The organiser of The Great NZ Trek is Steve Old.  Steve assisted in the organisation of the inaugural Yooralla Trail Ride for 300 horses and riders in Victoria, Australia  in 1995.   

He then initiated The Great NZ Trail Ride fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis which ran around the Coromandel peninsula.  With 483 horse riders, including 56 from overseas, it was the largest ride of its kind in the world.  

In 1997 he was responsible for the Great NZ Mountain Bike Ride, which attracted 125 bikers around the Coromandel.

Since then Steve and the team has organised rides around the North Island for similar numbers.  

In 1999 he won the contract to organise the Hamilton City Millenium Celebrations organising a street party for 10,000 people.  Later in 1999 he took a break to work as the Horse Coordinator on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy for 3 years followed by a year on ‘The Last Samurai’ followed by stunt work in Ireland on ‘King Arthur.’ 

In 2004 he trained with Medecins Sans Frontieres http//www.msf.org.au/ as a logistician in Sudan for 6 months.  During that time he had the idea to create a Trek the length of New Zealand.  Following Stage 1 in 2006 he worked on the recently released feature '10,000 B.C.' in NZ, South Africa and Namibia.  

Since completing Stage 2 from Rawene to Pouto, Steve worked on a kung fu western film called 'The Laundry Warrior' before running Stage 3 on the Coromandel. 

Steve is pictured above with his horse Felix.  Felix starred underneath Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai.