Icebreaker - Pure Merino

RIP Shrek – not the curmudgeonly green ogre, but the woolly colossus who made headlines around the world after evading mustering for six years.

Shrek was no ordinary merino. If anything, he looked more like a giant cauliflower than a sheep.

By the time Shrek was discovered in a cave on Bendigo sheep station near New Zealand’s Southern Alps, he had avoided the shearer’s blades for six years. His 38cm (15ins) coat of merino wool had kept him alive despite the region’s harsh, snowy winters and searingly-hot summers.

Shrek had the full Brazilian – and more – on an iceberg off the coast of Dunedin. Shrek’s fabulous ‘fro yielded 27kg (59lb) of merino wool, which is six times as much as the average sheep.

Icebreaker stepped in to keep the newly-naked Shrek cosy with a specially-made coat, which he wore for an audience with then Prime Minister Helen Clark in Wellington. He flew in planes, visited hospitals and was immortalised in best-selling books, and in the process raised money for a children’s charity.

Fame never turned Shrek’s head, and his owners said he was a sheep of exceptional personality.

Alas, Shrek’s dream run has come to an end. At 17 – almost double his life expectancy – Shrek had to be put down after suffering health problems. Station owner John Perriam described him as “a great old mate” who was ready to go to sleep.

John wants Shrek’s ashes to be scattered at the top of Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, so he can look out over his old stamping ground. A service for Shrek will be held at the appropriately-named Church of the Good Shepherd.

“Layer up for warmth” is one of our favourite phrases at Icebreaker, and we’ve never met anyone who did it as well as Shrek. Farewell, old friend – we’ll miss ewe.

Jordan Pearson recently completed the Speight’s Coast to Coast, racing a gruelling 243 km’s from New Zealand’s West to East Coast, crossing the mighty Southern Alps and some of our merino country in the process. An Icebreaker sponsored athlete, Jordan put our GT Baselayers to the ultimate test.

“My first Speight’s Coast to Coast went better than expected with great results in all of my sections. My school team finished 3rd in the 2 Day School Boys section.

On the beach I received a lot of media attention in my R&R Sport kit, a bright yellow school team race bib with Icebreaker tattoos on my face. The race began well with an average run placing me in the third bunch up the road. Ok but the bunch wasn’t working well together so using my awesome Giant TCR Advanced I made the jump up to the second bunch. However, this bunch wasn’t working well together either, so when I got the chance I made a break up to the first bunch. With about 20km to go on the first ride, the individuals expected the team members to tow them to the run transition. This left me pulling along the first bunch without help. I soon got sick of towing them along so I broke away seeing if I could catch Steve Gurney. I didn’t quite catch him before the transition but still good enough to be 5th overall into transition giving my team runner a five minute lead over the other school boy teams. After a decent run by my team mate, we were still placed third, 20 minutes behind second place. A good day 1.

Day 2 began well, with Steve Gurney, Olivia Spencer-Bower and Kate Cambie in my start group. Steve and I charged through the bike catching other competitors easily as we worked together to Mt White Bridge. I was really pleased to actually lead Gurney while running down to the kayak. My Icebreaker GT layers were ideal for the paddle through the higher than normal gorge. Took a few waves over the bow but great fun and fast! The kayak was going well until just before Woodstock where the wind picked up to almost impossible conditions for paddling. Thanks to the wind and my relative light weight I had several swims which lost me at least 40 minutes. Even the elites and heavier paddlers were having major issues with the wind. After a fast transition, my team mate was flying down the final cycle until 2 punctures ended any chance of moving in to second place, crossing the line in an overall time of 14:10:00.

Overall, the race went well with only a few glitches. Thanks to Icebreaker for the merino layers.”

- Jordan Pearson, Icebreaker Sponsored Athlete

I was lucky enough to get the call up from one of our New Zealand sponsored companies, Heli Tours, to see if I’d like to take a helicopter ride from Wanaka to Christchurch, through to the head of the Rakaia (including a flight around the glaciers); as they were heading up for a promotional photo shoot in Canterbury.  It’s not often that an opportunity like this comes up, and to share the experience I invited along one of our legend retail staff members – Claire Bolger, from R&R Sport.

It was the most incredible way to travel up the Lower South Island of NZ – flying over many of the High Country stations that supply our wool, and cutting what would be a five and half hour car drive down to just over one hour of flight time and a pure scenic sensation.   The chopper is a beautiful 6 seated squirrel which was flown by owner/operator Paul Mitchell with first mate at his side, Bruce Willis (his Labrador).

We flew up on Thursday evening and awoke Friday morning to a stunning Christchurch day.  We landed at Glenfalloch Station up near the top of the Rakaia River and packed the helicopter full of food, along with our photographer for the day – Antonia Steeg.  We then headed up into the snow capped Southern Alps, flying around the stunning glaciers before landing right next to one of the glacial lakes where we set up the most incredible picnic of smoked salmon, mussels, blue cheese, Champagne and strawberries!  What a way to spend a Friday you might say!

A huge thanks to Paul Mitchell and Heli Tours for the most amazing experience and adventure – I will be a model for a photo shoot anytime if that’s what’s required!

- Gemma Harper, Icebreaker Lower South Island Account Manager, New Zealand