Mountain Club

AI Series Workshop: ChatGPT Beyond the Basics || Thursday 20 August || 1200 – 1300 || Mountain Club Five Mile

Nick Gilbert, founder of Favour, is running the second session in our AI workshop series, and it goes past the basics. Most people still copy ChatGPT's answers into an email, a doc, or a spreadsheet by hand. Nick shows a better way, connecting ChatGPT and Codex directly to the tools you already use, so what comes out the other end is something ready to review, not just another answer to copy out.

Bring a laptop with the ChatGPT desktop app installed, and one real project to work on. Small group, hands-on, practical from the first five minutes. Not a member yet? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to [email protected] to find out more. 300+ events a year. Global network. Brilliant people.

Global membership means never landing as a stranger.

James Cooper touched down in Singapore for a business trip and, within hours, was taking meetings, eating well and being welcomed straight into a community, all through Mountain Club's affiliate network. No cold intros, no scrambling for a decent coffee or a place to think, just a home away from home the moment he stepped off the plane.

His Singapore base was Mandala Club, a heritage shophouse in Bukit Pasoh built around conversation, creation, celebration and connection. Between working sessions at The Members Bar and long lunches at POPI's, it has the easy, settled feel of somewhere you already belong.

This is the real value of global membership: wherever business or life takes you, there's a door that opens and a room full of good people on the other side.
Curious what global membership could look like for you? Reach out to [email protected].

Your newest member perk has arrived, and it floats.

Last Wednesday, the first 14 members got to try our new weekly sauna and plunge ritual at Watershed Saunas, Aotearoa's first floating sauna on Lake Whakatipu.

Your weekly wellness schedule has levelled up with one included session every Wednesday as part of your MC membership. Sixty minutes of Finnish-style heat, a cold plunge straight into the lake, and a view you won't find in any other sauna on earth.

And if once a week isn't enough, Watershed is offering MC members 20% off everything. Perfect if you're after private sessions, gift vouchers, or making this a weekly habit.

Head to your MC app or the perks channel on Slack for the discount code. This one's worth using often.

The past fortnight at Mountain Club.

The fortnight opened on a big stage, with WiT making its New Zealand debut in Queenstown. The one-day travel tech conference brought leaders and changemakers from travel, tourism, hospitality and technology together to explore how digital innovation, storytelling and data are reshaping one of the world's most experience-driven regions, and plenty of MC faces were in the room.

Back at the club, our Industry Leaders panel asked whether Queenstown could become a blue zone, with Nadia Lim, Dominic Bowden, Damian Chaparro and Dr Adam Castricum holding both the pride and the problems of this place at once. Sidekick brought economist Cameron Bagrie in for a sharp evening on where the economy is really heading, and Impact100 Whakatipu's Untold Stories returned with Julie Scott sharing the quiet, compelling stories of local women.

Then to the mountains. Our MC x Black Crows Demo Day saw the crew skin up Sarah Sue on Black Crow touring demo skis before testing the resort range on Coronet corduroy, with fresh snow it was the day of the season. August kicked off with our monthly AI Meet-Up, and the first weekly Sauna Session at Watershed Saunas took connection out of the club and onto the lake, 14 members, one floating sauna, and a proper midweek reset.

The weekly rhythm rolled on, 7am ski tours up Coronet, Reform Pilates keeping us moving, and Beach St Cafe keeping the coffees flowing through it all.

Ideas, connection, and good people. Just another fortnight at Mountain Club. Not a member yet? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to [email protected] to find out more. 300+ events a year. Global network. Brilliant people.

COMING UP IN AUGUST

We kicked the month off on the snow with the MC x Black Crows NZ Demo Day on Saturday, and tonight our monthly AI Meet-Up returns, a space for open conversation on what's emerging and what's actually working. Wednesday brings something new, our weekly Social Sauna at Watershed Saunas. Now included in your membership, a sauna and cold plunge with fellow members every week, a midweek reset to break up the week and make time for yourself.

Mid-month is a full week. Impact100 Whakatipu's Untold Stories returns with Olivia Wildey, before Thursday doubles up with the first How I Built This, a raw, quick-fire session on scaling a business with Dr Harriet Watkins and Mason's Queenstown. We close the week with After Hours: Salsa & Margs, an evening to loosen up and learn a few salsa moves and socialise with the MC community.

Later in the month, our Bitcoin Journey workshop covers learning to send and receive bitcoin, and the AI Series continues with ChatGPT Beyond the Basics. We head on the snow with Search and Rescue Dogs Avalanche NZ to meet the dogs behind avalanche rescue, before our August Industry Leaders asks What Defines Great Architecture with Fearon Hay, facilitated by Paddy Kluts. A Tasting Session with Wet Jacket Wines rounds out the month.

Weekly Ski Touring continues every Thursday at Coronet through winter, Reform Pilates keeps its weekly rhythm at the club, and Wednesdays now belong to the Watershed Saunas.

A month built for the people who want to keep learning, keep moving, and keep showing up. Not a member yet? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to [email protected] to find out more. 300+ events a year. Global network. Brilliant people.

Industry Leaders: What Defines Great Architecture || Wednesday 26 August || 1730 - 1900 || MC Beach St

In a landscape like ours, the finest homes don't compete with the view. They defer to it.

As Queenstown builds at pace, the real measure of great design isn't how much you can put on a site, but how quietly and confidently a home can sit within it.

We're joined by Fearon Hay, one of New Zealand's most awarded practices and a 2024 Architectural Digest AD100 studio, known for a deep respect for site and place and a restraint that lets the landscape prevail. You'll see it close to home in MC member Matt Chapman's Edge of the World estate, a contemporary shepherd's hut in cedar, glass and concrete that sits so quietly little else of the built world remains in view.

Facilitated by Paddy Kluts, this is a conversation on the craft behind considered, luxury design and what it takes to build something that lasts.

Not a member yet? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to [email protected] to find out more. 300+ events a year. Global network. Brilliant people.

Could Queenstown become a blue zone? That question filled the room at our latest Industry Leaders, digging into what it would take for our corner of the world to become one of the healthiest and most connected places on earth. Exactly the kind of conversation Mountain Club was built for.

A big thank you to our panel, Dr Adam Castricum, Nadia Lim, Damien Chaparro and Dominic Bowden for sharing their views and insights on this fascinating subject, and Paddy Kluts asking the questions.

A few lines that stayed with us:

Nadia - "You can't engineer a blue zone. But we could create the conditions from which the characteristics of a blue zone could emerge." And the biggest lever for that? The research on happiness comes down to the size of the inequality gap, and affordable housing would move the dial most.

Dom - Community cannot be manufactured. "It's something very authentic and very real. And Queenstown has an identity crisis where it could lose it very easily." Creating places for people to linger is where a real blue zone starts.

Every month Mountain Club's Industry Leaders events bring together experts across sectors to share insight, challenge assumptions, and create future-focused conversations that matter. Discover these amongst our 300+ events for members every year.

Photographer: Chris Chase Photography
Art on the walls: Peace in 10,000 Hands