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As a business leader and community advocate with extensive experience in agriculture, governance, and sport, Chris Stewart understands what it takes to get something started. He’s competed in four GODZONE chapters, ten Coast to Coasts and other Ironman events and brings a ‘Goodfella endorsement’ to everything he achieves.
Chris is a member of the PURE ADVENTURE Charitable Trust, bringing decades of governance experience through his involvement with numerous local, regional, and national sporting organisations, where he has contributed to strategic direction, policy development, and community impact.
An intentional business focus has been key to his success, as he currently owns and operates third-generation Glenrannoch Farms and Fairbank Farms in Southland, alongside a portfolio of other property and commercial ventures, including his role as founding director of New Zealand’s Natural Pet Food Group.

How does the challenge of doing business mirror competing at GODZONE?
I enjoy the whole process of starting and driving a business, as well as the people and the challenge, which has good similarities to GODZONE. The event is a high-pressure environment forcing you to make good decisions under pressure while racing in wilderness areas.
There are very few opportunities in life now where you place yourself into a challenging position and have to work it out. GODZONE is one of those places where the team looks after itself, and making poor decisions can get you into trouble. Having the health and safety of your teammates foremost is essential, and I enjoy making decisions and being part of the leadership team to ensure we’re heading in the right direction.

What skills did you bring to your GODZONE team?
As a team captain, having empathy for how everyone is feeling was important. Just quietly talking to team members, I would keep the conversation flowing to ensure everyone was ticking along nicely and doing well, even if we were struggling due to a lack of sleep. Our team comprised of highly motivated individuals, and no one wanted to be the person to say stop if we found ourselves in a tricky or dangerous spot. When everyone was feeling the pressure, one of my key roles was to call it and reassess.
My approach to leadership was about leading from the back because we were a group of highly skilled individuals participating in the race, so I just made sure everything ran smoothly according to plan. It worked well because Dave, our chief navigator, loved navigating from the front, and I would be checking the route we were taking from the back, which worked well.

What attracted you to race at GODZONE?
I am a red personality person – I love competition in everything – it’s just me. I’ve participated in every sport you can name. I love competitive squash and have a racing car. I also enjoy yacht racing, have water-skied at a national level, Ironman events, snow ski and play golf.
All the 24 and 48-hour races I’ve done in the past led to GODZONE – it was a natural progression. Ginge (a fellow trustee) rang up and asked me if I wanted to race with his team, and I had no idea what it was about. And then you catch the bug, and it’s like, ‘ Wow – this race is just phenomenal. ‘You learn lessons about yourself and others that can be taken into other parts of your life – there is nothing else quite like GODZONE for that.

What attracted you to be a member of the PURE ADVENTURE Charitable Trust?
The opportunity to be part of getting GODZONE back up and running, and allowing other people to experience it, was a powerful draw. The Trust, as a charity, can provide transparency around the work and dedication that create this type of event and support a broad range of people in engaging with the sport of adventure racing, which is exciting.
The Trust is a vehicle to keep the race going, and I would personally like to see it as an elite race (like the Tour de France) and known all around the world as an iconic event to come and race right here in New Zealand. We are fortunate to have elite athletes Sophie Hart and Richie McCaw on the Trust, along with a great mix of people who all have the competitors’ views at heart.

Any favourite memories from GODZONE?
Chapter 9: Paddling across Lake Taupo, and Brent, our navigator, who is big and taller than me, was in the front of the boat, so I got to dictate the pace of our paddle stroke, and it was just too slow for me. I struggled that whole paddle. He had worked so hard – with blisters on his hands and bleeding (just the kind of thing you do in GODZONE)- and when we arrived at Kinloch Beach, I said, ‘You paddled too slow.’ He thought I meant he didn’t paddle hard enough, but it was just that the messaging was wrong. It was all on me, and eventually we sorted it out and carried on happily. It’s those kinds of things that you learn from GODZONE—those uncomfortable situations where you have to work it out.

Favourite race foods?
My wife had a catering business, so we had quite a lot of technology, including blast chillers and vacuum packing dishes, such as lemon lamb and venison casseroles. Really nice restaurant-quality food that we heated at TA’s direct from our bike boxes – it was unreal. One thing I rate is a gingernut biscuit – they’re a great energy source for weight, making them really good race tucker.