Shiver Me Timbers! Mikki & Chris' Axe Factor

Football and Film’s Strong Man Says Goodbye to His Girl

- Julie Jacobson

Where other young couples might share a romantic dinner by candlelight, a night out for Mikki and Chris Lord could very well involve, and actually has, chain sawing by torchlight.

The unorthodox evening is all part and parcel of life for the 23-year-olds, two of New Zealand’s top axe “men”.

As bonkers as it sounds, it’s doubly so when they laughingly explain the “torchlight” came from their mobile phones.

It was a case of needs must really. They both work – Mikki’s a primary school teacher, Chris an engineer at a limestone plant − and in winter, when the sun drops below the horizon before 5.30pm, there’s little time to practise during daylight hours.

Plus, the inaugural Stihl Timbersports New Zealand Ladies Championship was looming. “So yeah, we were out there revving the chainsaw at 6.30pm in the dark,” tells Mikki, “with two phone torches and the house lights on.”

But the twilight training was to no avail – Mikki was disqualified in the first round.

The high-school sweethearts, who have been together since they were 16, were married in January. And while axes weren’t raised in a guard of honour, they did feature in a number of the wedding photographs, including the cutting of their double-tiered cake!