For years, Cardona’s Snowfarm has attracted some of the world's leading cross-country skiers and this year has been no different with Olympians from the United States making the journey to Central Otago.
And following in their trails is Hawea's new rising cross country skier, Lewis Briscall.
“It's nice to have some other good skiers to hang out with. I’ve been tagging along with their skiing and stuff which has been really good, I'm learning a lot from them," Briscall told 1News.
Three-time Olympic medallist Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern are using the slopes of Snowfarm for their summer training camp and have invited Briscall to train with them while they’re in the country.
“We've been talking a lot about how we plan training sessions," said Diggins. "Today we were talking about speeds, so quick 15-second bursts that help with sprints at the end of a race or getting over a start line.”
“There's not many of his teammates here and thankfully we can train with him," said Kern.
"It's incredible how well he's skiing.”
The teenager is the current cross country skiing national champion with the goal of one day competing at an Olympic Games.
If he can get there, he’ll follow in similar trails of former New Zealand representative Campbell Wright, who also grew up training on the slopes of Snowfarm.
Wright won a junior world title and competed at the Winter Olympics in biathlon for New Zealand. But last year he switched allegiances to the United States for better resources and opportunity.
“He lives just up the road from me so it's good to know that it doesn't matter where you're from, you can still make it," said Briscall.
"It is a pretty small sport in New Zealand so it'll be good to see how far I can go with it.”
While Briscall is committed to representing New Zealand in the future, it’s understood he is in the process to obtaining a British passport.
The British team have shown their interest in the teenager, and have invited him to train with their development team in Norway later this year.
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