's like um yeah the first person that
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gets to sleep is the only one that's
00:08:48
going to get you're winning that's right
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so okay so just before you go any
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further so the the what's the purpose of
00:08:54
the stor shelter is doesn't yeah as you
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say half star accommodation so you're
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basically sleeping on that's right so
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Flor what is the purpose of it the
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purpose of it back then was for
00:09:03
volcanology research and it it wasn't
00:09:06
intended as a as an overnight shelter
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right so it's not like a dock hat it's
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not a dock cut no no no and you know it
00:09:12
was yeah not intended for overnight
00:09:14
stays but you know plent people do and
00:09:16
and we decided to do that right so so
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you were you were allowed to be there
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it's not like you shouldn't have been
00:09:20
there oh might be a bit of gray area
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yeah yeah yeah prob there's probably
00:09:24
some gray area I mean it's not there now
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so people aren't going to be to go out
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there and kind of and find it but as
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you'll see as the story unfolds had we
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have not been in that building I
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potentially wouldn't be here today so it
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was a good yeah so so if you if you dug
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out like an ice cave
00:09:43
um would have taken you
00:09:45
hours that's interesting so you would
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have so I'm thinking if you dug in ice
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cave you would have been yeah let me
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jump in so where we were thinking about
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digging this the the snow cave down on
00:09:58
the summit PL was quite a low lineing
00:10:00
point it had quite good slopes be had to
00:10:02
dig in and then up and a nice little
00:10:03
bench to sleep on but we're 99% sure
00:10:07
that would have flooded you know so it
00:10:08
wouldn't have been a good outcome you
00:10:10
would have both been gone yeah like
00:10:12
would have drowned there you know cuz
00:10:13
then
00:10:14
yeah okay so so you're in the dome Hut
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um James is asleep yeah um then what
00:10:20
happens you hear a noise I heard this
00:10:21
Rumble outside of the the building I
00:10:23
thought oh Avalanche why night time
00:10:26
freezing cold outside it's not not
00:10:28
typical and then the doorway which is
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just beyond my feet blew up huge bang
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and swung open on its hindes and I
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thought who's playing of trick on us is
00:10:38
that these Jokers from you know down the
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mountain so I hopped up onto my knees
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sked across the floor in my sleeping bag
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grabbed the door frame I looked outside
00:10:46
no one there and in front of me I could
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see Mount Ru erupting 1.5 million cubic
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meters of mud and rock and water was
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just blasting through the A and I I
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copped it on the side of my face I got a
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few scars on my ear and my knows
00:11:00
probably bit a bit of debris still in
00:11:01
there actually really yeah so so what
00:11:04
felt like a wall of heat or you just had
00:11:06
like sand blowing at you or there was
00:11:07
there was no heat coming out of it
00:11:10
thankfully very different to the ficat
00:11:12
white Island You Know i''ve spoken to
00:11:14
Kelsey and that was a very different
00:11:16
scenario there I was perhaps very
00:11:19
fortunate that that was the warmest I
00:11:21
got was kind of like sparkle temperature
00:11:23
water not too bad quite nice on top of a
00:11:26
mountain and uh but in all ser
00:11:30
yeah I copped it on you know the side of
00:11:31
the face just by like being stung by
00:11:33
little bits of debris and all of a
00:11:34
sudden came this enormous volume of big
00:11:37
rocks uh and you know huge amounts of
00:11:40
water I don't know however many it was
00:11:42
so much it came in and literally flooded
00:11:44
the the the building we were in the
00:11:47
Rocks not only smashed through the
00:11:49
floorboards in the walls but were
00:11:51
crushing my leagues my right league in
00:11:53
particular I could feel it
00:11:55
being kind of like crushed up underneath
00:11:58
the floorboards like flesh being ripped
00:11:59
off it bones breaking and till then you
00:12:03
know I've always been able to I was you
00:12:05
could push off like a force or you could
00:12:07
just get out of situation but I was
00:12:09
thinking far out this is just
00:12:10
overpowering and it's smashing me and
00:12:13
after 30 seconds of being pbl and kind
00:12:17
of crushed and kind of screaming and S
00:12:19
like this jet plane was taken off
00:12:21
outside everything just stopped and and
00:12:23
went silent I like to joke that that was
00:12:26
when James woke
00:12:27
up he went when did he woke up with the
00:12:30
noise he eventually woke up I think I
00:12:33
eventually woke up what do you told
00:12:35
you's a good sleeper uh and a good
00:12:38
snorer but he he didn't sleep through it
00:12:42
no no he didn't sleep through it that
00:12:44
would have been a good
00:12:47
story he eventually got to woke up I
00:12:50
think it was the Rocks probably around
00:12:51
his legs were being coated in water but
00:12:53
he did the smart thing and he stood up
00:12:54
into the corner of the building why is
00:12:57
that the smart thing well I was in the
00:12:59
firing line and he just kind of stood up
00:13:01
and stayed put and I don't think it was
00:13:03
intentional it was just probably
00:13:04
instinctive you know like me going to
00:13:05
the door and him just SL waking up and I
00:13:08
said I was like help come over mate like
00:13:11
I think there's been an erruption like
00:13:12
my legs are stuck we need to get the
00:13:14
bloody hell out of here so he tiptoes
00:13:16
over in his bloody underwear right
00:13:19
across volcanic rock and ice and snow
00:13:21
with his bare feet crazy that that this
00:13:25
the circumstances just just changed so
00:13:27
quickly and you know we start kind of
00:13:30
trying to frantically dig around my legs
00:13:33
to get the the rocks out the snow out
00:13:36
ice out hang hang I'm going to pause you
00:13:37
right there because you sent me a copy
00:13:38
of your book every day is a good day so
00:13:40
I'm a little bit familiar with the story
00:13:42
so when did the water come in because
00:13:44
there was a point you thought you might
00:13:45
drown yes yes is this later on no no so
00:13:47
this I've skipped a bit but I can go
00:13:50
back I mean this bit seems terrifying
00:13:53
quite frankly so we go go back a few
00:13:55
pigs okay as the debris came into the
00:13:59
heart was it was water but so much water
00:14:01
came in that I was we were submerged
00:14:05
momentarily and going through my head
00:14:07
was mountaineering drowning the hell was
00:14:11
all stack up but it was the floorboards
00:14:14
that were so crushed holes in them the
00:14:16
water could Escape out so almost as
00:14:18
quickly as it came in it could have been
00:14:20
underwater for 10 20 30 seconds don't
00:14:22
know and then it was gone again I mean
00:14:24
thank God right and yeah and from then
00:14:28
on that was
00:14:30
that's um by the way yeah maybe this is
00:14:33
the autopilot thing cuz you've done
00:14:35
thousands of public speaking sessions
00:14:37
and you've told this so many times but
00:14:39
um that's a terrifying couple of minutes
00:14:42
of a person's life it's it it was it was
00:14:44
horrific and I mean survival Instinct
00:14:47
was boom in you know absolutely it was
00:14:51
and I mean to reiterate that point once
00:14:54
James came over you know I probably got
00:14:57
a sense of a little bit of Comfort he
00:14:59
was there I wasn't deed straight away
00:15:02
you know there was some options going
00:15:04
forward but I slowly began to feel like
00:15:07
I was going to faint and conqu out I
00:15:09
told James and he said no mate you're
00:15:11
not and he smacked me across the face
00:15:13
real hard and it it jolted me back to
00:15:17
you know being focused yeah and
00:15:18
hindsight that was the right thing to do
00:15:20
totally just to sort of snap you out of
00:15:22
yeah I mean I think I'm I don't want to
00:15:24
speak on his behalf but I think you know
00:15:26
his point of view he we we both needed
00:15:28
each other get through this hell of a
00:15:29
situation you know I needed more I go
00:15:34
anywhere but a cheap shot on his part I
00:15:36
mean he slapping a man that's encased on
00:15:40
Rock he'll love that he'll love that um
00:15:43
but look yeah going back to where where
00:15:46
were we I don't know um James standing
00:15:48
above me you know trying to claw out
00:15:50
debris and I'm doing the same same thing
00:15:52
but
00:15:53
after 10 minutes we realized that I was
00:15:56
stuck and why there was just too much
00:15:58
Rock there or they were too heavy what
00:16:00
happened was so much debris came in and
00:16:04
I think it was it was the water and
00:16:06
probably the the mud and what happened
00:16:09
was it it settled and it almost encased
00:16:12
like concrete so I became legs and
00:16:16
concrete type of thing we did get my
00:16:17
left leg out which was great but I
00:16:19
noticed that something wasn't right and
00:16:21
my patella was broken so I'd stretch it
00:16:23
out and it would snap out and I'd bring
00:16:25
it back in and it would snap back in it
00:16:26
was no no halfway house right yeah I
00:16:29
noticed by the way you've you've um
00:16:30
you're wearing shorts today you've got a
00:16:32
massive massive scar on your left
00:16:34
kneecap is that from That's from the
00:16:35
patella yeah yeah any other scarring on
00:16:37
that League oh yeah I mean she all over
00:16:40
the show the we're going talk about
00:16:42
these later on these are fasciotomies so
00:16:43
there there on the side yeah but
00:16:47
and yeah we then tried to get my right
00:16:51
leg out and James decided a good idea
00:16:55
good idea at the time was to put his
00:16:57
hand hard up against my right leg that
00:16:59
was buried still and go down and try and
00:17:01
feel around to get Get It Free MH and
00:17:06
while he was doing it I kind of jumped
00:17:08
through the roof and he pulled his hand
00:17:09
out and it's caked in Blood and he he
00:17:12
would have had the end of my leg and
00:17:13
tugging on that Furbo tib in my leg it's
00:17:16
like a lightning bolt uh through through
00:17:18
my body and realized things weren't good
00:17:22
but I couldn't see the leg so I was I
00:17:24
was optimistic well probably got a
00:17:26
broken leg it's a bit busted down there
00:17:28
like it's all good mate like we've got
00:17:30
to get out of here but we couldn't get
00:17:32
out of here I I couldn't get out and we
00:17:34
had
00:17:34
this like insane discussion on what the
00:17:37
hell are we going to do like I was stuck
00:17:40
mouth just erupted I was cold getting
00:17:43
hypothermic you know and how do you
00:17:45
begin to piece that together in that
00:17:47
amount of time like yeah so were were
00:17:49
you still sort of thinking straight cuz
00:17:50
you were the you were the experienced c
00:17:52
h in the situation I was you know I had
00:17:54
all my first day tickets I had done all
00:17:56
that type of thing before I read books
00:17:57
on survival on type of thing
00:18:00
and it' be interesting to get James's
00:18:02
point of view on it but I think I was
00:18:04
cool K and collected yeah so you was so
00:18:07
even though you were the one that was in
00:18:08
cased and in pain you were still sort of
00:18:10
calling the shots I I I definitely think
00:18:11
he needs probably sense Jak a few things
00:18:13
to to begin with and and being able to
00:18:15
have that conversation and bounce off
00:18:17
each other I mean was probably critical
00:18:18
for me um and and actually know I take
00:18:21
some of that back cuz I and I do take
00:18:23
that back it's coming back to me at one
00:18:25
point very early on I said to him oh
00:18:27
perhaps we should just go on hide in the
00:18:30
escape hatch or the back room or
00:18:32
something like that he was like not a
00:18:34
good idea so I think there was a point
00:18:37
where I was perhaps where I was fainting
00:18:38
don't know but we came to the conclusion
00:18:41
together that he needed to run down the
00:18:43
mountain and the big problem was all of
00:18:47
his gear was buried our gear was buried
00:18:50
but after kind of scratching through the
00:18:53
debris in the back he found his boots so
00:18:55
he threw them on he sto my new gex It
00:18:59
Off The Hook and kind of turned up
00:19:01
outside or you know stepped outside and
00:19:04
he could see nothing no no white snow it
00:19:08
was all black it completely changed but
00:19:12
what time of the day are we talking now
00:19:13
no we're like so the uption happened at
00:19:15
20 minutes past 8 okay so it's pitch
00:19:17
black outside
00:19:20
and I think one of his questions was oh
00:19:22
yeah uh where do I go
00:19:25
[ __ ] but you know this is a great great
00:19:28
question because this is first time on
00:19:30
the Mountain first time through volcanic
00:19:32
eruption not a lot of gear on uh I mean
00:19:35
it would be a terrifying Prospect for
00:19:37
anyone to you know be in that situation
00:19:40
to attempt or be willing to leave the
00:19:42
relative safety of that building you
00:19:45
know so I explained roughly where he
00:19:48
should go and he had some idea and he he
00:19:51
said I'm out of here I was like okay
00:19:54
hold on but James can you please tell my
00:19:57
friends and my family that I love them
00:19:59
and I was sincere and genuine and
00:20:01
genuinely concerned that I wasn't going
00:20:03
to see them again and were you you
00:20:06
thought it was that critical yeah did
00:20:08
you why hypothermia number one and I
00:20:12
knew I was losing blood or bleeding at
00:20:14
some point but the hypothermia was my
00:20:15
biggest worry cuz I had been wet I
00:20:18
couldn't get dry and we didn't have
00:20:21
anything to dry me out James actually
00:20:25
probably smart thinking for him he did
00:20:27
throw a leaing bag over the top of me
00:20:30
like kind of like a sock you know and
00:20:32
but it was all wet you know and torn in
00:20:34
half and feathers
00:20:36
everywhere and it didn't offer a great
00:20:39
deal of
00:20:40
warmy terrible with a with a stuff
00:20:42
Breeze kind of coming into the Hut to
00:20:44
you know it was it was it was it was it
00:20:46
was bone numbing so did you Did you sort
00:20:48
of um in in your mind and I'm guessing
00:20:52
at this point your mind was all over the
00:20:53
place but in your mind you thought you
00:20:55
had like a window of a certain amount of
00:20:57
hours before you would you would that's
00:20:59
right that's right so he he left the
00:21:02
building and I'm sitting there like just
00:21:05
violently shaking and told myself just
00:21:07
make a plan what's your plan what is
00:21:10
your plan and I decided that I need to
00:21:13
do some mathematics bloody terrible at
00:21:15
mathematics and I worked out in my mind
00:21:18
that it could take the rescuers 10 hours
00:21:20
to get there okay and did some more math
00:21:23
and I thought how long have I got maybe
00:21:25
five or less so
00:21:28
going through my mind was likely you're
00:21:31
going to die up here and I did I started
00:21:34
to think about my friends and my family
00:21:35
like what would they say when they heard
00:21:38
that news and that really did twist my
00:21:41
guts yeah did you
00:21:43
cry no cuz I was so focused right and I
00:21:47
was thinking but also on like like I was
00:21:50
22 I had I had so much in my mind Runway
00:21:53
I wanted to be a great teacher I wanted
00:21:55
to have a family I wanted to go on a
00:21:56
shitload more Adventures and it was just
00:22:00
like ah to too
00:22:01
soon right yeah 100% And I I was focused
00:22:08
and one way that I was able to keep
00:22:11
Focus was staring actually at this same
00:22:14
watch and and trying to track the time
00:22:18
and I knew that if I just stayed awake
00:22:20
there's a chance of me surviving you
00:22:22
know not falling unconscious hypothermia
00:22:23
was a lot higher but there became a
00:22:26
point where I couldn't read that Swit
00:22:28
switch sorry switch couldn't read the
00:22:29
watch face anymore and why because your
00:22:32
vision was blured or yeah I didn't have
00:22:35
the attention span and I I do think I
00:22:38
ended up perhaps feeling warm or more
00:22:42
comfortable or I was losing the plot and
00:22:44
that's well documented on you know
00:22:46
Everest you know you know climbers
00:22:48
hypothermia things like that is that
00:22:49
your body shutting down yeah it's body
00:22:51
shutting down and you know blood going
00:22:53
to the core and that was it it was good
00:22:55
night
00:22:56
nurse so you ConEd out that's all you
00:22:58
remember yeah ConEd out so so James what
00:23:01
was what was his plan was he going to go
00:23:03
back down to the the the kids that you
00:23:05
saw on the way up no his well his his
00:23:10
his plan and again I'm speaking on his
00:23:13
his plan but it was to find help right
00:23:16
find someone alert someone cuz both of
00:23:18
our little Nokia blue tiny cell phones
00:23:20
were both sitting in the corner
00:23:21
vibrating right cuz they W log you
00:23:24
couldn't CLE anyone oh the old um that
00:23:26
time stamps like Nokia 51 20 eyes yeah
00:23:30
one of those the battery last for like a
00:23:32
week that's right that's right that's
00:23:34
right cuz you had um yeah in your book
00:23:38
you had signal up there yeah when you
00:23:41
first got to the Dome shelter you
00:23:42
managed to get a text out asking some
00:23:44
friends what the WEA was T my mate cam
00:23:47
we're up here it's Primo loving it uh
00:23:50
what's the weather doing and I'll see
00:23:52
you in a week's time because I was going
00:23:53
to do a back toback mountainer trip I
00:23:54
was so pumped right I was going to go he
00:23:56
was going to come down I was going to
00:23:57
stay but yeah for James as you got going
00:24:01
he h it down the [ __ ] Papa glacia you
00:24:03
been up there kind of like sweeps around
00:24:05
and he he couldn't see lights or
00:24:08
anything from up there and further down
00:24:10
he saw some ski tracks he thought I'll
00:24:12
suppose I'll follow those and he kind of
00:24:14
keep going down and it's I believe it's
00:24:16
typical if you talk to the rescue crews
00:24:19
up there people kind of tend to go down
00:24:20
to the left and end up going down bluffs
00:24:22
and the bush and get lost hypothermic so
00:24:25
he did the right thing by coing down
00:24:27
towards the right I believe and in the
00:24:29
distance he saw a weed light and it was
00:24:31
a snow gromer with Shane Buckingham
00:24:33
inside it and after maybe an hour James
00:24:37
met the snow gr and you can imagine how
00:24:39
how stoked it would have been and hopped
00:24:41
in and turned up the heater started
00:24:44
explaining what the hell had just kind
00:24:45
of gone on and Shane had just narrowly
00:24:50
missed ala from the eruption coming down
00:24:52
the mountain had kind of like jammed in
00:24:54
Reverse blasted up the hill and was just
00:24:56
sitting there he saw this headlamp
00:24:59
coming down the mountain James James
00:25:01
yeah and yeah from there they were able
00:25:04
to get on the comms and organize a
00:25:07
rescue James was then taken down the
00:25:10
mountain to the Tonga Chateau and you
00:25:13
know I joke but not joke you know then
00:25:15
he was put up on some nice fivar
00:25:16
accommodation for the night you know
00:25:18
likey James but I don't know have you
00:25:20
been to the shadow it's probably similar
00:25:23
quality to the Dome shelter or nowadays
00:25:26
um but you know
00:25:28
he would argue that and and I would too
00:25:31
because for him I mean what a what a
00:25:32
shitty situation to be in your mate's
00:25:35
maybe maybe dead um he's is in this you
00:25:38
know gloomy hotel hotel room um you know
00:25:41
wondering what the hell's going on and
00:25:44
he just completed the heroic act you
00:25:46
know I don't think he got a got a a
00:25:48
blink of sleep um for him he says the
00:25:51
hardest thing was picking up the phone
00:25:52
and ringing his parents and I I believe
00:25:55
he his mom answered at 2 or 3 in the
00:25:57
morning and he said hi Mom is Dad there
00:25:59
please or vice versa and was hey this
00:26:04
situation so he was put up for the night
00:26:07
and you know for him he was he was later
00:26:10
award but he's done a bravery medal for
00:26:12
his efforts so wow phenomenal and he
00:26:14
really did start the ball rolling
00:26:18
for ambulance fire fire um the
00:26:23
helicopter pilot this this huge kind of
00:26:26
wraparound rescue crew right
00:26:29
uh and for him too you know people often
00:26:34
will say oh poor William more but you
00:26:36
know for him like I'm sure there was
00:26:37
some psychological kind of uh challenge
00:26:40
afterwards you know there's the Survivor
00:26:41
there there's the Y me and it's going
00:26:44
back into the classroom you know sooner
00:26:46
sooner than I did of course and there
00:26:48
was there was a lot of presses media and
00:26:50
questions and all sorts of stuff so he
00:26:51
did phenomenally
00:26:53
well yeah yeah there would be um have
00:26:56
you spoken about this about you know
00:26:57
survivors skilled with
00:26:59
him I mean obviously it would have been
00:27:02
a lot worse if the outcome had have been
00:27:04
different like it was uh bi old canc was
00:27:06
a happy ending but you're still sitting
00:27:07
here without a leg absolutely absolutely
00:27:09
I remember one night in hospital he came
00:27:11
in and he SLE on the floor on a mattress
00:27:14
we had a great old Y and really
00:27:16
recounted that whole thing and it was a
00:27:17
really good experience but you know
00:27:19
time's pass and some of that's a bit
00:27:20
hazy now but um we're still good friends
00:27:24
now I think we will recount on a few of
00:27:26
the stuff he he he he'll watch us be
00:27:28
like mate you're you're a bit off on
00:27:30
some of those things or something like
00:27:31
that but it's um yeah it's it's funny
00:27:34
the cruel irony of something like
00:27:35
mountain climbing as well and that he
00:27:37
was the passenger you were the
00:27:39
instigator you were the experienced one
00:27:40
and you were just in the wrong place in
00:27:42
the heart at the wrong time it was it
00:27:44
was just that so um so do they have to
00:27:48
wait till the next morning to activate
00:27:50
the so my understanding is there was
00:27:53
well the R Alpine Rescue organ
00:27:55
organization does these kind of rescues
00:27:57
and they were at the pub having a few
00:27:59
drinks perhaps having pizza because
00:28:02
there was a going away party for um one
00:28:03
of the guys and they got the call was a
00:28:05
joker on the mountain it's just erupted
00:28:07
he's stuck in the dome shelter I think
00:28:09
bloody hell so anyway a team of very
00:28:12
brave eight men and woman hopped onto a
00:28:14
snow gromer blasted up and they got
00:28:17
there at about 1: in the morning so 8:20
00:28:21
uh eruption and James would left before
00:28:23
9 and it's unreal a by the way just um
00:28:26
pausing there for a second like 5 hours
00:28:28
was it's pretty good 5 hours later I'm
00:28:31
sure it was the longest 5 hours of your
00:28:32
life but still it's went like went like
00:28:34
that cuz I was
00:28:36
asleep and yeah they put they put their
00:28:39
lives on the line for just my life were
00:28:41
the threat of potentially another
00:28:43
eruption and they found me unconscious
00:28:46
very gray blue didn't think that I was
00:28:49
breathing and I took my body temperature
00:28:50
and read 25°
00:28:53
C like what should it be 37 right I
00:28:57
think anything below
00:28:58
some doctor will correct me on this but
00:29:00
27 28 is like Cardiac Arrest material
00:29:03
and then once you get so cold a defur b
00:29:06
no drugs will kind of will snap you back
00:29:08
into action so I was in a pretty rough
00:29:10
state so they got me into the snoww on
00:29:13
the back of the St grer stretched me out
00:29:15
down to the bottom of the mountain
00:29:17
couple helicopters via Tomo hospital and
00:29:20
then uh the air ambulance came down from
00:29:23
W with John boning on board who was the
00:29:25
the head medic uh a great and a great
00:29:28
medic on board a great pilot down in
00:29:29
hardcourt and anyway they flew me back
00:29:32
to or up to W hospital and I think I
00:29:35
arrived there at
00:29:37
about 3:00 or 4: in the morning status
00:29:40
one like terribly low blood pressure
00:29:42
what does status one mean I think status
00:29:45
there I think status one to five uh five
00:29:47
is like you know might have a bit of a
00:29:48
cut or something like that you know four
00:29:50
I don't know don't quote me broken arm
00:29:52
or something and one's like this gu just
00:29:55
about dead M so and like you
00:29:59
glucoma scale or something and I was
00:30:01
right at the bottom of that no response
00:30:02
think they really really really sick
00:30:04
dead almost so the this this whole
00:30:06
rescue period do do you have any sort of
00:30:08
real recollection of that yourself or
00:30:10
you not a thing no this is just from
00:30:12
bits and pieces you've put together bits
00:30:14
and pieces yeah and this well yeah
00:30:15
through I me there's great extracts in
00:30:17
my book from John boning from from James
00:30:21
um Rescuers things like that so I've
00:30:24
learned all that through those
00:30:26
conversations and when I eventually got
00:30:29
to W there was a there was a very
00:30:32
intense period of me in the resource
00:30:35
room and John boning and as I understand
00:30:39
it you know doctors nurses working on me
00:30:41
to stabilize me to get me to I guess
00:30:45
into the operating
00:30:46
theater and during that time my mom dad
00:30:49
and brother were there and for them you
00:30:50
can imagine that was incredibly
00:30:52
difficult time being told like he's not
00:30:55
out of the woods and he could likely die
00:30:58
so have access to them and and and you
00:31:01
know do what you've got to do make your
00:31:03
phone calls and things like that so for
00:31:05
them you know really really difficult
00:31:08
and did did they um did did they give
00:31:11
your parents a percentage or anything
00:31:13
like chance of survival or I I I don't
00:31:16
know but I know that it was very low and
00:31:19
it wasn't wasn't looking good and I
00:31:21
think though I think I quote those words
00:31:23
from John yeah he's not out of the woods
00:31:25
here it's definitely not not great so so
00:31:29
that would have been enormously
00:31:30
difficult for for any parent right and
00:31:33
from there I was taken into the
00:31:35
operating theater had to look at my
00:31:37
leagues and decided that right one's got
00:31:38
to come off and I woke
00:31:41
up probably almost 24 hours after the
00:31:44
accident in the Intensive Care Room bit
00:31:47
of a hazy recollection but eyes slowly
00:31:51
kind of opening ears starting to kind of
00:31:52
you know wake up after a deep sleep
00:31:55
right and I was this you know Bright
00:31:59
Lights beaming down on me and I could
00:32:00
hear doctors and nurses and I thought
00:32:02
yes like you know like I'm alive I'm
00:32:05
alive holy [ __ ] I actually not you won't
00:32:08
believe the dream I just
00:32:10
had see we you just sort of yeah what
00:32:13
was when you woke up in the hospital
00:32:15
what was your last previous recollection
00:32:17
drifting off in the dome sh right okay
00:32:20
yeah oh so I was like oh thank [ __ ] I
00:32:22
made it 100% 100% And you know probably
00:32:25
died a way back cuz I was on some good k
00:32:28
mean War right on the good stuff we're
00:32:30
talking the pharmaceutical stuff not the
00:32:32
fesal
00:32:33
stuff thank you for clarifying that um
00:32:36
so yeah the some of the responses were
00:32:38
definitely uhit a bit DED right and
00:32:42
um time is very hazy you know kind of
00:32:46
following that but you know I realized
00:32:49
pretty quick by looking down there's no
00:32:51
right leg there and the league was
00:32:52
missing and I don't know whether people
00:32:55
just think it's crazy or not but
00:32:58
my recollection of the thoughts going
00:33:02
through my head
00:33:03
was oh I lost my leg but I'm still alive
00:33:07
you know so it was quite nonchalant and
00:33:10
I think that was the drugs but I was
00:33:12
just so happy to to to be alive and just
00:33:16
that perspective yeah but you yeah so I
00:33:20
suppose there'd be some people like
00:33:22
yourself that um could could have the
00:33:25
ability to have that perspective
00:33:26
immediately but then there's other
00:33:27
people that would just learn that sort
00:33:28
of gratitude and time I guess maybe I
00:33:31
don't know I think is that just just
00:33:33
your sort of um disposition just a glass
00:33:36
HFF full guy I believe so yeah I think
00:33:38
I'm I'm grateful I think I'm kind of I'm
00:33:40
blessed with that in most in most
00:33:42
situations right and those in those big
00:33:45
intense situations I think I do have the
00:33:47
ability to step aside and and think
00:33:51
pretty could could be worse you know so
00:33:55
uh yeah but not not with understanding
00:33:58
that hospital was tough you know it was
00:34:00
it was a [ __ ] show it
00:34:02
was I think 12 or 13 operations moldable
00:34:06
you know rehashes on the knee panel
00:34:08
beating on that left leg because it was
00:34:09
quite beaten up and quite a bit of scar
00:34:11
tissue skin graphs nine months uh just
00:34:16
just a a shitty roller coaster ride you
00:34:19
know nine months in the hospital sorry
00:34:20
sorry weeks oh nine weeks week nine
00:34:22
weeks yeah but what made it bearable was
00:34:26
just like I great friend group and you
00:34:29
know mom and dad and brother Andrew just
00:34:32
being there all the time and you know
00:34:35
often people would stay the night and
00:34:37
Mom slept with me in hospital I think
00:34:39
for part from intensive care because she
00:34:41
got probably got booted out most
00:34:43
evenings pretty much every single night
00:34:44
on the floor uh on the mattress and
00:34:47
that's commitment as a mother right it's
00:34:49
that's a special thing I'm very grateful
00:34:51
for that so it was yeah why did you do
00:34:54
that have you had that conversation with
00:34:55
her I haven't oh well
00:34:58
so yeah I mean it's a it's a really good
00:35:02
thing to do but yeah yeah she worried
00:35:05
worried about you mentally obviously she
00:35:06
wasn't worried about you physically at
00:35:07
that point one one thing that Springs to
00:35:09
mind is and I know this is fact because
00:35:13
I was under so many drugs when the
00:35:16
nurses or doctors would come around have
00:35:17
a have a conversation with me about
00:35:19
plans and care and next steps and and
00:35:22
often a part of that in some way I just
00:35:24
couldn't process that so I I I needed
00:35:27
something someone there to process that
00:35:29
and make a good decision right and she
00:35:32
was she was a lady for it and I have no
00:35:34
doubt that she made some excellent
00:35:35
decisions my brother I remember slept
00:35:37
with me one night and he he almost
00:35:39
almost had to sign on the botted line
00:35:41
cuz I got rushed off to surgery for
00:35:42
something they're like you give
00:35:43
permission to do this he's like oh okay
00:35:46
so you know there was it's big deal
00:35:49
right yeah that makes sense that's a big
00:35:51
deal and yeah what made Hospital
00:35:55
bearable was all those friends coming in
00:35:57
just constantly being there you know
00:35:59
talking about the accident re re
00:36:01
reliving it with with James but also my
00:36:05
mate you know I remember M cam coming in
00:36:06
with a couple of wilderness magazines
00:36:08
and sitting down on the bed and we're
00:36:09
like planning some trips you know where
00:36:10
we going to go next and I don't know he
00:36:14
was young but I don't think so this is
00:36:15
kind of me it's like what's the next
00:36:16
thing like yeah I've lost this leg but
00:36:19
there's plenty of other Role Models out
00:36:20
there that have lost limbs in new Ze
00:36:21
overseas like if they can do it surely
00:36:24
the hell that I can too so this is going
00:36:26
to be a a forced holiday or break while
00:36:29
I get my [ __ ] together get a leg and
00:36:31
then kind of get back into the outdoors
00:36:33
yeah who who were you who were your
00:36:35
early Ro role models in those days cuz
00:36:37
the internet was a thing but it wasn't
00:36:39
like a it wasn't a massive massive tool
00:36:41
like it is now who like who could you
00:36:43
think
00:36:44
of to and
00:36:46
N to in terms of amputees t and n came
00:36:50
in to hospital slapped a copy of his
00:36:53
book on my Hospital table next to my
00:36:55
Hospital meal and had a good chat took
00:36:56
his League off showed it and I was like
00:36:58
far out that's that's cool but also just
00:37:02
prior to the uh the exit and I had been
00:37:05
reading markle's books and yeah and he's
00:37:08
got a feeling right I think he might
00:37:10
have just done Everest or maybe not
00:37:12
maybe done cook anyway May reading his
00:37:14
book and lying in bed warm rugged up at
00:37:17
my parents place in those kind of
00:37:19
Hardcore [ __ ] and climbing days and
00:37:20
just being like wow it's a terrible
00:37:23
thing to go through but like you know he
00:37:25
got through it and what what happened to
00:37:27
him how oh oh that's right he got caught
00:37:29
on a mountain he was in hotel Everest
00:37:30
yeah for a while lost his feet to to
00:37:33
frostbite in fact I was speaking to him
00:37:35
just yesterday day before he referred me
00:37:37
on to a client for speaking so thanks
00:37:39
Mark and he gave me and I saw him over
00:37:40
years he gave me a pair of PEDs my
00:37:42
Mountain bite that would keep maybe keep
00:37:44
my leg on so about flying off and riding
00:37:45
and stuff right so I said B are tight
00:37:47
but he was a role model back then still
00:37:49
is today and yeah I think I had the
00:37:53
concept of well if he can do it can do
00:37:56
it too so
00:37:58
yeah how was your mental health in the
00:38:00
hospital over those N9 weeks seems like
00:38:02
you were mostly looking forward to the
00:38:04
future and optimistic but I i' imagine
00:38:06
it kind have been easy it wasn't easy
00:38:08
there was one point which I do remember
00:38:10
breaking down and I had uh a doctor
00:38:13
coming and he said to
00:38:17
me in a roundabout way your stump's not
00:38:20
good you've got no padding on it we're
00:38:22
just going to graft it don't think that
00:38:23
you'll be able to do the things that you
00:38:25
used to do in the future and it was just
00:38:27
it was delivered real haphazardly and
00:38:29
did a [ __ ] job of it and that really
00:38:31
just knocked my confidence and kind of
00:38:33
hit me back I want to back that up with
00:38:36
my care in hospital was a one it was
00:38:39
it's always one right but everyone else
00:38:41
was phenomenal that was so good he quite
00:38:43
a few stories about doctors like that
00:38:44
that just have no sort of bedside no he
00:38:47
he didn't but everyone else did right so
00:38:49
that really kind of knocked me I
00:38:51
remember kind of crying talking to Mom
00:38:52
and there's guests coming in and I just
00:38:54
it was just a a shitty couple days and
00:38:56
just digging my myself out of that hole
00:38:58
and trying to build up that optimism
00:39:01
again was was very very difficult
00:39:03
fortunately everything else was on the
00:39:04
was positive you know I remember a lady
00:39:06
coming in and checking in on my mental
00:39:08
health probably a psychologist something
00:39:10
like that and she's like are you all
00:39:11
good I'm like I'm I'm all good and and
00:39:13
you you were all good yeah yeah bizarre
00:39:16
you know and I reflect on that now and I
00:39:18
and I don't say it with pride at all but
00:39:21
I I don't think I have faced any mental
00:39:23
health challenges as as a result of that
00:39:25
I don't say it with pride I think it
00:39:26
comes down
00:39:28
to that tighten that group of friends
00:39:31
and wpp around family that were
00:39:32
constantly with me being able to kind of
00:39:34
talk it through uh spending time with
00:39:37
them but also I think I had a level of
00:39:41
confidence and
00:39:44
belonging and knew kind of who I was
00:39:47
going into that accident I loved
00:39:48
education I love The Great Outdoors I I
00:39:51
love I love the people friends and I
00:39:53
think it was those things that gave me
00:39:55
the the Courage the
00:39:57
the confidence I needed to get out of
00:39:59
that really shitty time in hospital yeah
00:40:04
yeah
00:40:06
um yeah what's the the process like of
00:40:09
adapting to being an
00:40:12
UT there's it's different for everyone
00:40:16
right so me scraped off a mountain mud
00:40:20
rocks all in my wounds like garine
00:40:22
multiple operations skin grass required
00:40:26
short stump not easy uh perhaps another
00:40:29
amput that may have been hit by a
00:40:31
motorbike in the CB so on a motorbike
00:40:33
hit by a car in the CBD relatively maybe
00:40:36
straightforward amputation taken
00:40:37
Hospital cleaned up so up at a hospital
00:40:39
in a couple weeks or a month maybe less
00:40:41
right so I had enormous amount of
00:40:44
complications through the accident um
00:40:48
blood loss kidney failure all sorts of
00:40:50
things so it was a slow recovery but
00:40:53
sorry getting back to the leg your and
00:40:55
your and your question though I've I've
00:40:58
always found it challenging uh with with
00:41:00
getting my limb to fit and people may
00:41:04
laugh at that because they'll see me on
00:41:05
top of a mountain or they see me in the
00:41:07
bush or things like that but what didn't
00:41:10
realize is I've probably paid off my
00:41:11
mates to carry a lot of my gear right
00:41:13
all got an extra block of chocolate and
00:41:16
that and that every 20 minutes or so you
00:41:19
know if I'm working hard I'm stopping
00:41:20
I'm taking the leg off I'm peeling the
00:41:22
liners off I'm sweating inside I dry it
00:41:25
out with my little cloth and I put my
00:41:27
leg back on and carry on again and I'm
00:41:30
doing that constantly
00:41:32
and going I can go uphill all day long
00:41:35
but when I come down it gets really
00:41:38
quite uncomfortable cuz it's just your
00:41:40
foot can't plant to flex down so the
00:41:42
back of the leg and the shin of the
00:41:43
stump is is kind of getting hammered um
00:41:46
probably not great for the nerve nerves
00:41:47
in there as well so it can be really
00:41:49
uncomfortable and I actually had a look
00:41:51
at some stats I went to the limb Center
00:41:54
in the last 12 months at least once a
00:41:56
month and it's probably not normal for
00:41:59
amputees my a lot of my things in life
00:42:02
are better never stops you know and I I
00:42:05
believe that uh I can always improve on
00:42:07
on the on the fit that I've got I I know
00:42:10
that by looking at different solutions
00:42:13
liners fits uh that are all out there uh
00:42:16
that I can probably walk further and
00:42:18
without discomfort and get about my my
00:42:21
daily life like I'm sitting here now
00:42:22
I've just hooked my leg off because
00:42:24
sitting when your knee bends it actually
00:42:26
grows right going widthwise so it's
00:42:29
uncomfortable I sit for a long period of
00:42:30
time so there's little things that I'm
00:42:32
working with with the people at the limb
00:42:34
Center and the people Lim are fantastic
00:42:36
they they do they do a great thing they
00:42:38
work bloody hard uh I'm a I'm a hard
00:42:40
patient
00:42:42
because are you are you a
00:42:45
nightmare I think well there two ways of
00:42:47
looking it right there's like okay this
00:42:50
guy here he's trying hard he wants to do
00:42:52
all the things he wants to do like there
00:42:54
I think they're probably happy with
00:42:55
dealing with patient like that as
00:42:56
opposed to someone who doesn't really
00:42:57
give a [ __ ] and use the league but I'm
00:43:00
kind of saying to them like come on guys
00:43:01
like we we can do something better here
00:43:03
or try this how try that and they're
00:43:04
probably thinking far out this guy this
00:43:06
guy's a nightmare he doesn't gu's a
00:43:08
nightmare he doesn't kind of give up but
00:43:10
that that's like that's me with
00:43:11
everything you know what I mean and
00:43:13
like I deserve the best everyone else
00:43:15
deserves the best when disability space
00:43:18
and you know you just got to kind of you
00:43:19
know push hard yeah God I love that so
00:43:22
much even pre-accident we you like that
00:43:26
about better never stops being better
00:43:27
tomorrow than what you are
00:43:30
today it was I think I've grown you know
00:43:33
over the years and I've definitely come
00:43:35
come to learn that that that's for sure
00:43:38
but yeah I don't know I guess just from
00:43:41
that accident you know going forward you
00:43:43
know so much happened you know in terms
00:43:44
of I don't know returning to the
00:43:45
classroom and having goals for that and
00:43:47
then obviously you know starting
00:43:48
starting the businesses and and I don't
00:43:50
know there's just and maybe the leag and
00:43:52
the outdoors you're always pushing for
00:43:54
that next mountain or that next next
00:43:57
Valley or whatever it might be and I
00:43:58
think that's probably just become part
00:44:00
of me and who I am how I think I I feel
00:44:04
like um yeah I it sounds like pre
00:44:06
accident you had a growth mindset and
00:44:08
it's just something that's carried on
00:44:09
through and I I think you know what
00:44:11
someone that's got a fixed mindset that
00:44:12
it happened to you can't change a fixed
00:44:14
mindset and become a develop a growth
00:44:16
mindset but it's a lot harder it is um
00:44:18
but yeah it seems like it's just a
00:44:19
continuation of you it's like okay well
00:44:21
how do we make the best of this and then
00:44:23
just figure out a plan to make that
00:44:24
happen did you um did you look at doing
00:44:26
any um you know paralympic sports or
00:44:29
anything like that I got shoulder tapped
00:44:30
a few times did you so I'm good I'm a
00:44:32
good swimmer right if I say so myself
00:44:34
but uh playing water poloo in my early
00:44:37
days and just and being a swimmer I've
00:44:39
always loved that and after my accident
00:44:41
that was the first thing that I got back
00:44:43
into I remember going for my first swim
00:44:45
Millennium Pool like after I got home
00:44:47
and I was destroyed for the next two or
00:44:49
three days you know probably any slam a
00:44:52
k or something but it was a it was a
00:44:55
nice way to do exercise without um being
00:45:01
on the league or having to kind of kind
00:45:02
of worry about that type of thing what
00:45:04
was the question um oh did you look at
00:45:07
like paralympic that's right that's
00:45:08
right that's right there we go there we
00:45:09
go so anyway so a whole lot of swimming
00:45:12
and you know the paralympic guys would
00:45:13
kind of tap me on the shoulder and say
00:45:15
oh you know you should you know consider
00:45:17
Paralympics you're pretty good we could
00:45:18
train you up and you what those
00:45:20
opportunities I was like let me think
00:45:22
about it and I I mailed it over I'm
00:45:25
pretty good at mailing it over can be
00:45:27
good and bad right but um I I came to
00:45:30
the conclusion that I had stopped
00:45:33
playing W Apollo in my maybe 20 21 just
00:45:37
before the accident to have the time to
00:45:39
pursue the Great Outdoors the tramping
00:45:41
the climbing I kind of couldn't do both
00:45:43
couldn't do both well and I knew what it
00:45:46
would take so I thought to get to that
00:45:49
top Olympic level and I it wasn't for me
00:45:53
and in hindsight I think I think I did
00:45:55
make the right decision
00:45:58
yeah yeah because you yeah I mean you've
00:46:01
gone back to doing exactly what you were
00:46:02
doing before including um revisiting uh
00:46:05
Dome Hut yeah when when when did you
00:46:07
revisit Dome Hut the first time was 2012
00:46:12
but there was many attempts before that
00:46:14
in terms of not even getting half out
00:46:16
the mountain blisters Source stump you
00:46:20
know waddling back down type of thing
00:46:23
but uh after I kind of built up the
00:46:25
physical strength and the limb fit you
00:46:28
know yeah 2012 was a was was a good year
00:46:31
and so five so that was September 2007
00:46:34
that's when it happened cor 5 years
00:46:35
after the accident I went down to mount
00:46:38
t with James and with Hilltop school who
00:46:42
was the first school to do the William
00:46:43
Pike Challenge and they thought it be a
00:46:45
good idea to for their kids as part part
00:46:47
of the outdoor challenge to go out the
00:46:49
Dome shelter and I was like if you're
00:46:50
doing it I'm bloody doing it too and the
00:46:54
I think the year before that I went with
00:46:55
them but couldn't get up to the top so I
00:46:58
I kind of had one down by myself but why
00:47:01
because of the the pain this year the
00:47:03
pain the discomfort I was worried about
00:47:04
blisters it just I knew that I just
00:47:07
would have probably caused another
00:47:08
search and rescue so it's not a not a
00:47:10
mental thing at all not anxiety thing
00:47:12
just a pure physical thing yeah but yeah
00:47:16
2012 things were a lot a lot better in
00:47:18
terms of legue Fitness so yeah we we
00:47:21
charged up up that mountain it was a
00:47:23
cloudy miserable old day kind of kids
00:47:25
were around and what made it super
00:47:28
special was turning up to that Dome
00:47:31
shelter with James seeing it for the
00:47:34
first time but also having the kids
00:47:37
there that was really special for me and
00:47:40
was that why oh just cuz they were part
00:47:42
of your challenge because they were part
00:47:43
of the
00:47:44
challenge but I think for them probably
00:47:47
I don't know I haven't spoken to any of
00:47:49
them any of them for a long time but I
00:47:51
don't know what we've been going through
00:47:52
their head Jesus this guy's just been
00:47:54
smashed up the mountain he's come back
00:47:55
here I can imagine they would have
00:47:56
taking something from that right yeah oh
00:47:58
I I mean we know you're a great role
00:48:01
model but I mean this is definitive
00:48:03
proof of it
00:48:04
right I think you can't say that but I
00:48:06
can no right but yeah getting into that
00:48:09
building for the first time you know you
00:48:11
know gab James great B and thank them
00:48:13
for saving my life like I like I usually
00:48:14
do most days on 25th of September every
00:48:17
year yeah do yeah yeah like a phone call
00:48:19
or a text or a text message or a phone
00:48:21
call or a bit of a yarn yeah it's a good
00:48:23
thing cuz he kind of I mean there was a
00:48:24
lot of luck involved as well wasn't
00:48:26
there there was a lot so many things
00:48:27
went well yeah yeah yeah and you know
00:48:29
often in life we we get and I do
00:48:31
sometimes we get caught up in all the
00:48:33
the bad stuff or perceive bad stuff but
00:48:35
there's so much [ __ ] going well for us
00:48:37
so when you when you call him on the the
00:48:39
anniversary like how does he
00:48:43
react is he a deflector or like oh good
00:48:46
mate you know something like that stop
00:48:49
going on about it
00:48:51
bro oh look you know it's it's one of
00:48:54
those things I like to acknowledge you
00:48:55
know I could have not you know yeah um
00:48:58
day today as a as an amputee
00:49:01
um what what what are some of the stuffs
00:49:03
that you go through the the rest of us
00:49:05
just wouldn't even think about when you
00:49:06
swing your legs out of bed in the
00:49:07
morning you got to remember to put your
00:49:08
leg on
00:49:10
right when you got go if you go for a
00:49:13
pee in the middle of the night do you
00:49:14
just to say that do you hop I got a
00:49:16
terrible bladder right so no at at
00:49:19
depends where I am but at home I hop out
00:49:21
a bed and crawl on all floors to the
00:49:22
toilet thankfully there carpet you know
00:49:24
and then I and then there's tiles and
00:49:26
the toilet it's like I got two or three
00:49:28
hops I going hold on the wall like half
00:49:29
asleep you know sit down for a we you
00:49:32
standing up and you know kind of crawl
00:49:35
back and by that stage your heart ratees
00:49:36
through the roof and you're you're awake
00:49:38
you know help can't get back to sleep no
00:49:42
no no usually I can so that that's
00:49:44
that's only thing about uh I went for a
00:49:48
bike ride on Sunday with my brother and
00:49:52
I was providing for about an hour and a
00:49:53
half like pushing quite hard and this
00:49:56
morning notice there's a couple in
00:49:57
growing hairs on on my stump so I'll
00:50:00
probably pick up them with a tweezer to
00:50:01
try and pull them out and and and solve
00:50:03
that problem or they might develop into
00:50:04
a bit of a pimple or a spot really
00:50:06
uncomfortable that doesn't happen on
00:50:08
every ride but sometimes when you do
00:50:09
something a bit different or push it
00:50:10
really hard might bit of extra wear
00:50:12
interi or a pressure point and that type
00:50:13
of thing so that can be frustrating
00:50:16
summertime is a disaster for me as an MP
00:50:19
because I've got a silicon sock on my on
00:50:21
my stump and it's like having a hand in
00:50:24
a rubber glove right just sweats
00:50:27
so during summer time I'm constantly
00:50:29
peeling my leg off and drying it out and
00:50:30
carrying on again
00:50:33
um showering uh I got us like a shower
00:50:36
stool at home right on to
00:50:38
sit um I mean I know little
00:50:44
things one time we had a um with someone
00:50:47
on truda got come through and jump over
00:50:49
the jump over the the fence and um run
00:50:52
down the driveway and I said to B and
00:50:54
wife I was like lights on what's going
00:50:57
on out there she I'm not going out I
00:50:58
said well I'm not either my legs off you
00:51:00
gonna have a look so she sticks head out
00:51:03
the window she like SC running down a
00:51:05
driveway like a [ __ ] I put my league on
00:51:08
you know I mean she' always um give me
00:51:10
give me grief for sending her out things
00:51:11
like that um good on you for going and
00:51:14
um discussing it and checking and not
00:51:15
just shooting through the wall Pistoria
00:51:17
sty yeah yeah thank you thank you thank
00:51:20
you you how long how long does it take
00:51:22
to put on the leag is it not just like a
00:51:25
pop on pop off sort of thing it's not
00:51:26
really I mean no there you go I don't
00:51:28
know you can't really see much here but
00:51:29
you I've kind of got my my socks on
00:51:31
there so you kind of got one sock and I
00:51:34
got another sock and then I've kind of
00:51:36
got this this little um I don't know
00:51:40
liner thing which kind of goes on over
00:51:43
this and then I kind of you chck the leg
00:51:46
on this is a like a silicon sleeve which
00:51:50
comes up so kind hold the hold the leg
00:51:52
on can you hear that it's like air
00:51:54
escaping out the bottom so a oneway
00:51:57
valve so I push all you see a tight
00:51:59
around here so I push all the be around
00:52:01
it kind of holds on you can get like
00:52:03
quite good vacuum systems and all sorts
00:52:05
things like that
00:52:08
so said so uh for cycling I've got a
00:52:12
cycling leg it's got the it's got like
00:52:14
the the back cut out of it so that I can
00:52:17
uh Flex my leg more my other favorite
00:52:20
League that I've got is my diving League
00:52:22
I love uh we all good there yeah hey
00:52:25
Json are we all good
00:52:28
yeah it's on a little bit of an
00:52:30
angle my bad here we just fix that up we
00:52:33
can we can keep talking though um what
00:52:36
about Phantom
00:52:37
paines do you he them I remember in
00:52:40
Hospital nurse coming in saying I'm
00:52:44
going to give you this this drip it's
00:52:45
going to be good for stopping Phantom
00:52:48
limb pain and we joked maybe was off the
00:52:50
name that she gave us I can't remember
00:52:52
it was we called it salmon juice right
00:52:54
anyway the salmon juice
00:52:57
and I haven't suffered from significant
00:53:00
Phantom limp pain in the early days I
00:53:02
remember lying in beard or on the couch
00:53:05
and just having a freaking burning
00:53:07
sensation that stum thinking is this
00:53:10
what it's going to be like but I was on
00:53:13
gab Penton you know nerve medication and
00:53:15
I think that probably settled it
00:53:16
probably just the healing of the of of
00:53:18
the body you know they they they sort of
00:53:20
themselves out having a a prosthetic
00:53:22
limb on with a bit of pressure around
00:53:24
the stump I think does wonders as well
00:53:26
so I was lucky not to be too hammered by
00:53:28
it yeah and what about dreams when how
00:53:31
long was it before you
00:53:32
dreamed um that you were missing a li I
00:53:36
I don't think I have in all my dreams I
00:53:39
think I've got two
00:53:41
legs
00:53:43
crazy may there's something missing up
00:53:46
here that is crazy I I thought I I think
00:53:48
I heard or watched on a podcast
00:53:50
somewhere that someone said as an
00:53:51
amputee you're finally at peace with
00:53:54
your situation when you dream and how
00:53:56
you own in reality but you you you're
00:53:59
definitely not living in some fantasy
00:54:00
world like you've accepted it absolutely
00:54:02
yeah absolutely yeah how about that oh
00:54:05
um now let's talk I guess all the book
00:54:07
so every day is a good good day so how
00:54:11
do you feel when you read that now you
00:54:12
wrote that like
00:54:13
immediately well the two two answers to
00:54:16
that question so how the title came
00:54:18
about was James would come into the
00:54:20
hospital and he like how's it going mate
00:54:22
like every day is a good day so that's
00:54:26
where that came from but you know in all
00:54:30
reality I think sometimes there's a bit
00:54:31
of false advertising there cuz some days
00:54:33
can be [ __ ] days
00:54:35
right yeah um thanks for saying that
00:54:40
thanks for saying that yeah that's the
00:54:41
reality of life it is a reality of life
00:54:43
and you know I'd be a mar to sit here
00:54:44
and say oh every day's perfect because
00:54:46
it's bloody not for anyone also you
00:54:48
actually need the bad days to appreciate
00:54:50
the good ones absolutely you do so look
00:54:52
I'm happy with that title I'm happy to
00:54:54
put it on my on my book or on my Chanel
00:54:56
wear around like that's was what it was
00:54:59
back then and and largely it is what it
00:55:01
is today so yeah so how how do you feel
00:55:04
when you go back and and flick through
00:55:05
the pages and read it now is it hard to
00:55:07
read or it's not hard to read I haven't
00:55:10
been through and read it for for a while
00:55:11
not something I kind of do but you know
00:55:14
if I'm at talks or yeah people flick
00:55:15
through the photos and the first thing
00:55:16
people do is they flick through the
00:55:17
photos right on any book and look at
00:55:20
that photo of your leg it definitely
00:55:22
needs a warning some of the photos are
00:55:25
there's a photo of your right leg before
00:55:26
it was
00:55:27
amputated you can you think okay I'm not
00:55:29
a surgeon but I think they made the
00:55:31
right call absolutely but like I said to
00:55:33
you you know pre you know getting going
00:55:34
on the podcast like when I wrote the
00:55:37
book for me it was hey if no one reads
00:55:40
this I don't care because I've just
00:55:41
downloaded this massive life event into
00:55:44
this book form I don't care if it
00:55:46
doesn't sell well or not but for me when
00:55:49
I'm older perhaps for my kids this is
00:55:50
going to be a a real kind of gift in a
00:55:53
way and lo and behold I think it's sold
00:55:56
over 40,000 copies been turned into
00:55:58
Braille and you know it's still a very
00:56:00
popular read amongst kids young adults
00:56:02
adults alike as well so uh on the way
00:56:06
here because obv I knew I sent you a
00:56:07
copy I was thinking I was like one of's
00:56:09
going to ask me about the next one I
00:56:12
don't know and it's it's it's starting
00:56:15
to kind of tick away what would that
00:56:17
book look like what would I put in it
00:56:19
yeah well I must admit yeah so you when
00:56:21
we teed up this podcast you graciously
00:56:22
um sent me a copy of the book and um I I
00:56:25
read it um
00:56:27
the the other week and I was quite
00:56:28
surprised because it's um it's like yeah
00:56:29
it's like written in 2007 about 2007 and
00:56:33
I I thought part of it might be about uh
00:56:36
the amazing stuff you've done since then
00:56:38
um but no it ends then in 2007 must have
00:56:41
been quite cathartic writing it at the
00:56:43
time though it just a just a sort of
00:56:45
sort of I don't know process in your own
00:56:47
time exactly what you went through it
00:56:49
was perfect and I was very lucky you
00:56:51
know I think having come out of a
00:56:52
situation like that being perhaps older
00:56:54
with a family and mortgages and
00:56:56
commitments and things like that jobs we
00:56:59
had of a lot more difficult but I was 22
00:57:01
I was young I had notied my parents were
00:57:03
so supportive bringing me back into
00:57:05
their house I just could just meend you
00:57:08
know mentally physically write the book
00:57:11
get fit and just kind of rebuild my life
00:57:13
so um very grateful for that have you
00:57:15
found anything you'd like to do but you
00:57:17
can't
00:57:18
do not
00:57:21
specifically well I couldn't join you on
00:57:23
a run you know yeah you can't you can't
00:57:26
yeah I I've SE I've seen like um Utes at
00:57:30
various Runs run events that that I've
00:57:31
done does that sort of depend on the
00:57:33
placement of the stump it does you know
00:57:34
like I do have a short stump there's not
00:57:36
a lot not a lot of surface area to kind
00:57:37
to be weight on and I believe that if I
00:57:40
put my mind to it I could do it right
00:57:43
but I'm focusing on my cycling League my
00:57:46
diving League my everyday League ly
00:57:48
leagues everywhere right so I think it's
00:57:50
it's a time thing and also priorities
00:57:52
and I'm I not running yeah yeah um so
00:57:57
the William Pike challenge so so when
00:57:59
when did that come about was that your
00:58:00
idea did someone suggest it to you and
00:58:03
what is it for anyone that doesn't
00:58:04
understand he never heard it before I
00:58:06
I'll give a bit of uh bit of background
00:58:08
to it okay so sitting in my class after
00:58:11
the accident One Morning Sun streaming
00:58:13
in watching the kids pile and I was
00:58:15
reflecting I'm always reflecting and I
00:58:17
thought to thinking to myself man I was
00:58:21
lucky having those experiences in The
00:58:23
Great Outdoors as a young so ultimately
00:58:25
prepared me for life I think and to
00:58:27
overcome big challenges do these young
00:58:30
people here walking in or are they going
00:58:32
to get their same experience and I
00:58:33
wasn't convinced and I had this wild
00:58:36
Vision I thought how cool would it be to
00:58:38
get these young people really into the
00:58:41
outdoors maybe doing stuff in their
00:58:43
Community locally and maybe trying new
00:58:45
stuff so it was just wild kind of vision
00:58:48
I went forward teaching that year I kind
00:58:50
of had my radar up I was like
00:58:53
opportunities you know and I
00:58:56
got a phone call from uh a parent Paul
00:58:59
Dawson who was on the board or a board
00:59:02
chair at Hilltop school and said look I
00:59:05
kind of heard about you through the
00:59:06
press and stuff I know what you do what
00:59:07
you've gone through and you're a teacher
00:59:09
and would kind of after a bit of a hand
00:59:10
to put this thing together that we've
00:59:13
got so we we met and kind of you know
00:59:17
got got chatting and that kind of
00:59:18
started the the ball rolling for this
00:59:22
program a year a year of kind of
00:59:24
collaborating afterwards
00:59:26
on a phone call he's like well um we're
00:59:29
going to we think we want to call it the
00:59:31
William P channel is that all good I was
00:59:32
like I don't think so mate you that's a
00:59:35
bit weird but though they were good at
00:59:38
twisting my arm and this willing P
00:59:39
challenge was born and and I thought
00:59:42
cool these kids are doing these outdoor
00:59:43
activities and community service and and
00:59:46
trying and you know do passion projects
00:59:48
or doing new skills and I thought this
00:59:49
is awesome so I kept teaching and I I
00:59:52
believe I wrote an article in the
00:59:53
education Gazette and my phone rang hot
00:59:56
school was wanting to get on board and I
00:59:58
thought oh this is pretty cool you know
00:59:59
kept teaching and think the first couple
01:00:02
of years it was just just one school
01:00:04
Hill toop and then I think three years
01:00:05
later there was four schools and then
01:00:07
got to 16 and then I looked myself in
01:00:09
the mirror one morning I was like I
01:00:11
can't do both like what the hell am I
01:00:13
going to do and it was this
01:00:17
very values based decision on I love the
01:00:20
outdoors I love
01:00:23
education I love taking a bit of a risk
01:00:25
like I'm going to I'm going to jump out
01:00:27
boots and all and give this a go but you
01:00:30
know it's easy to say it now but at the
01:00:32
time I was I was [ __ ] myself I had
01:00:34
after that no consistent income no
01:00:36
business plan no real idea what I was I
01:00:38
was doing and only a couple of customers
01:00:40
you know what I mean so it really was a
01:00:44
uh a difficult time to kind of to do
01:00:47
that in my in my life and fast forward
01:00:50
to today what are we 12 years down the
01:00:52
track we've got 126 schools all around
01:00:54
New Zealand that are doing the will P
01:00:56
Challenge and look mate we're all about
01:00:58
inspiring young people to step outside
01:01:00
their comfort zone and go into the world
01:01:01
with more confidence so it's a it's a
01:01:03
year-long program where the kids do five
01:01:06
outdoor activities 20 hours of community
01:01:08
service and 20 hours of passion projects
01:01:11
and outcome wise you know they're
01:01:13
building resilience confidence while
01:01:15
being kind of life skills and yeah we at
01:01:19
the Willing part challenge we provide
01:01:20
the support the resources the
01:01:21
inspiration so I go to a lot of schools
01:01:23
I speak I we seen you know digital
01:01:26
resources in there we've got this cool
01:01:27
online platform where kids can track and
01:01:29
measure their progress there's a
01:01:30
resource Hub on there teachers can use
01:01:32
that as well and yeah we're just hard
01:01:36
focused on just really energizing those
01:01:38
Educators with with with resource
01:01:39
getting those kids involved into into
01:01:41
the outdoors and yeah my vision is just
01:01:44
seeing kids have that confidence just to
01:01:47
go into the world and and do their thing
01:01:49
and a bit like what the outdoors and
01:01:51
yeah and the community stuff that I was
01:01:52
involved in kind kind of back then so I
01:01:56
never thought it would transform into
01:01:59
what it is today you know 126 schools
01:02:01
it's it it is massive and there's
01:02:04
thousands and thousands of kids that
01:02:05
have kind of been been part of the
01:02:07
program and my vision kind of going
01:02:10
forward is well there's a lot of gaps
01:02:13
out there so we get a lot of emails
01:02:15
phone calls from parents that aren't or
01:02:18
that don't have their kids Associated
01:02:20
soor I say they again that their kids
01:02:22
aren't at a school that's running the
01:02:24
William part Challenge and the passor
01:02:26
said sorry no can do get your school on
01:02:29
board but we've just spent a lot of time
01:02:31
and money uh rebuilding our online
01:02:32
platform now we can do that so we we
01:02:35
just we haven't gone public with it
01:02:38
hello we have now but people are slowly
01:02:40
coming to us and we're kind of on
01:02:41
boarding them we're just really in that
01:02:42
kind of trial phase which is really
01:02:44
exciting and our our next step is
01:02:48
corporates right because I finished on
01:02:50
stage and people on Q&A and uh can we do
01:02:52
the Willing pot challenge no but now yes
01:02:56
so we're just again in the early stage
01:02:57
of just you know chatting to the Corpus
01:02:59
out there and just working out well how
01:03:00
could this work because I know that if
01:03:02
it's if it's significantly benefited
01:03:04
nearly 40,000 kids in New Zealand that
01:03:06
it's got to work for us you know for all
01:03:08
of us too so I'm I'm super pumped about
01:03:11
going to this next stage of willing P
01:03:13
Challenge and just the the impact that
01:03:16
we can have it's cool that's awesome
01:03:17
that would have been my next uh next
01:03:19
question you one one not adults or the
01:03:22
corporate sector as well um everyone
01:03:24
needs a bird up the ass every now and
01:03:26
then when it comes to resilience and out
01:03:27
here you know and like I I like to
01:03:30
what's the word you know I practice what
01:03:32
I preach you know like at the Willing
01:03:34
part challenge we've only got only got
01:03:35
two staff right we're we're a small
01:03:36
company but you know every term we go on
01:03:39
an outdoor activity right so we did a a
01:03:41
walk up the was Long Bay track just like
01:03:45
nothing massive right we did we did that
01:03:46
we did one to a uh Cottage the other day
01:03:49
uh this term is going to be a boat trip
01:03:51
out to territory marangi Island and also
01:03:54
for my community service like to get
01:03:56
back so I'm on the board at my
01:03:57
daughter's school and as a parent rep
01:04:00
and I'm also a what do we called a
01:04:04
a a peer mentor so when a UT loses a
01:04:07
limb Inland there's a few of us we get a
01:04:09
phone call hey Will can you go and see
01:04:11
Johnny at hospital he's lost his leg and
01:04:13
he needs a bit of pickup you know so I
01:04:15
love doing that you know like for me
01:04:17
that's my expertise that's my passion
01:04:19
and uh you know to Nik came into it to
01:04:22
me you know yeah how did how did he hear
01:04:25
about you was that the same sort of
01:04:26
thing was he on know was that a media
01:04:28
thing were you were you in the news at
01:04:29
the time it was quite a bit yeah there
01:04:31
was quite a bit yeah yeah there was yeah
01:04:33
how was how was that how did you find
01:04:36
that the whole media Cirus aspect of it
01:04:38
I'll tell you a story
01:04:40
so during uh hospital I don't know every
01:04:44
morning I get my wounds you know
01:04:46
plasters off re-bandaged whatever you
01:04:48
call it and uh nurse was talking to me
01:04:52
and she said William you got an option
01:04:53
here you you got a choice I was like
01:04:54
what do you mean she said
01:04:56
she said you can go back to being
01:04:59
William Pike after your accident teach
01:05:01
do the outdoor stuff just live life or
01:05:04
you can grab this opportunity and go on
01:05:07
and been at Adventure I thought all
01:05:08
Adventure it's a bit of me I I think
01:05:11
this was this I'm almost certain would
01:05:13
have been echoed through my parents and
01:05:15
friends and people supporting me as well
01:05:18
and and I thought oh I'm I'm going to
01:05:21
I'm going to do that like I like the
01:05:23
sound of that Adventure I've been G I've
01:05:24
been put in the [ __ ] situation but I'm
01:05:26
going to make the most of it and work
01:05:28
really hard to make the most of it too
01:05:31
so then and there I kind of decided that
01:05:34
I was going to I was going to rebuild my
01:05:36
life and and and grab some opportunities
01:05:39
one of which was was media and media was
01:05:41
coming in and like like I the really
01:05:43
great comms team the amiran girl was in
01:05:45
charge and she would really Shield it
01:05:47
and control it well because there would
01:05:49
be lining up out the door wanted to talk
01:05:51
and should and should say do you want to
01:05:53
do this is the repercussion and she was
01:05:56
really good at kind of gu guiding me
01:05:57
through that and there was a lot of
01:05:58
media interest I did you know there's
01:06:01
lot I mean at the time my motivation was
01:06:04
I don't know I was probably young there
01:06:05
was a bit of interest you know I was I
01:06:07
haven't done this before I'll give it a
01:06:08
go and you know I'm I'm kind of glad I
01:06:11
did yeah and looks look what's come of
01:06:13
it yeah yeah how um has your perspective
01:06:17
on life and resilience changed since the
01:06:21
accident I think when you go through a a
01:06:23
big thing like that you can't help but
01:06:27
have a a mental shift you know in terms
01:06:29
of resilience and think well if I can
01:06:32
get through that then everything else
01:06:35
should be easy right kind of isn't kind
01:06:37
of isn't but uh so I think you know that
01:06:39
optimism that yeah I think as I've gone
01:06:43
through life and had challenges I like
01:06:44
to see that challenges don't wear me
01:06:47
down but Build Me Up you I mean I it's
01:06:49
that glass half full looking at it a
01:06:51
different way right because you know you
01:06:53
could be we can all be worn down by
01:06:54
challenges but time I face them on a
01:06:57
daily basis right who doesn't uh it's
01:06:59
it's just trying to look at the other
01:07:00
way and just think that that's kind of
01:07:02
Bo me up for the next thing perhaps and
01:07:04
that's why I like to look at it yeah and
01:07:07
um a big part of the William Pike
01:07:08
challeng is um encouraging kids in
01:07:11
particular but I guess adults soon to
01:07:12
get out of their comfort zone why is um
01:07:15
why is that so important the comfort
01:07:16
zone is a very comfortable place is the
01:07:19
say I saw on Instagram it's um the
01:07:21
comfort zone is a very comfortable place
01:07:23
but nothing grows there AB which I
01:07:25
really
01:07:26
absolutely when I was in Antarctica in
01:07:28
2017 I was on top of Mount Scott like
01:07:32
it's this freaking epic Mountain on the
01:07:34
Antarctic Peninsula it took us 12 hours
01:07:36
to climb the bloody top you know I was
01:07:38
pretty naked and leg on and off the
01:07:39
whole way up and we got there had a look
01:07:42
around on the summit phenomenal views
01:07:44
but didn't have time for a cup of tea so
01:07:46
we headed back down and I and as I was
01:07:48
belaying Simon I think it was I was just
01:07:51
reflecting and I thought far out like
01:07:54
the penny dropped I was like for me to
01:07:57
learn to walk get back into classroom
01:07:58
teaching get up here today get this
01:08:00
buddy leg sorted I've had to do one
01:08:01
thing over and over and over again and
01:08:02
it's step outside of my comfort zone and
01:08:05
I just kind of realized that and even
01:08:07
though it was plain obvious and in front
01:08:09
of me you know and for me yeah I I know
01:08:13
that if I want to come here today do a
01:08:16
presentation grow a business go on an
01:08:18
outdoor trip everything is outside of my
01:08:21
comfort zone and I think having that
01:08:25
mind set of stepping outside of your
01:08:27
comfort zone is also paired well with
01:08:30
the idea of better never stops right so
01:08:32
that's kind of in the back of my mind so
01:08:33
I'm constantly sitting outside of my
01:08:35
comfort zone in a in a little bit in a
01:08:37
little way and I I think that nothing
01:08:41
great has ever achieved inside your
01:08:42
comfort zone like I feel like I'm
01:08:44
rattling off quotes but I'm not like I I
01:08:46
fully believe in that that you know to
01:08:49
go out spear fishing for a day it's
01:08:50
going to be outside your comfor Zone to
01:08:51
go on a big bush walk it's going to be
01:08:53
it's going to be hard and uncomfortable
01:08:54
but [ __ ] look at the views the sense of
01:08:55
satisfaction you get grinding through
01:08:58
starting a podcast or or or or
01:09:00
businesses like working on some big
01:09:02
projects right now and like you know
01:09:04
it's hard it's it's outside of my
01:09:06
comfort zone but hey that's where all
01:09:08
the good stuff happens and I think I'm a
01:09:10
guy that I love
01:09:12
Adventure I love taking risks that
01:09:14
people aren't kind of willing to do I I
01:09:17
just love stepping outside of of of my
01:09:19
comfort zone and that's that's me that
01:09:21
that's our family values and that's
01:09:24
that's me m
01:09:26
yeah there's been times um where I've
01:09:28
I've left the house to go to things that
01:09:30
I don't want to go to and often you
01:09:32
you'll get home and you go I'm pleas I
01:09:33
went cuz I met this person or this
01:09:35
happened or it wasn't as bad as what I
01:09:37
thought it was going to be um yeah yeah
01:09:39
it's funny when you force yourself to do
01:09:41
them often good things come out of it
01:09:43
it's usually never as bad as what you
01:09:45
think it's going to be absolutely yeah
01:09:47
so you mentioned the Antarctica thing
01:09:48
before um just doubling back to that so
01:09:51
so you can do everything that you did
01:09:54
before but it's just about
01:09:56
compromise exactly exactly so yeah I
01:10:00
mean that was uh back in 2017 was a an
01:10:03
18h hour climb right it's a bloody long
01:10:05
time for anyone to be on on their feet
01:10:07
but I've learned how to manage it on and
01:10:09
off the league check the stump be be
01:10:11
careful not to sweat too much and you
01:10:14
stopping starting and being able to kind
01:10:15
of manage it so so yes I can my stumps
01:10:18
changed a wee bit and I think my FIT
01:10:20
probably needs to optimize we bit now
01:10:23
then from back when it was but you know
01:10:25
if I want to go on a bushwalk with a kid
01:10:26
like yeah I can do that like am I
01:10:28
stopping and is it B comfortable
01:10:30
yep got to get through it how do how do
01:10:34
you not um get bogged down on
01:10:37
self-pity I don't have time for
01:10:41
that you know like I you know what I
01:10:44
mean it' be very very easy to get into
01:10:45
that sort of um I don't know that
01:10:47
feedback loop or that cycle of self-
01:10:50
petty like you didn't you didn't deserve
01:10:52
this I I didn't but you know as mom
01:10:55
always said there's always someone worse
01:10:56
off someone better off you know and I I
01:10:59
think it's easy to flick on the tell or
01:11:01
open the news and have a look at what's
01:11:02
going on in the world and just be like
01:11:05
got it pretty good you know sitting here
01:11:06
in a nice warm room sipping on a on some
01:11:08
sparkling water and just having a y I
01:11:10
think and I say that being being genuine
01:11:13
too I mean I yeah look I don't sometimes
01:11:15
it's frustrating it's a pain in the ass
01:11:17
and I wish I had two legs I get that but
01:11:20
it's not doing me any good to kind of to
01:11:21
kind of dwell on that um and I don't but
01:11:23
in other spects on perhaps small little
01:11:25
business decisions or other little
01:11:27
things I might ruminate and and and
01:11:28
dwell on those typ of things before
01:11:29
moving on so I think we've all got our
01:11:31
strengths in different places in life
01:11:33
being able to move on quick or not is it
01:11:35
re was what's that when you think about
01:11:37
it over and over ruminate ruminate yeah
01:11:39
not
01:11:40
rumate think about that too but uh so
01:11:45
yeah we get our Dr anywh weaknesses yeah
01:11:47
and it seems like um from the chat we've
01:11:48
had today it feels like you've always
01:11:50
you've always been like that but there
01:11:51
must have been moments over the what is
01:11:53
it uh 78 10 yeah 10 20 17 years that you
01:11:58
lost your leg that you I don't know you
01:12:00
had down moments where absolutely yeah I
01:12:03
mean I remember coming home from the Lim
01:12:04
Center one day just crying going through
01:12:07
the tunnel you know um towards Harbor
01:12:09
Bridge and and up over and I was just
01:12:12
just pissed because I just had done so
01:12:14
much work to try and get the league
01:12:15
right it wasn't the limb CER fault
01:12:17
wasn't my fault I just it was it's a
01:12:19
challenging situation frustration you
01:12:21
know it was just so frustrating um yeah
01:12:26
thing sometimes yeah I wish I could just
01:12:29
bound across the the padic with the kids
01:12:32
and catch up with them but I can't but
01:12:34
I'm when I say this genuinely I'm just
01:12:37
grateful for what I've got like I I can
01:12:39
do most things I am fit I healthy it
01:12:42
about a great family every day I wake up
01:12:44
I know things every day is a good day no
01:12:46
but you things could be worse and I I I
01:12:50
try hard and sometimes not easy but just
01:12:52
to pull those good nuggets out or to you
01:12:55
know kids are cuddle on the way out and
01:12:58
go to work and yeah that thing that I'm
01:13:00
just grateful for for those things do
01:13:02
you um do you have a journal you
01:13:04
practice gratitude or anything if I'm
01:13:07
going through a bit of a [ __ ] time I'll
01:13:08
stop and just write down all the things
01:13:09
that I'm grateful for if I open my
01:13:12
leftand drawer at the office there'll be
01:13:14
a list of the things that I'm grateful
01:13:15
for and I'll just open it up I can get
01:13:17
on with it
01:13:18
William car on again so yeah I I do I do
01:13:23
practice gratitude um my wife's great at
01:13:25
helping me doing that she's like my
01:13:27
personal um therapist at time so she's
01:13:30
she's fantastic I wouldn't be half the
01:13:32
BL I am I think without her so yeah it's
01:13:35
something I found really really good I I
01:13:37
I always thought it was a little sort of
01:13:38
woo woish you know or I don't know but
01:13:40
it's um if you you don't even have to
01:13:42
write anything down or do it formally or
01:13:44
have three points or five points but
01:13:46
when I wake up in the morning I'll lie
01:13:47
on beard as soon as I open my eyes I'll
01:13:49
just lie there and spend a moment
01:13:50
reflecting on some of the things I'm
01:13:51
grateful for and that's a great way to
01:13:53
start the day you can sit the bar real
01:13:54
low like like you know having a family
01:13:57
that's asleep that loves me having a
01:13:58
roof over my head um being able to go to
01:14:00
the shower and have warm water um fresh
01:14:03
drinking water on the tap you know what
01:14:05
I mean we can all do it we've got a a
01:14:07
great uh great friends and uh Nick Anda
01:14:11
and every year they'll have Thanksgiving
01:14:13
at their place you know more bigger in
01:14:15
the states perhaps than than the what is
01:14:16
here but we love it and I think everyone
01:14:19
does we we'll go around and bring a meal
01:14:21
we'll catch up and we sit around the
01:14:22
table and it does sound a bit corny but
01:14:24
we'll go around and everyone just has
01:14:25
what they're thankful for and it's
01:14:27
bloody great and I think probably need a
01:14:29
bit more of that you know and it's not
01:14:32
really the kywi way but I feel like we
01:14:34
need to lean into it a bit more
01:14:36
absolutely where did you so you and your
01:14:39
wife you met post um post amputation wow
01:14:43
so uh we met yeah post amputation at the
01:14:46
time we were teaching at Mar's Bay
01:14:49
Primary School she'd just come up from
01:14:51
Christ Church cuz they had been through
01:14:53
the earthquake she she wanted to you
01:14:54
know Fresh Start everything was a bit of
01:14:56
a disaster down there and I remember I
01:14:59
remember seeing her for the very first
01:15:00
time at M Bay from school and you know
01:15:04
with joke I met her in the resource room
01:15:06
you know but I didn't you know um no no
01:15:08
hanky panky at school and yeah I we just
01:15:13
kind of I just liked her kind of vibrant
01:15:16
very vibrant outgoing kind of
01:15:18
personality and we just kind of got a
01:15:20
bit closer and then know went went out a
01:15:21
few nights and uh and eventually yeah I
01:15:24
kind of we we we hit it off which was
01:15:27
pretty cool so so she she knew about the
01:15:29
uh oh yeah yeah no was shorts and all
01:15:33
you know I mean she know M to we we a
01:15:34
few bushw walks remember before we
01:15:35
started kind of before kind of dating
01:15:38
officially you know what I mean so um
01:15:41
took her out in the boat perhaps you
01:15:42
know did a bit of fishing stuff so she
01:15:43
was well aware and you know while ago
01:15:47
you know having a conversation with her
01:15:49
you know and the hilarity she's going
01:15:50
back to a family say crisis like found a
01:15:53
guy oh yeah what's he like it's got one
01:15:56
leg oh
01:15:58
yeah you I did wonder about that from a
01:16:01
dating perspective cuz in terms of um I
01:16:03
don't know I said this with the
01:16:04
eCommerce baggage it's not like it's not
01:16:07
it's no big deal but it is still
01:16:09
something that you probably need to get
01:16:10
out there early I guess 100% yeah but I
01:16:12
mean I'm a shorts and t-shirt guy you
01:16:14
know so you at school like you know she
01:16:17
would have seen me walking around one
01:16:18
bloody leg so you know it was never a
01:16:19
thing but I think early on I'd be like
01:16:22
let's go for walk in the whex she's okay
01:16:25
you got some boots we're going to buy
01:16:26
some boots together let's go so she she
01:16:29
can't have any excuses like oh I've
01:16:31
actually got a sore Hemi today no
01:16:33
exactly so yeah it was very open I I
01:16:36
didn't hide the fact I was an NP I was
01:16:38
like I was I was I am who I am you know
01:16:40
what I mean take take it to leave it and
01:16:42
did you did you propose at the top of um
01:16:45
Ru no not Ru wow so tongo all right
01:16:50
right next door this next door no no
01:16:53
well The Story Goes that
01:16:55
my first Mountain I climbed ever with my
01:16:57
good mate cam was Mount Tonga 18 year
01:17:00
old 18 or 19 years old phenomenal climb
01:17:03
just hooked me we spent I think two days
01:17:06
at at the base of that mountain stuck in
01:17:08
a horrific storm just after climbing it
01:17:09
so I got to know other well and you know
01:17:12
that kicked off my passion for
01:17:13
mountaineering after my accident that
01:17:15
was the first Mountain I climbed with
01:17:16
one leg and it was it was a hole for me
01:17:18
get getting up there it was hard work
01:17:20
and that just was so good just being in
01:17:23
crampons again and boots and getting up
01:17:25
that mountain it was just phenomenal and
01:17:27
when it came to proposing I to be I was
01:17:30
like I'm not going to do it you know a
01:17:32
budy cafe or you know at home or
01:17:34
something something a bit bit bit DED
01:17:36
you I'm going to push the boat out on
01:17:38
this one you get one you get one chance
01:17:39
or maybe you don't get one chance but so
01:17:41
I thought now I'm going to do something
01:17:42
that's that's me and better of her so
01:17:46
yeah turned up to the Mony to pop Hut on
01:17:48
a Friday night and I stashed a few beers
01:17:51
in the car or cers for her you know
01:17:53
hopefully it'll all go well and and
01:17:55
didn't sleep that night and I I got up
01:17:57
at I think about what nerves yeah nerves
01:17:59
yeah I got up at about 4: in the morning
01:18:01
and I thought I meant to be leaving here
01:18:03
at 5: but I woke up I was like it's 5:00
01:18:06
let's go it's 4:00 so we're out early
01:18:08
she I don't think she worked out for a
01:18:10
while so we we have bricky head up the
01:18:12
mountain we stopped at the you been up
01:18:15
there no we stopped at the um South
01:18:17
Crater I made a cup of sleep a bit cold
01:18:19
and I spiled it into my bag I a [ __ ]
01:18:21
this is not good I said let's keep going
01:18:24
so we hit it up crampons on I me coming
01:18:25
around the top of
01:18:27
tongo and I'm like right this is it I'm
01:18:30
going to propose and then I looked at
01:18:31
her in the eyes and I was well I didn't
01:18:32
cuz I couldn't see her she had her
01:18:33
helmet on BAC clav and and her goggles
01:18:36
and I couldn't see her face or anything
01:18:37
and it was blowing uh up there and she
01:18:40
was like I'm not liking this got to get
01:18:43
got to get down from here I was like
01:18:44
[ __ ] so we kind of slowly backed off
01:18:47
well headed down the other side of the
01:18:48
mountain and we kind of found this
01:18:49
little Nook it was yeah it was beautiful
01:18:51
day just windy and I got my crackers out
01:18:54
my cheese
01:18:55
my mar bit of salami had my crampons on
01:18:58
and dropped my KNE on my crampons with
01:19:00
it you know and propose sort of like
01:19:02
that Perfect Mate p a perfect proposal
01:19:05
in my opinion so yeah that was the that
01:19:08
was the start of that and uh and now now
01:19:10
you got two kids how how old are the
01:19:12
kids yeah I got harro who's nearly seven
01:19:14
and Oliver who's who's four and they're
01:19:16
just the best so it's a bloody good age
01:19:18
mate it's a bloody good age my wife just
01:19:20
sent me a photo before I got here of
01:19:22
Oliver our neighbor he's a good dude
01:19:24
Sean had just come over with this work
01:19:26
truck this huge truck with a big you
01:19:28
know dump truck and took him for a ride
01:19:31
be a Dream Ride for him cuz he loves
01:19:34
chainsaws and um boats and engines and
01:19:38
driving car you know hard case so um we
01:19:42
have a lot of fun I mean for me you know
01:19:45
I I don't care people off say do you
01:19:47
want them to like the outdoors I'm like
01:19:49
I don't care like whatever they like is
01:19:51
good right but I mean I take them on a
01:19:53
lot of outdoor traps we make it fun we
01:19:55
don't go far we we take lots of bickies
01:19:57
and and and a hot mile all the time and
01:19:59
and it's not about getting to finishing
01:20:01
it it's just we don't want to throw some
01:20:02
stones in the creek fill your boots you
01:20:04
know what I mean you know I just I don't
01:20:06
want to put them off that type of thing
01:20:08
it's good experiences little bit by
01:20:10
little bit and look by all accounts they
01:20:12
love it you know we were down in W over
01:20:14
the school holidays saying at one of
01:20:15
those top 10 holiday Parks so good
01:20:17
swimming in the pool but we did a a walk
01:20:19
it was about took us was about 50
01:20:21
minutes each way pretty steep 4-year-old
01:20:23
and a seven-year-old good
01:20:25
that's a good effort it's good good
01:20:26
effort for a four year especially when
01:20:28
there's devices back at the top 10
01:20:30
Holiday Park and Wi-Fi we yeah we we
01:20:33
don't we don't let them go on too many
01:20:34
devices so look yeah I mean I'm in a
01:20:36
time of my life now where you know I'm
01:20:39
kind of knocking on 40 and you you
01:20:41
realize that there life's got a finite
01:20:44
nature to it you know and that your kids
01:20:46
are growing up really fast and that time
01:20:50
with them is going to significantly
01:20:52
decrease over time and it's easier to
01:20:54
kind of look at the toys on the floor
01:20:56
and skid marks in the toilet and [ __ ]
01:20:59
left everywhere and think [ __ ] that no
01:21:02
doubt when when I'm older and you know
01:21:04
people with kids will probably attest to
01:21:06
it you kind of miss those things and the
01:21:08
house is a bit different and that so I'm
01:21:10
just doing my best to to Really Embrace
01:21:13
that that time with those kids and make
01:21:14
sure that I'm dropping them off to
01:21:16
school that I'm making time to kind of
01:21:18
hang out with them and It's Tricky with
01:21:19
a couple of businesses and and leading a
01:21:21
bu A busy life you know but uh that's my
01:21:23
priority in fact case and point I was
01:21:26
very humbled and grateful I got invited
01:21:28
to go to mat over the summer for for
01:21:30
about a month and next month and I it
01:21:34
was it was a hard but an easy decision
01:21:36
to decline that cuz I was going to miss
01:21:38
an entire summer with my kids and I
01:21:40
just I just couldn't do that so I sort
01:21:44
like to go on T maybe short a shorter
01:21:45
trip you know but um yeah I'm I'm pumped
01:21:48
to to spend time with them to they love
01:21:50
boating snorkeling and simple stuff too
01:21:53
yeah just just hanging out I love that
01:21:55
you are a busy guy yeah you set up
01:21:56
another business um during Co Pro armor
01:22:00
what's Pro Armor Pro armor is like a the
01:22:02
the ultimate prosthetic protection right
01:22:05
so there it is there this this is the
01:22:07
it's like a near PR cover in the
01:22:09
simplest sense customized and designed
01:22:11
to fit over prosthetic feet but a big
01:22:14
problem that UTS have is getting sand
01:22:18
dust and debris into your uh feet hair
01:22:21
chips you name it right anything going
01:22:23
to go down to the foot shell and for me
01:22:25
that was frustrating because I was
01:22:27
constantly the leg shot getting limbs
01:22:28
fixed or limbs replaced or pulling it
01:22:31
apart it's quite hard to get off to kind
01:22:33
of clean out Etc and it also getting new
01:22:36
feet like it's costing taxpayers a lot
01:22:37
of money so years ago I took my idea to
01:22:41
a manufacturer here locally in new Z I
01:22:43
was like dude you got to make up me this
01:22:44
leg cover because it's going to save me
01:22:46
a whole lot of headache so they he did
01:22:48
and then far out like I said the freedom
01:22:50
confidence to do more like the beach no
01:22:52
issues like mowing the Lawns no issues
01:22:53
hiking hunting my foot was always clean
01:22:55
and not malfunctioning and I think I was
01:22:58
at the Lim there saying oh where do you
01:23:00
where do we get these and I the penny
01:23:01
dropped right I thought oh I might be
01:23:03
help you with that and at the same time
01:23:06
and actually I've got I wrote a quote
01:23:07
down I was reading a book by Peter the
01:23:11
that rich dude from the states he's done
01:23:13
lots of startups Facebook investor I
01:23:14
think he was but his his question was
01:23:17
what important truth do very few people
01:23:20
agree with you on it's kind of a funny
01:23:23
question what important truth that very
01:23:25
few people agree with you on well I was
01:23:27
like well no one probably agrees that
01:23:30
these leg covers actually work and I
01:23:31
actually know that that Bloody do M so I
01:23:36
we we kicked it off here in New Zealand
01:23:37
and um yeah the LI into here bought a
01:23:39
bunch and uh it went really really well
01:23:42
and I thought this is pretty cool and it
01:23:44
was it I mean was it a one of those
01:23:46
Silver Lining ideas in Co you could
01:23:48
brand it at that it was just right
01:23:50
timing right right right head space and
01:23:53
I was able to to you know I was I was
01:23:57
going hard with trying to get willing
01:23:58
part challenge maintain and what's going
01:23:59
to happen speaking was dropping off it
01:24:01
was it was crazy time and also um
01:24:03
building up prama went to Aussie you it
01:24:06
was pretty funny hi from New Zealand uh
01:24:10
you want to buy some of these and I got
01:24:12
my 16year old neighbor to create a
01:24:15
spreadsheet of every single Prosthetic
01:24:16
Clinic in Australia and I was just old
01:24:20
school hustling get William you know
01:24:22
here's an email don't join me on a zoom
01:24:23
call and pretty much through Co I would
01:24:25
have had hundred or more meetings just
01:24:28
for these prst being like look it works
01:24:31
send you some samples you know and and
01:24:32
Australia is a is a really really big
01:24:34
you know Revenue line for us and we're
01:24:36
doing a lot of good things I was talking
01:24:37
to a clinic yesterday and he was like
01:24:38
mate this guy's got a partial foot
01:24:41
amputation but it's just just changed
01:24:44
his life in terms of him being able to
01:24:45
go on the beach without any kind of
01:24:46
hassles and things I was like
01:24:48
Primo of course you know the we're at
01:24:51
the bottom of the world and you think
01:24:52
well what else is out there and we
01:24:54
managed to yeah get some distributed set
01:24:55
up in the UK parts of Europe and then
01:24:57
the big carrot was was was USA right and
01:25:02
there's lots of stories about the USA
01:25:03
but I mean it's it's a very hard Market
01:25:06
to to crack right you know in terms of
01:25:08
the little little click click things
01:25:10
that go on over there there and knowing
01:25:12
the healthcare system and all sorts but
01:25:14
I said to B I was like look I've been
01:25:16
trying to get hold of this one guy and
01:25:17
this one company to be a distributor and
01:25:19
they're not returning my calls in fact I
01:25:21
was meant to meet with this one guy from
01:25:23
this company and the day before or maybe
01:25:26
just before the meeting he died so I
01:25:28
didn't have the meeting he was a
01:25:30
distributor and I started to talk to
01:25:32
other people in the company about it and
01:25:33
they were like not interested so I said
01:25:36
to be was like there's a big prosthetic
01:25:38
Compass happening at the end of this
01:25:39
year we should go and I how much is it
01:25:41
going to cost I was like a [ __ ]
01:25:43
load you want to come and she's like
01:25:46
yeah come so we organized you know
01:25:49
grandparents sort the kids out and I was
01:25:51
sitting in the oran airport car park
01:25:53
before he left and I said to I was like
01:25:56
I don't know how well this is going to
01:25:57
go but let's just go and have fun enjoy
01:26:01
it I've never been to that part of the
01:26:03
States before and see what see what
01:26:04
comes of it and we turn up in this expo
01:26:08
Expo Center fire I haven't seen anything
01:26:11
like it before it was huge it was much
01:26:13
beyond the scale of anything I've ever
01:26:14
seen before and there was brilliant
01:26:17
interest from uh from pretus from UTS
01:26:20
and to cut a very long story short I was
01:26:23
able to send
01:26:25
tactfully 100 plus people over to this
01:26:28
company where we wanted to do business
01:26:29
with and the CEO ended up coming over
01:26:31
the at the end of the conference he was
01:26:33
like had a few people come over asking
01:26:36
about your product I oh really have you
01:26:39
mate I said did did you get I said I'll
01:26:42
sent you a few emails he's like yeah
01:26:44
yeah I was like oh look you know I do
01:26:46
think we've got something here and can
01:26:47
we maybe do some business he was like
01:26:49
yeah I think we can so ended up yeah we
01:26:52
ended up signing him on as a distributor
01:26:54
and you know selling selling sock to
01:26:55
them so it's it was one of those cases
01:26:58
of like just don't bloody give up you
01:27:01
know the amount of phone calls must have
01:27:02
made through them and emails and um
01:27:05
things like that and and just putting
01:27:06
ourselves out there and going over there
01:27:08
was probably the best thing for us to
01:27:09
get that understanding of how things
01:27:10
really work over there relationships you
01:27:13
know building that up and I'm actually
01:27:16
going yeah so fast forward I'm going
01:27:18
over to a conference in the MPT
01:27:19
Coalition Conference in uh Atlanta in
01:27:22
August and yeah I'm I'm the keynote
01:27:25
speaker um but we're also going to
01:27:26
exhibit there as well which would be
01:27:27
quite cool so it's going to be it's
01:27:29
going to be a bit of fun different
01:27:30
audience amputees and for me Pro Arma
01:27:33
look it is all about giving people more
01:27:35
freedom and confidence but like willing
01:27:37
PO challeng is helping people PR Arma
01:27:38
it's it's helping people as well and it
01:27:42
is stepping outside of my comfort zone
01:27:43
uh we had an we had an order coming the
01:27:46
other day from a manufacturer and 50% or
01:27:49
near on 100 Grand was all wrong I'm
01:27:52
pulling my hair out and struggling to
01:27:54
get stock to replace that and you know
01:27:56
it's all quite long turn around times
01:27:58
for stock it's all got to be specially
01:27:59
made and different not just from you
01:28:02
can't just pull a template off a you
01:28:03
know te or something you know so yeah um
01:28:06
so there's all sorts of challenges which
01:28:07
we which we're delivering there and
01:28:08
sometimes I think what the what the hell
01:28:10
am I doing you know all this stuff but I
01:28:12
do Thrive off it I do like it it is you
01:28:15
love you love a you love a problem you
01:28:17
love a I love good challenge people like
01:28:19
mate just take it easy in the weekend
01:28:21
just put your feet up and every be I'm
01:28:23
like stuff that man like we who's coming
01:28:25
around we're going to go spear fishing
01:28:27
we we going to go on a bushwalk we're
01:28:28
going sleep in the tent with the kids
01:28:30
yeah you're just an active relaxer I'm
01:28:32
an active relaxer and life's not a
01:28:35
bloody dress rehearsal is it you know I
01:28:36
think you've got to you got to do things
01:28:38
you Eno enjoy do cool
01:28:39
[ __ ] I thought about this the the other
01:28:42
day you know you talked before about
01:28:43
time and how how finite it all is um
01:28:46
there was some news piece I saw the
01:28:47
other day and it was uh yeah I remember
01:28:49
when the Christ Church earthquake
01:28:50
happened in 2011 and there was talk
01:28:52
about it being 15 to 20 years years
01:28:54
before the city had be rebuilt I
01:28:56
remember thinking at the time oh for
01:28:57
[ __ ] sake I'll be dead by then and now
01:28:59
here we are it's like 12 13 years of
01:29:01
that those 20 years later and it's like
01:29:03
where's it gone it goes so quickly if
01:29:05
you don't um sort of manage it it it
01:29:08
does it does go so quickly uh so the the
01:29:11
pro armor stuff um yeah from an
01:29:13
entrepreneurial P perspective you know
01:29:15
are you going to get rich out of that is
01:29:16
that um is that going to be a bus yeah I
01:29:20
believe it can be and it's look we're
01:29:22
doing a right out of it we're not making
01:29:24
Moon beans at all but it's definitely a
01:29:26
boost and kind of you know and and the
01:29:28
old uh the old celery kind of coming in
01:29:30
which is really nice I think there's a
01:29:31
huge amount of Runway to be able to grow
01:29:34
the business and it's not I don't do it
01:29:39
for the money either I think it's that
01:29:40
experience it's that sitting outside of
01:29:42
your comfort zone it's that Adventure
01:29:43
element that I'm I really really Thrive
01:29:45
off money's good right but uh it's what
01:29:47
I I really like so for me yeah it's it's
01:29:51
great that it's see see where you can
01:29:53
get with that it's it's take those
01:29:54
opportunities to go overseas to to kind
01:29:56
of take your wife over there
01:29:58
and yeah
01:30:00
diversify how how do you think your life
01:30:02
would have looked now I don't know this
01:30:04
is a very hypothetical question so it's
01:30:06
a hard one to answer but um had you not
01:30:08
been in that that Hut on September 25th
01:30:12
2007 had you still um yeah if you still
01:30:15
had your right leg how would your life
01:30:16
look look now what'd you be been doing
01:30:18
teaching school principal somewhere yeah
01:30:20
I I chuckle cuz some some part of me
01:30:22
thinks I probably would have fallen off
01:30:23
a mountain at some point cuz I was just
01:30:24
so H beat on climbing mountains and
01:30:27
doing extreme stuff it probably a good
01:30:29
thing mate um you you could be like like
01:30:32
a like a nice mummy on Everest or
01:30:34
something yeah that's right but to
01:30:36
answer your question I think I would be
01:30:40
teaching loving that working my way up
01:30:43
the chain to be a principal maybe
01:30:45
already be a principal having impact on
01:30:47
a class with 30 kids doing a whole lot
01:30:50
of outdoor adventure stuff uh in my
01:30:52
school holidays and living my best life
01:30:56
and that would have been great why would
01:30:58
it not you know
01:31:01
but out of M repu has come opportunities
01:31:07
and you know people might be like oh
01:31:09
always taking advantage of that or you
01:31:11
know he's just e% easy easy kind of road
01:31:13
to kind of do not not easy road but you
01:31:16
know look at what you know he's done
01:31:17
with it it's like well yes but should
01:31:20
it's been hard like I've had to make
01:31:23
sacrifices I've had to you know um make
01:31:26
big decisions to jump out of you know a
01:31:28
secure kind of place and kind of
01:31:29
teaching and any entrepreneur any
01:31:32
business own it's It's a Grind you know
01:31:34
what I mean if you want to do if if you
01:31:36
want to reach those you know that Vision
01:31:38
those those outcomes and get to there
01:31:40
it's hard work and I I I don't do a job
01:31:44
half ass so if I'm going to do something
01:31:45
I do it the best my ability sometimes my
01:31:47
kind of detriment so um yeah but I'm
01:31:51
decisions that I make uh going forward
01:31:54
you know with what's happened after the
01:31:55
accident and where I'm at are all kind
01:31:57
of value based decisions you know and
01:31:59
wife and I are often sitting down saying
01:32:01
okay we're going to make this decision
01:32:02
well well where does that align with
01:32:04
what we do you know we believe in
01:32:05
stepping outside the comfort zone we
01:32:06
believe in being kind and curious we
01:32:08
believe in time Outdoors we time with
01:32:10
the kids um growth mindset and all these
01:32:13
kind of values that we've got stacked
01:32:14
against us so we've got written down and
01:32:17
we've also got our kind of goals as well
01:32:20
you know so quite calculated in terms
01:32:22
of where do we want to get to and how
01:32:26
are we going going to get there and what
01:32:27
are we kind of believe in and I think to
01:32:29
answer that question
01:32:31
properly after Mount
01:32:34
Ru we've we've had
01:32:37
to kind of keep on track and and make
01:32:40
decisions that will help us get towards
01:32:43
those goals I think I'm kind of mincing
01:32:44
my words now but no no I get what you're
01:32:46
saying away what what I what are some of
01:32:48
those goals for the
01:32:49
future so well do you keep them quiet
01:32:52
it's okay for you no no no no no no I
01:32:54
like to separate them out like business
01:32:55
and kind of personal goals so Bix and I
01:32:58
have just ticked off a big personal goal
01:33:00
of ours which was to go to fand and
01:33:02
really experienced it well and we saved
01:33:04
up for two and a half years and we went
01:33:06
down on this this phenomenal uh crew and
01:33:09
B called Pure ass salt and we went with
01:33:11
12 or 10 other C uh sorry five other
01:33:14
couples who we went to high school with
01:33:16
and did play sport with in University
01:33:18
and that was a trip of a lifetime to be
01:33:20
able to get into the beauty of feldland
01:33:23
to hunt every day to dive every day to
01:33:25
walk every day and just just be amongst
01:33:28
it all so I like we just just took that
01:33:31
off so that was a big goal and yeah now
01:33:34
we're looking at what what do we do next
01:33:36
and we've kind of got our next goal is
01:33:39
personal wises would like to experience
01:33:40
being in a little small town for a term
01:33:43
or so so we're just looking at well what
01:33:45
would that look like you know how how
01:33:47
we're fortunate we can work remotely to
01:33:48
some extent and in terms of person go
01:33:51
would love to do something like that
01:33:52
little bit of outside of comfort zone
01:33:54
bit of an adventure so we're like
01:33:55
looking at the type of thing I've always
01:33:57
got like in my downstairs kind of areas
01:34:00
at a whiteboard and I've got Little
01:34:02
Adventures to tick off with the kids
01:34:03
that'll be you need to go and camp at
01:34:05
the uh timy Beach we need to you take
01:34:07
them out to go Island so I like to sck
01:34:09
through all those kind of goals like
01:34:10
that so I've always got a little venture
01:34:12
that I've got like in my back pocket
01:34:13
that I can take the kids on and then my
01:34:14
little goals family
01:34:16
goals uh it SE more to that as well but
01:34:19
then I go over to the the business side
01:34:21
of things and it's for willing part
01:34:24
challenge it's pretty clearcut it's just
01:34:25
to work towards that goal of making sure
01:34:27
we're inspiring energizing getting those
01:34:28
kids to see outside the comfort zone and
01:34:31
and do Bloody well in their life so but
01:34:34
and amongst that like I said before you
01:34:36
know it's oh we got a bit of potential
01:34:37
here with individuals getting them on
01:34:39
board terrible name individuals but
01:34:41
we'll work it out uh and the corporates
01:34:42
like I think there's a huge opportunity
01:34:44
there in terms of well-being resilience
01:34:45
and team building and just hit space
01:34:48
right Pro armor there's yeah I think
01:34:51
there's a a lot of opportunity there as
01:34:52
well in terms of gr that and developing
01:34:54
the product and things like that and
01:34:57
speaking like I love speaking as well
01:34:59
you know if You' to ask me you know at
01:35:01
high school would I'd like to be a
01:35:04
corporate keynote speaker I said get out
01:35:06
of town mate because I was a shy kid you
01:35:08
know I didn't like being on stage i' you
01:35:11
know but I've I've worked hard I've had
01:35:13
coaching I've had mentors I've had
01:35:14
people giv me feedback brutal sometimes
01:35:16
I've I've made mistakes on the stage
01:35:18
like I but for me speaking now is it's
01:35:22
opportunity it's connecting with people
01:35:24
uh I work in a small business so I love
01:35:25
to connect with with people it's uh
01:35:28
getting outside my comfort zone it's
01:35:29
travel it's just there's a lot there
01:35:32
which I really do enjoy yeah yeah well
01:35:34
this the speaking thing for most people
01:35:35
it's their their worst fear but it
01:35:37
definitely gets easier the more you do
01:35:38
it yeah and also um I F with most things
01:35:43
if you ask yourself what's the worst
01:35:44
that's going to happen the worst case
01:35:45
scenario is never that bad really is it
01:35:47
it's not that's not that's not what you
01:35:48
bum in front of a room of 50 people and
01:35:51
it's an unmemorable performance and then
01:35:52
they get on with their life and forget
01:35:53
get you the next day cuz I'm only one of
01:35:56
5 million here anyway you know what I
01:35:57
mean like you know it's it's easy you
01:36:00
know I don't like to get caught up in
01:36:01
all a big keynote speaker not at all
01:36:03
you're you're one of many right and
01:36:05
everyone's got a story to tell and you
01:36:07
know I I do I do what I do on the stage
01:36:09
yeah talk about outside your comfort
01:36:11
zone and and and string together a few
01:36:12
yards you know I always enjoy having
01:36:14
someone come up to the stage and pull my
01:36:16
leg off on the stage and give a bit of a
01:36:17
clean up the story the story behind that
01:36:19
is I used to have a when I was teaching
01:36:21
at school used to have a leg cleaner cuz
01:36:24
TR you know true I'd go the week in the
01:36:25
weekend to beach when the bush Le get
01:36:26
dirty so on a Monday morning he she day
01:36:29
whatever come in and pour my leg off I
01:36:31
got great photo of one of the kids what
01:36:33
like a like a punishment for someone
01:36:35
that's been bad or it was the most
01:36:37
highly s after job
01:36:39
mate Le cleaner top job all the other
01:36:42
are boring you know
01:36:43
lunches um you know PE gear or I don't
01:36:47
know this
01:36:49
sounds we had a great time doing that so
01:36:52
uh I always remember as a very very fun
01:36:55
thing at school but I like to bring that
01:36:57
aspect onto the stage get a good leg
01:36:58
cleaner up leg you know I love that hey
01:37:02
William Pike what a story what a life
01:37:04
and the the funny thing is like the sort
01:37:06
of the person I'm looking in front of me
01:37:08
now I I feel like um whether you were on
01:37:11
ruo in 2007 or whether you weren't your
01:37:14
life would be much the same
01:37:16
regardless you know a few fundamental
01:37:18
differences obviously but um the same
01:37:21
like driven and guy that's full of life
01:37:23
would be sitting in front of me right
01:37:25
now yeah and like I said I think it's
01:37:26
those experiences that we're that we
01:37:28
have when we're perhaps younger or as we
01:37:30
go through life that end up you know
01:37:32
shaping us to be the people that we are
01:37:33
and I'm I am grateful for those
01:37:35
experiences that I had through sport
01:37:36
through the outdoors through my family
01:37:38
through my mom and dad through the
01:37:39
opportunities they gave me to to shape
01:37:41
me into the person that that I am
01:37:43
whether I lose a league or not you know
01:37:45
I'd like to think that if I had lost a
01:37:47
league or not like to think that I'll be
01:37:49
living my best life sounds cliche but I
01:37:51
mean it yeah I know you do you do hey
01:37:54
you are a great New Zealander and it's
01:37:57
been an absolute pleasure to sit down
01:37:58
with you today and get you on the
01:37:59
podcast thank you so much thank you
01:38:01
thank you I I do love doing this type of
01:38:03
thing I don't do it often by any means
01:38:05
but it's an opportunity to to reflect to
01:38:07
you nothing else matters right now you
01:38:09
know we're having a good yarn and I do
01:38:10
really appreciate the the invitation and
01:38:13
you know hearing on the radio and being
01:38:14
you know you know in the background it's
01:38:16
always nice to kind of connect with you
01:38:17
and I've really enjoyed this and um I
01:38:20
love listening to the um the the podcast
01:38:22
the last one listen to my wife and I
01:38:24
were in absolute Stitch stitches listen
01:38:27
to Uncle Tex uh far out shot bro um but
01:38:32
no yeah I mean thanks for getting
01:38:34
inspirational people on and and I've
01:38:35
been inspired by people been on the show
01:38:37
as well so I'm humbled to be here thank
01:38:39
you well you're definitely one of those
01:38:41
inspirational people now give me that
01:38:42
leg let me clean it well it's got a PR
01:38:45
on so you can't clean it so you need to
01:38:48
kind of take this off but uh this is
01:38:50
where all the where all the dirt kind of
01:38:52
gets in oh I was only kidding I'm not
01:38:54
actually going to clean
01:38:56
it if you did you have to be very
01:38:58
careful of uh the Spider-Man stickers
01:39:00
that my boy put on there he'd be very
01:39:01
disappointed if you some of them are
01:39:03
coming off you know oh that's amazing
01:39:06
right hey thanks William P thank you
01:39:08
very much Tom