“We Had Lived These Side-By-Side Lives, Then They Crossed Over”
A chance meeting led to a lasting friendship for Caroline Brauer (right) and Christie Hampton. After decades of friendship, they now find themselves working together.
Caroline We actually met on a chair lift in Aspen when we were doing our first ski instructor’s certification. I was still at uni in Canberra, Christie had just finished her degree at Wollongong [NSW], and we sat next to each other on the first chair lift ride of the day. Back in Canberra I’d been working at a restaurant and the owner always talked about this family friend of hers called Christie who loved skiing and who she said I would really get on with. When Christie and I started talking, I soon realised she was the person I’d been told about.
Christie I don’t know if Caroline actually knows this, but I engineered that first meeting. There was a group of people in front of the ski lift and I saw Caroline and another girl the same age. They looked like they might be potential friends for me, so I pushed my way through the line to align myself with them. When I got talking to Caroline, it turned out she was working for the mum of one of my best friends and we had a whole host of friends in common. They’d been telling me I should meet this girl called Caroline – so it was meant to be. We had lived these side-by-side lives and at that moment, they crossed over.
CB Christie and I share a passion for skiing. In Aspen, we worked hard but what we enjoyed most was getting up on the mountain to explore the terrain. Seeing these huge mountains on a grand scale was eye-opening. After work, we’d head straight for the lifts; on our days off, we would be on the first lift. We both really loved the challenge of hiking to the top of the mountain and enjoying the long ski down through different alpine environments.
CH We were friends for life from that first season in Aspen. She went on to do part of her degree in Tokyo, which was a huge adventure beyond anything I would have been able to do at that stage in my life. We then decided we’d do a winter season in Japan, running a small lodge in Niseko together, but then I met Matt, who is now my husband, and I also got my first job in media, so I decided to stay. Caroline went ahead on her own, and my parents and I decided to go over there for a ski holiday.
CB I remember being on a chair lift in Niseko and Christie saying, “I want to come back here – how do we get Matt over here?” At the time he owned a ski rental business in Jindabyne [NSW], and you couldn’t get rental skis in Niseko. The penny dropped for both of us, and the next winter Matt packed all his ski gear up, sent it over, and opened a hole-in-the-wall ski rental, which just grew and grew.
““Christie helped me through the rehab journey. She’s such an uplifting person: she’s always positive, always has a big smile on her face.””
CH That was a huge turning point for Matt and I. We now have six ski and snowboard stores across three resorts in Japan. Because Caroline spoke Japanese and we didn’t, she was a huge help with getting a lot of the finer details over the line. Down the track her law degree also came in handy. She’s been a huge part of what we’ve built. She’s massively supportive, that’s one of the things I love about her.
CB I had back surgery last year and Christie was an incredible support physically and mentally. She was living in Sydney at the time so she was there when my family couldn’t be there. She’d bring me supplies in hospital –flowers, prune juice, hugs, anything I needed. She helped me through the rehab journey, too. She’s such an uplifting person: she’s always positive, always has a big smile on her face.
CH Caroline had her first child a couple of years before I had mine, and her natural way of mothering was an inspiration to me. I joke that she guinea-pigged parenting for us. I really admired her strength, her love, her grace. When I had my child, she was always on the other end of the line whenever I called, and her advice was always exactly what I needed to hear at the time. I still don’t know how she managed to do that.
CB Christie has never been scared of trying new things, whether it’s in her skiing, her biking or in her career. That’s something that really inspires me. She recently got a new job with Tourism Snowy Mountains and as I work at Thredbo Resort, we’re now working together. She’s really taken the ball and run with it – it’s been incredible to watch. She has these years of experience and expertise, the wisdom that comes from travelling around the world, and as a mother she brings that new layer of being able to prioritise and be efficient. It makes me so happy to see her doing so well.
CH The role Caroline has now lets her use all of her experience and skills. She’s so good at her job, it is great to be working side by side. I love that we’ve ended up back living in the mountains together again after all these years. We still have barrels of fun together, our kids get along really well, our husbands get along really well. It’s a new part of our relationship that I really love.