Editor’s note: Tempo Journal is proud to partner with New Balance to celebrate the launch of the Ellipse – a running shoe designed to restore the beauty of being lost in the run, a call to forget the metrics and lose track of time. To mark the launch in New Zealand, New Balance teamed up with Queenstown’s Boat Shed Bakery Run Club, putting the Ellipse on the feet of three everyday runners in one of the most stunning places on earth to go for a run.

Queenstown, in the South Island of New Zealand, must be one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful places in the world to go for a run. Mountains in every direction. Water so blue it looks unreal. Trails that wind along lakefronts and through river valleys, connecting the town’s neighbourhoods in an endless network that means you can run for hours and never retrace your steps. In other words, it’s the perfect place to lose track of time.

Which makes Queenstown the perfect place to launch the New Balance Ellipse, the brand’s newest running shoe. The Ellipse isn’t built for the runner chasing splits or obsessing over pace alerts. It’s designed for the runner who wants to settle into a rhythm and stay there. Cushioned by a Fresh Foam X midsole that’s soft enough to feel easy but responsive enough to keep you moving well, the Ellipse is wrapped in a breathable engineered mesh upper and light enough that you stop noticing it’s on your feet. A shoe designed to get out of the way and let the run be the thing.

To mark the Ellipse’s launch in New Zealand, New Balance teamed up with the Boat Shed Bakery Run Club (BRC) in Queenstown – a crew whose philosophy orbits the same idea. Their motto, the name of the game: Chasing pastries, not PBs.

Every Saturday at 8am, around 30 locals gather outside The Boat Shed Bakery on the picturesque Queenstown Marina, with its nestled row of colourful boat sheds, for a cruisy 5km along the shores of Lake Whakatipu. The suggested pace is around seven minutes per kilometre. Walkers are welcome. Afterwards, everyone reconvenes for discounted coffees and pastries. It’s running at its most joyful, exactly the kind of thing the Ellipse was made for.

In the lead-up to the launch event, we spoke to three of the club’s runners about their journeys, their favourite places to lose track of time and their first impressions of the Ellipse.

IZZY BRAND

Boat Shed Bakery Run Club leader Izzy Brand moved to Queenstown from the UK seven years ago, literally expanding her horizons. “Running around the parks in London didn’t really give me much joy,” she says. “But when I came out here, I was just so obsessed with the mountains and the scenery that I started running.” It was during Covid that the 31-year-old’s passion for fitness took hold. Having never run more than 5km, she signed up for a marathon – and got the bug.

“I became hooked, not just because I was getting fitter but because of how much it improved my mental health,” she explains. “Being out in nature, in the mountains and by the water, has such a calming, grounding effect. It became more than exercise – it became something social too. Instead of meeting friends for a drink, we’d meet for a run.”

Now, Izzy is a personal trainer and Pilates instructor specialising in “supporting women who want to get stronger and feel more capable in their bodies”. Izzy started hosting BRC in October 2025, and it’s been the highlight of her week ever since. “It’s about moving your body and connecting with people just as much as it is about improving your fitness,” Izzy says.

Though, as we mentioned, there is a suggested 7:00 min/km pace, the group has naturally quickened over time. But there’s no pressure. Faster runners get to the coffee queue first; everyone else catches up. Izzy believes community drives consistency. “We genuinely perform so much better when we’re surrounded by people driving towards the same goals.”

Ask Izzy about losing track of time and she lights up. She talks about training for the Motatapu Trail Marathon and exploring a different route every weekend. About running from her home in Hanley’s Farm out onto the Jack’s Point loop, where a 360-degree panorama of lake and mountains unfolds, and from there continuing to Kelvin Heights or Arrowtown without quite meaning to.

“If you said to me, ‘You’ve got to go and run for four hours,’ I’d be like, ‘That sounds awful,’” she says. “But when you’re actually doing it, you don’t even realise. Especially with friends. Before you know it, you’ve run 30K. Your body just kind of takes over.”

Which shows you can lose yourself in running at whatever stage of your fitness journey. For Izzy, it might be three hours into a four-hour run; for others, it might be in the middle of a 30-minute jog-and-walk session as they progress from couch to 5K.

Izzy took the Ellipse for a 10km recovery run around the Kelvin Heights golf course and towards Frankton Beach – the kind of steady, comfortable outing the shoe was designed for. “Really smooth and comfortable,” she says. “Definitely a shoe that’s great for easy runs where you just want to settle into a rhythm and enjoy the miles.” She found the Fresh Foam X midsole soft and cushioned with a touch of bounce, and the upper breathable and lightweight with plenty of room in the toe box. A shoe that disappears underfoot and lets the scenery do the talking.

TENILLE JEVON

Tenille Jevon comes from a running family, but it wasn’t until 2020 that she got serious about the sport. The catalyst was deeply personal. Going through a divorce, she spontaneously decided to run the Queenstown Marathon. “It was a way to clear my mind during a challenging season of my life,” she reflects. She’s gone on to run several half marathons.

Born in South Africa, Tenille moved to New Zealand nine years ago. Now 35, she’s a single mum of three who works full-time in radiology administration. In a life that is full and fast-paced, running is the space that’s purely hers. “Running is that time to myself where I get to escape into my own world. It’s never been about being fit or even being healthy, like watching what I eat or weighing a certain amount,” Tenille explains. “It’s really helped me with the world – just being able to remain myself when things are chaotic.”

There’s a lovely harmony in Tenille’s story between the New Balance Ellipse’s promise of losing track of time and her own experience of running as making time for herself – carving out space in a hectic week where the noise falls away.

Before the BRC group run on Saturday, Tenille tested the Ellipse on a 5km tempo run along the Shotover Country Trail, a gravel path alongside the river with mountain views. Appreciating their sleek and lightweight aesthetics straight out of the box, she found them smooth and comfortable on the gravel surface, with a responsive feel from the Fresh Foam X midsole that held up well at tempo. Turning to The Boat Shed Bakery Run Club, Tenille was encouraged to try it by her best friend about nine weeks ago. She hasn’t missed a Saturday since. “It’s my favourite day of the week,” she says. “I spend the entire 5km catching up with my friends. Everyone just rocks up with the intention to have a good time.”

Running in Queenstown is like stepping into a living postcard, Tenille says. “You have the mountains, the lake, sometimes a river as well. It kind of catches you – you’re awestruck sometimes.” Her favourite place to lose track of time is the Queenstown Trail along Lake Wakatipu, especially the Frankton Track section. “The lake, the mountains and the openness of the trail make it almost impossible not to fall into flow. You start running and suddenly you’re kilometres in without even noticing.”

And the feeling of being truly immersed in a run? “It’s almost like an invincible feeling,” Tenille says. “I feel my most empowered when I’m running.” That’s the headspace the Ellipse is designed to support – cushioned enough that you’re free to be present in the moment, not distracted by what’s on your feet.

MARK GLEESON

Mark Gleeson moved to Queenstown from Dublin 15 years ago for a three-month snow season. He’s still there. Now 41, he’s a builder who recently bought into the construction company he was working for.

Mark’s big running ambition was to complete 42km before turning 42. A few years ago, egged on by a mate who then backed out, he had tackled a Half Ironman with only 90 days’ notice. (He got to the event never having put together any of the three components of running, cycling and swimming in a single training session.) Following that though, long Covid knocked him out for over a year. So it was devastating when, after recovering, he signed up for the Queenstown Marathon last year and was building well before an Achilles injury brought him to a standstill. “Heartbroken,” is how he describes giving up the marathon. “It felt like I’d failed.”

He’s rebuilding, patiently. And BRC has been a big part of that. He joined the club with his wife Gemma, who was rediscovering a love for running she’d lost sight of after completing the 2013 Gold Coast Marathon. Now she’s the instigator of their Saturday morning routine: they do the 5km bakery run, have breakfast together and then head out for an 8km walk around Lake Hayes with their two miniature dachshunds. “By midday, we’ve run, eaten and walked, and it’s such a great way to start your Saturday,” Mark says.

Asked to describe Queenstown for someone who’s never been, Mark keeps it simple: “Don’t look at the trail. Look up. You’re surrounded by mountains. You’re surrounded by lakes.” His favourite routes are Lake Hayes – a scenic 8km circuit through willow trees and over wooden bridges – and the Jack’s Point to Kelvin Heights track, where you can see the Remarkables, Ben Lomond, Cecil Peak and Walter Peak all from one trail.

There are two things he loves about running. “One is the ‘aha’ moment afterwards. The runner’s high that they all talk about – it’s a true thing. And the other is just being out there. I put some music on and and just go. It’s the freedom behind it, the smile that I have on my face on a late summer’s evening and I’m at the back end of Jack’s Point running along the lake when there’s no one else around. It’s just incredible.”

And what goes through his mind when he’s settled into a run? “As little as possible,” he says. “Just enjoy it and breathe. It’s an escape.”

Mark took the Ellipse out on both of those favourite routes: a sunset 8km at Lake Hayes with the sun setting behind Ben Lomond, and a dawn 6km at Jack’s Point on a crisp morning with frost on the ground and the Remarkables backlit by the rising sun. For a runner rebuilding from injury, the Fresh Foam X cushioning mattered most of all. “They felt smooth and comfortable straight away, with a really natural ride,” he says. “They feel like a shoe you could happily rack up plenty of kilometres in.”

What connects Izzy, Tenille and Mark – beyond the Saturday morning pastries – is a shared understanding that the best runs are the ones where you forget you’re running. Where the legs feel easy and the kilometres tick by without effort. In Queenstown, with its mountains, lakes and trails that seem to go on forever, that feeling is almost unavoidable. The Ellipse is designed to make it easier to find wherever you are.

The New Balance Ellipse is available now, priced at NZ$260 (A$240). The launch pack comes in four colourways: deep end with glint blue and medusa green, white with grey matter and black, black with faded black and black metallic, and afterglow with lone star grey and silver metallic.