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Antipodes Water
Conspicuously unobtrusive
In the beginning it was just an idea. New Zealander Simon Woolley wanted to produce a premium mineral water that was not merely of the highest quality but which was also unique and true to its origins. There are hardly any better conditions to access such a precious resource than the untrammeled and modest lifestyle in New Zealand. Woolley, co-founder of the small but noble Antipodes Water Company, is a kind of star witness for this.
“I was once in a bar in Putney, London,” explains Woolley with an enthusiastic glint in his eye when relating the story of how Antipodes started. “I was telling one of the locals that I came from New Zealand when he looked at me and said, ‘Oh, you’re from the Antipodes.’ The word sounded almost dispar- aging the way he said it. But I laughed and found it great. I immediately saw the positive side and thought that the idea of New Zealand as the antipode of industrialized Europe describes exactly why our country is so unadulterated. One conversation led to another and when we were getting our water company off the ground one of my partners said, ‘Why don’t we call it Antipodes?’”
Woolley pours us a glass of his beloved water from the distinctive Antipodes glass bottle and recounts how the start of the company continued, “The Antipodes name suggests where the water comes from. The more we thought about it, the clearer it be- came that our water doesn’t just come from the other end of the world – it was supposed to represent the exact opposite of water that comes in mass-produced plastic bottles. The Antipodes name sums up neatly what our water is all about.”
Text Tim Boreham
