Sharing the wave

North Otago’s Waitaki District has been chosen as Nevada’s Douglas County sister community. One borders the South Pacific, and the other sits in the Great Basin. One calls August winter, and the other calls it summer. Both places boast mountains, though, high, snow-capped peaks. And together, both places make up two of only three places in the world with what soaring enthusiasts call “the wave.” “Like air surfing, ride the wave!” Minden-Tahoe Airport interim manager Bobbi Thompson said. Waitaki’s entire district has a population of only 2, people. The area offers not only world-class scenery and gliding, but world-class cuisine, a thriving wine and cheese industry, farming, working gold mines, and every conceivable outdoor activity between sea and mountain, not to mention penguins.