Family has ice in their DNA

• Published date: 15 August 2024
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

CHAOTIC

It’s the word Libby-Jean Challis, 29, uses to describe any given Tuesday night in their family during winter.

She’s one of the newest members of the Wakatipu Wild women’s ice hockey team, while her husband Jordan, 32, plays for the SkyCity Stampede.

On Tuesdays, particularly, the former Aucklanders are back and forward from the Queenstown Ice Arena, coaching the next generation, including their boys, Cruz, 7, and Miller, 4, before their own separate trainings, tagging each other in and out of parenting duties, with help from Libby-Jean’s sister, who lives nearby.

Then comes game weekends.

While this weekend the Wild’s in Auckland and the Stampede’s at home to the Phoenix Thunder — the difference between a home final or otherwise — Jordan, the district sales manager for Sydney-headquartered BRP, will be in the United States for work.

So his mum, Sue, will fly down from Auckland to help, while Libby-Jean, who launched her own content creation business, Nosy Parker, last April, heads up.

The family decided to relocate to Queenstown —...