About
Mary Hobbs published the award-winning New Zealand Outside magazine for 10 years. She is the author of Kiwi Tucker for the Soul, a best-selling collection of inspirational stories about New Zealanders; Letters to New York and America, from New Zealand with Love, a non-political book of letters gifted to the American people and the President of the United States following the events of 9/11; The Spirit of Mountaineering, Volume I, about the early history of mountain guiding at Aoraki/Mount Cook; and Christchurch Dreaming, a book of inspiration for the people of Christchurch following a devastating series of earthquakes.
Mary and her husband Charlie’s lives have included mountain and ski-guiding, expeditions to some of the most remote parts of the planet including Africa, Tibet, the deep field of Antarctica, and Nepal, with Sir Edmund Hillary, where Mary took photos of Ed’s aid projects, at his request.
Mary’s life has included the thrills and spills of a nursing profession where she specialized in the Coronary Care Unit; the excitement of launching a new career as a writer and publisher; helping her husband Charlie with his guiding business and also joining him in the battle to overcome some seemingly insurmountable obstacles to establish The Old Mountaineers’ Café, Bar, Restaurant and Historic Gallery in Aoraki/Mount Cook – the only business in the village ever opened by Sir Edmund Hillary.
Mary and Charlie live at Aoraki/Mount Cook, where they own a guiding company, and The Old Mountaineers’, which serves much in the way of organic food and New Zealand wines. They divide their time between their various businesses as well as adventures in the Southern Alps, alpine trekking and skiing, organic farming, photography, and publishing and writing books of inspiration. They both love the outdoor environment of New Zealand, which is where you’ll usually find them.
For Mary, the main focus of her books is to communicate the heart and soul of the people and places she writes about and photographs, and to draw the reader into her books with a special combination of stories and photos that brings them to life, spreads a little magic, and takes the reader on a journey where they will possibly laugh, cry, be outraged, amused, but, most of all, inspired.
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