Denis Columb - Can’t Keep A Good Man Down
They say you can’t keep a good man down and Queenstown’s veteran of off road adventure Denis Columb wasn’t going to let a broken neck, broken back, a sharemarket crash, or cancer keep him from his off road motorbike passion.
He and wife, Marilyn, founded Off Road Adventures in 1989 – believed to be the first in the world to do so, after tourists asked Denis in 1989 where they could hire off road bikes. The business is celebrating 33 years this year and despite numerous setbacks Denis just keeps getting back on the bike.
Raised in Dunedin, he left school at 16, starting a plumbing apprenticeship, then his own business at 21. At 19, Denis discovered motorbikes through a passion for Otago history. He began exploring around Lawrence where his ancestors mined and farmed. However, in 1981 he broke his neck (C2) in a motorbike accident, enduring an agonising ride out of the backcountry for help. “The doctor said I’d never work again.” He went from selling milk and lemonade bottles to feed the family that year, to eventually buying multiple rental properties and building a beautiful home.
Denis bought a Kurow plumbing business and despite working in intense pain for 18 months he was soon turning over $200,000 a year. A new government in 1984 put paid to that with income plummeting as farmers cut spending. He and Marilyn moved, with three young kids, from the Hakataraema Valley to Queenstown in 1985 where he worked building and plumbing. Unfortunately the 1987 sharemarket crash and 25 percent interest rates left them again scraping the barrel.
That was until the Columb family was up motorbike riding together at Skippers. “Two German tourists asked where they could hire bikes so I took them for a ride and they paid $100 each for an afternoon,” says Denis. “I had no money at the time.” Jobless, he gave it a crack. “I’d park downtown with the trailer and bikes on the back with a photo album showing people where I took clients. It gave us enough to survive.”
Then in 1991 another accident meant eight broken bones and facial surgery for Denis in Dunedin Hospital. “I was sitting to the side of the Skippers Road waiting for my clients and an oncoming German tourist on a motorbike rode across the road and straight into me!” says Denis. “We had no income again and I was offered a $40 a week benefit. I’d squash my cast and take clients into Skippers as I had no money to feed my kids.”
He’d operated for a few summers from Brown’s Ski Hire and in 1997 friends helped, chipping in so he could secure the current Shotover Street base, initially shared with other operators. Denis and Marilyn manned that almost 12 hours a day most days until 2010 when they employed an Irish marketing manager. “Markets have changed through the years, but we’ve always retained good staff that we’ve trained to eliminate risks.”
Denis says he’s fought several government agencies in various battles with bureaucracy, but persistence and determination saw him through.
Off Road Adventures expanded to take South Island tours, including upmarket international clients, many of them Russians. The Columbs also bought the Hakataramea Valley School in 2005, back on home, Richie McCaw turf. Converted into an adventure conference centre, that now sleeps 40, and the Columbs also own Naseby Lodge as part of their touring network.
Motorbikes are in the blood for this pioneering family of off road champions, with three of four kids reaching international and national stardom.
After cancer surgery in 2018 - the same day champion mountain biker daughter Alanna was in critical care after a serious bike crash, Denis was back on the bike. In 2019 he and Marilyn rode 18,500kms through the European mountains for three months, one of many overseas motorcycle tours.
“You can listen to the doctors and sit in a chair and die, or just get on with it.”
He’s renowned for giving those with disabilities a thrill ride, one of the most rewarding a deaf and blind, British Kiwi Bus passenger. “The bus driver asked me to take him for a spin so I slid around a few corners and popped a few wheel stands. I could hear him singing “Born To Be Wild,” grins Denis. “He went back to England inspired after that and ran his own TV show encouraging people with disabilities.”
With his four kids helping in the business, Covid saw staff numbers reduced from 16 to 6 and Denis selling almost $600,000 of vehicles and motorbikes. However, Off Road’s trademark bikes, quad bikes, buggies and four-wheel drives still operate from its Gorge Road Adventure Park, as do South Island adventure bike tours.
The Columbs are now legendary tourism pioneers in their field, giving more than 200,000 clients - many of them famous, a backcountry thrill, over 350,000 hours in the mountains.
