WHAT WE DO
Great events, stunning locations.
We create events that are a little different – challenging, interesting and achievable. Events that inspire you to get out there and give it a nudge. We’re not primarily about elite athletes (though we have plenty of respect for them!), we’re more for those who are keen to challenge themselves with like-minded people. All shapes, all sizes, all backgrounds!
WHO WE ARE
Aaron Carter
Owner/Director
I’m a lifer, I started Total Sport in 2000, and can’t see myself being anywhere else. I’m inspired by people and places, and think we have an amazing opportunity to create memorable and meaningful event experiences for a wide variety of people. I love this business – what it is now, what it can be in the future, and what it does for the people who spend their valuable leisure time with us.
Julieanne Elder
Event Manager
My Total Sport story actually starts before I even got to NZ, before I knew it was to be a story, with a recommendation from a kiwi to try Total Sport events when I got here. As I came to NZ as a Chartered Accountant you wouldn’t immediately work out where this story was going! But I was always still searching for my “fit”, and in 2016 I found events was it. Most importantly, the universe seemed to know from my first year as a volunteer that Total Sport were to be my whānua.
As a keen trail runner, hiker, mountain biker and general lover of being outdoors, there is nothing more rewarding than being part of an incredible team getting to help create opportunities for others to enjoy the trails. I love the community that is created around our events, and seeing people cross the finish lines, sharing their joy and accomplishments is really something special.
Mark Fordham
Event & Course Manager
Working with people who have the same passion for this stuff as I do, participants / workmates / suppliers and sponsors. I love creating a platform that encourages people to explore and discover their own potential with like minded people in stunning locations. It may sound a little cheesy but this is what makes this my dream job. On top of that there’s the course reccie’s, travel, and variety every week provides.
Dave Franks
General Manager
I love what we do! I love the fact that we get to create an experience that gives so much joy, fulfilment and vitality to the amazing people that choose to participate. An avid runner myself, I am truly lucky to be part of the awesome team here at Total Sport – and able to make a living out of something I love to do.
Nic Oosterdijk
Chief Bean Counter
As a stay at home mum for 5 years, it was always going to be something special that brought me back to the work sector and the Total sport team is just that. Being surrounded by such passionate people is a joy and a privilege and I can easily say I love my job. I’ve always loved the outdoors, especially white water kayaking and mountain biking, but being surrounded by this amazing team has inspired me to try something new and get myself some trail shoes.
Bryce Green
General Manager, Taupo
My journey with the Total Sport family started back in 2007 and after an 8+ year hiatus living in Canada chasing all kinds of adventures, I feel unbelievably lucky to be back in the mix. Total sport is always the place where I felt most at home, with likeminded people creating unreal experiences for people in some of the best pockets of NZ. Excitement, stress, joy, fatigue, innovation, determination…you name it, it’s all here.
Bottom line is, I just want to do cool shit with cool people.
Christine Augusto
Registration Manager
Finding the perfect job is what we all dream of- I love the outdoors, running, biking, adventure racing you name it if its outdoors I’ll do it - so working for Total Sport is my dream job. What more could you ask for when you are part of a company that cares about the environment, people, animals along with most of the job being outdoors
Renee Tukua
Registration Manager
I started at Total Sport July 2018, after numerous years behind a desk in Finance. It’s a very kool place to work with amazing people, events in amazing locations and of course we get to hang with some pretty kool participants too. Seeing their faces come across the finish line is something else - the achievement of finishing, the smiles, the tears, the laughter.. that’s why we do what we do and we love it! When I’m not hanging with my Total Sport whanau, I’m hanging with my boys, enjoying the sunshine, the beach or the snow.
Tara Benedict
Marketing & Design
It’s a huge privilege to work with a company that isn’t slinging products or trying to get you to buy stuff you don’t need. Here at Total Sport we’re just about taking people to amazing locations for amazing experiences – and building a fabulous community around it. As an avid trail runner, tramper, and bird watcher, ours is a mission I stand behind 100%.
Bevan Thompson
Course Manager
I am a newbie to the event industry, starting in August 2018 after teaching PE and outdoor ed and organising school sport for 18 years. My favourite part of teaching was getting young people into sport and into the outdoors, so what I do now at Total Sport is a perfect fit for me. What I love most about working for Total Sport is the people I work with, being in the outdoors, and seeing the happiness, self-satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment (and sometimes relief) on participants’ faces when they cross our finish lines, knowing that I helped to create that experience for them. I’m inspired by those who individually challenge themselves in our running events, whether it be 5km, 42km, or 100km; you never know, I may get off my mountain bike and into some running shoes one day soon!
And the ones who can never quite leave…
Vicki Woolley
Course Manager
I have happy memories of accompanying my father on his daily possum trapline as a pre-schooler. I couldn’t last the distance back then, and at some point each day he would swing me up by the back of my bright orange parka and deposit me into his hunting pack to sleep the remaining few kms. Those early forays sparked an unbridled love for wild and beautiful places. My first seat on the Total Sport bus was (like yours!) as participant. For a short time I occupied the accountant’s chair, but it became increasingly difficult to keep me indoors and I now fill my days wandering happily around in the bush bearing the title of Course Manager. What gets me out of bed at 3am on event morning?
1. Today we will introduce people to an astonishing part of New Zealand.
2. Today we will support some people to do more than they thought they could.
3. Today we might make a difference. Maybe someone will gain confidence to challenge themselves in a different arena? Maybe someone will be inspired to defend our wild spaces?
One person in a thousand experiencing a positive shift is reason enough to get me out of bed.
Vicki Fowler
Chief Doer
I’ve been involved at Total Sport since day dot – first as a moral supporter, then as an event volunteer (back in the day when “event timing equipment” consisted of a clipboard, a blank sheet of paper and a pen!) and, since 2007, as a part-timer. I feel very fortunate to be part of the Total Sport family – all of us share a passion for New Zealand’s stunning outdoors and Total Sport’s mission to deliver memorable, enriching experiences that add lashings of tasty soul food to the lives of so many!