Two-time Olympic kayaker Max Brown might be best known for his paddling prowess now but there was a time in his childhood when he was “obsessed with skiing.”
Growing up in Whanganui, his dad always owned Subarus and they were the vehicle of choice to ferry a young Max to his favourite destination of Whakapapa ski field.
“We would leave Friday evening, drive 1.5 hours, then hike an hour up the mountain to stay at the Whanganui Ski Club - often walking up in snowfall. Subaru for me wasn’t just a car. If I got in the Subaru, it meant adventure,” Max says.
Fast forward through two Olympic Games … (At Tokyo 2020, Max paired with Kurtis Imrie and they placed 5th in the K2 event. Then at Paris 2024, Max contested the K4 event alongside Kurtis Imrie, Hamish Legarth and Grant Clancy, with the crew making the final… And adventure still features strongly in his day-to-day life.
As a Subaru brand ambassador Max is currently driving our 2026 Outback Touring and recently loaded it to the brim when he and wife Izzy moved down from Mt Maunganui to Wanaka. The couple plan to be based there until the end of the year, while Max is training for his latest challenge – the gruelling 243km Coast to Coast Longest Day race in February 2027.
“We had to fit our whole life into the Outback, in terms of clothes, Izzy’s bed pillows, hair straighteners, my two bikes, a kayak, a paddle, a million thermals and ski gear,” Max says.
The tetris-style packing paid off and the newly-weds managed to stash everything in the 1810 litres of cargo volume (to the ceiling) with the rear seats down. There was even room left over for Max to collect a few extra sporting items on the way down New Zealand!
Living in Wanaka has been the perfect location for him and a typical week makes full use of the Outback’s many attributes. The 220mm of ground clearance comes in handy as he parks up on the stony lakefront to begin a kayak session on Lake Wanaka.
The All-Wheel Drive engineering prowess comes into play when he heads out along the rough, rutted Wānaka-Mount Aspiring Road gravel road to begin a paddle down the Matukituki River.
Spring rain often brings the multiple ford crossing levels up on this same route, when Max goes for a mountain run up the local Rob Roy Glacier track and he has made good use of the Outback’s X-Mode when manoeuvring his way through them. X-Mode works by controlling the engine output, transmission, torque split and braking system to compliment the All-Wheel Drive system and tackle the trickiest situations.
Then when he is taking a break from training and his Account and Sponsorship Manager role for New Zealand-based partnership and sponsorship agency Waddell, Max and Izzy can be found enjoying his first love of skiing.
“We try to get up to the slopes at Cardrona and Treble Cone whenever we can. Wanaka is like its own little adventure playground to live in. I get to kayak, bike and run with mountains as my backdrop and then for fun, I get to ski down them!” Max says.
From training sessions to race day, road trips to epic adventures, Subaru New Zealand will be right there alongside Max as he gears up for the 2027 Coast to Coast and everything in between.
Subaru ambassador Max Brown is training for the 2027 Coast to Coast which means his Subaru Outback is often loaded with adventure gear.