Wanaka-based Aspiring Guides has been sold to a local couple.

Vickie Moses and Lukas Kirchner bought the 25-year-old guiding business in late May. Both have lived in Wanaka for nine years and though they are keen outdoors people, the purchase is their first foray into the guiding world.

Moses is an organisational development consultant and Kirchner is a plumber. The couple has two sons, Jeremiah and Samuel.

“The reason both of us ended up in Wanaka is because of the outdoors,” Moses said. “We both climb a lot and Lukas is a very accomplished mountaineer, ice climber and backcountry skier.”

The couple intends to have a hands-off approach to running the business for the next two years. “The team is doing such a great job without us poking our noses in every five minutes,” Moses said. “Our main job is to enable them to keep doing what they’re doing. ”

Though the ownership has changed, the trips offered by the company have not. The popular Rabbit Pass trip remains, as does ski touring on Robrosa Station near Wanaka and at Black Peak where the company has a private hut.

“We’re continuing the great relationship Aspiring Guides has with Robrosa Station,” said Moses. “That’s a backcountry ski area near Wanaka and is a special part of the world.

“We also have the only concession for Rabbit Pass and we get to continue that. I think that’s the kind of privileged position you’re in when you’re a 25-year-old business. You’ve got those connections that you can continue.”