I’ve been an arborist for 9 years, and to me nothing beats the share amount of torque and reliability Stihl offers both combustion and electric. Starting with a MS 180, to now owning a MS 462 TC tells you my commitment to the brand. I also have an old 020, that’s been fully rebuilt and will be in my ownership for life. Whenever someone asks me what’s the best, without hesitation will I suggest nothing but the best Stihl. Thanks for being the best, and ensuring our industry is up-kept with ever evolving engineering!!!! Stihl for life!!!! I’m very interested in the 100th anniversary 500i! Brad F., technical climbing arborist from tree tech - South Island climbing competition champion 2025

Did a STIHL tool help you through a tough job? You betcha Reluctant at first, I was to learn to use a chainsaw. Noisy, rattlely, sweaty work. But my newly acquired lifestyle block required attention to its fallen trees and snapped branches. And while I pushed it to its cutting limit, pinched the bar, blunted the chain, my mighty MS 181 with its 14” bar became my new best friend. Additionally Stihl shop Richmond became my favourite shop in town, the staff offering great advice on all things chainsaw. The June/July 2025 storms hit the Tasman region hard, and mine and my neighbours property too had numerous trees down, including big Bluegums and Pines. I found a more capable saw, a MS 391 with 25” bar, and what a delight to use. Using my Stihl was becoming the best part of my day. Nowadays the sawing is complete, both saws are awaiting there next job. Stored pride of place, safely, inside the family home, on the tiles in the spare dunny.

You'd be hard pressed to find bigger fans of the Stihl Shop Kumeu than the Recreate NZ Moxie Orchard crew! Each Wednesday, we head to the orchard to learn work skills with young people with intellectual disabilities. As we round the bend toward Stihl, a chorus erupts, "it's our mower shop!". Sometimes we wonder if equipment is used with a bit too much gusto just so we have an excuse to drop by. From the first time we walked in, we were welcomed with open arms and over the years have been guided and encouraged by Craig and his staff. Our 3 Stihl line trimmers and leaf blower are the pride of the Recreate NZ tool set. The crew spent nearly a selling lemons and limes to fundraise for the prized leaf blower. The equipment are safe and easy to use, enabling learning across a wide range of skills. Craig's team have patiently taught us how to look after our ride-on and push mowers, they've sharpened our tools, shown us how to best maintain our equipment and indulged us with in-store product testing. It goes deeper than just tools though. The genuine interest in and care for our team are why a visit to the Stihl Shop is such a highlight. When Craig heard that Mitchell had been selected to represent NZ in skiing at the Special Olympics he presented a beanie with hearty congratulations. This partnership reflects a genuine commitment to community and empowers Recreate NZ to continue driving positive change across Aotearoa. We’re deeply grateful for the care taken to ensure our people and equipment are always treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Jess, Mitch and the Recreate NZ crew have a message for Stihl at this 100-year celebration – "Thanks for being so friendly and helpful, fixing our equipment, and showing us how to clean our weed eater. You are always happy to show us around the shop, we are so proud to wear our Stihl hats when we’re out and about!"

Let’s Hear it for the Girls! My initiation into the Stihl family began when my intrepid ‘sister-out-law’ Joanna introduced me to her GTA 26 battery pruner. My brother Brook, an ex-logging industry ‘Professional Operator’ who owns a whole arsenal of chainsaws, laughed at himself as he told me about how he had initially scoffed at Joanna’s purchase of such a tiny chainsaw. “But,” he said, "I had to eat my words! It's brilliant! We couldn’t put it down. You have to come and try it!” Now, I am the least adventurous person I know, but as I am an avid gardener with a house surrounded by hedges, this was a recommendation not to be ignored. It was true. Their garden had been pruned to perfection, and the GTA 26 had turned a tiring chore into a pleasant playtime. Readers who are still with me will know and understand how one good tool always leads to another. I am now the proud and happy owner of not only ‘Greta’ my GTA 26, but also ‘Raina’ my super maneuverable RMA 339 battery lawn mower, ‘Stella’ my brilliant MSA 120C battery chainsaw for firewood harvesting, and ‘Bertha’ my BGA 57 leaf blower for the clean-up afterwards. Stihl, you have made my outdoor chores a breeze!

It was a slow transition to the dark side. For years, I had scoffed at powered garden tools. My (hand) pruning-saw worked when I cut up a hedge for firewood. My hand-loppers managed the garden edging (reluctantly). The pruners were ok for pruning... but it all took a long time, and it never looked that tidy. Then we inherited my father-in-law's Stihl garden tools: a chainsaw, a leaf blower and a weed eater. I wasn't too impressed - we didn't really need these. It started with the leaf blower. I thought I'd try to use it, but I couldn't start it by myself. The bruise on my leg (don't ask!) was testament to this. Out of interest I looked online, and saw that Stihl also sold lighter-weight leaf blowers, and when I popped into Stihl "just to look", the guy showed me how easy it was to start a BG-50 leaf blower. The transition to the dark side had begun. Happily blowing away leaves, I now started to question whether I could use my father-in-law's big Stihl weed-eater to trim the edges - but same story. I struggled to get it started. A  "birthday present to myself" justified the purchase of a lighter edge-trimmer (the FS-45). Then I borrowed my father's Stihl hedge-trimmer. My parents live rurally so the large hedge-trimmer is great for them, but in town, it was a bit long (and quite heavy). This time I didn't need much hesitation to go shopping, and I came home with the battery-integrated hedge trimmer (HSA-50).  Enough. No more garden tool shopping.  Then a visit to the Fieldays. I heard an elderly lady talking about her Stihl pruner tool and how useful it was in her orchard. Sounded like a pretty cool tool, but couldn't really justify the need for one.  My parents bought one. My brother bought one. A colleague bought one. My husband commented that his Dad's old Stihl chainsaw was great, but he could do with something to cut smaller branches. Stihl happened to have a deal with an extra battery free.  And then we decided a feijoa tree needed to come out. Sold! I've just planted pittosporums that will grow into ball-shapes, and so far my secateurs are doing a good job. I'm hoping they grow quickly as I need a valid reason to justify buying the HSA-26 hedge-trimmer. But please don't tell my husband!

I woke up on Tuesday morning after a strong wind in Dunedin to find a very strange sight in my backyard. The only larger tree we have in our garden had fallen right across the lawn touching one side of our fence to the other fence. It seemed enormous! My husband was at work. I was at home with my daughter and the first thought I had was ‘oh hell, how are we going to get rid of that!’ I got onto my husband straight away. He couldn’t believe it either. He said, ‘Go and buy a chainsaw.’ We’ve never owned a chainsaw. My husband‘s teacher, I thought how is he gonna manage a chainsaw? So I recalled in the back of my brain that my father had once had a STIHL chainsaw for cutting firewood when going down to the forestry reserve where they had some extra firewood they allowed you to take away. So I knew it was a good chainsaw because he’d researched it before he bought it. So off I went I went to the Stihl shop and I brought my father with me for moral support. We were served by a chap called Shane in the store who advocated a battery-powered chainsaw. I said, ‘Oh that doesn’t look very big, that won’t do the job.’ He said, ‘ Yes it will!’ And explained how to use it. So after consulting on with my husbandbon the phone, I decided we would buy it, took it home and this weekend my husband has managed to do the whole tree in sections within a very short space of time using only one battery. I was amazed! There is still more work to be done and actually clearing the debris away is going to be another task, but this chainsaw is It has done most of the hard work and saved us a lot of money instead of getting someone to do it for us. I recommend the battery-powered chainsaw. Way better than stinky petrol!

“Friends of Niue” + Stihl achieve pest plant eradication! In September 2025, 12 Kiwi volunteers travelled to Niue island with the goal of eradicating the African Tulip trees there. In every Pacific country where these plants have arrived they have spread and become a massive pest – a huge worry for an island with little arable soil. Alerted by an article in NZ Geographic, and facilitated by Niue’s environment team and Manaaki Landcare in NZ, Prof Barry Scott assembled our crew of aging ecowarriors and sent up tools by ship in advance: 3 Stihl MSA 220 electric chainsaws and spare chains, 3 Stihl AL301 battery chargers, and 6 Stihl AP300S batteries for the saws. This gear was donated to the local biodiversity team under famous “Pest Plant Battler” Huggard Tongatule. We also took along one of our small Stihl pruning chainsaws for the easier jobs, along with a range of vicious looking tools that were never going to pass cabin baggage inspection. Together with the small but immensely strong local team, we worked cutting down and pasting trees ranging from finger height to 30 metres tall, often wrapped in vines. It was quite a scene with the thankfully not too noisy hum of the electric chainsaws along with much laughter and calls of “Timber!” Many of us felt competent with the chainsaws and we formed teams of two to find, de-vine, do a wide ringbark, or fell these trees, then paste them to prevent the phenomenon we could see in many areas where each fallen tree had regrown up to fifty new trees. Fed by wonderful island food and drinking enormous amounts of “Raro” we managed by adding in an extra day of work to cut down the very last area of infestation. If this is sustained, Niue will become the first nation EVER to get rid of this hugely threatening pest plant. It’s a massive win for the ecology of the island which is already leading the Pacific in many respects, like marine conservation. We hope to return annually for similar projects and to check the sites. And spend more time swimming, whale watching and exploring Niue’s pristine sea tracks. Here’s a link to a small documentary my husband made on the expedition: https://youtu.be/9eLffrQqAI4 If you decide this was a great use of Stihl’s amazing tech please donate the prize/other tools to Niue. Their budget is not large!

My story starts back during the first covid lock down of seven weeks, while being at home during this time I found a passion for gardening at my home and spent many hours in my garden, I built a small fishpond in the garden and completed the building of my greenhouse to grow my own food, as the end of the lockdown approached I had become unemployed because of covid and was not sure what I was going to do for employment! It was at this time that my girlfriend who was working as a property manager for a real estate agency said to me, hey I have a job for you if you like doing some gardening for a property she managed, a general tidy up of the section, I gladly said yes and went to my garden shed to get the tools needed, a rake, lawnmower, a spade etc and went to go to complete this job, once I arrived at the job I realized that I needed a hedge trimmer that I did not own, I had no powered garden tools other than my lawnmower so I made my way to the Stihl shop and purchased a very good quality hedge trimmer and this was the first tool in my kit. The job was a success and I really enjoyed it, working outside in the sunshine and keeping fit, I loved it and I really needed the work, not long after I got a phone call from a real estate agent from the agency asking if I could do another job, line trimming and lawn mowing etc so I purchased a second hand Stihl combi with two attachments that is still operating today and I was into it, from there on everytime I was asked to do garden work I would go to the Stihl shop and purchase the tool needed for that particular day and overtime time my collection of Stihl equipment grew and I have had employment until today, since I purchased that hedge trimmer that is still running excellent today I have been very impressed with the quality of the Stihl products and I'm very proud of my tool kit that I use to make a living, I have recently converted to electric Stihl tools and these have been fantastic, being able to utilize the shared battery system makes garden work easier and I will continue to purchase Stihl products.

I grew up on a lifesyle block and my dad had this beat up old chainsaw that he taught me how to chop firewood with on a log stand. The saw was old and in need of replacing so as a family we bought dad a brand new chainsaw (can’t remember the brand but we paid some good money for it at the time) with that saw dad taught me to chop down basic trees and about tension and compression when they are on the ground. But every time I got it wrong on the ground the bar would get damaged or bent and need replacing. Dad eventually got fed up with it and bought a Stihl Mini Boss (now called the MS180). It doesn't matter what happens to that saw, jam it in a tree or tumble it down the hill, it Stihl won’t break. I think it’s only been serviced once since he bought it probably 15 years ago. And for a saw that’s made for home owners cutting small garden trees or fire wood, that thing rips. That saw was so good I bought my own MS 180 during covid to cut and sell firewood during lockdown. That money paid for a 3-4 week road trip around the North Island for my wife and I. Now we finally have a 500i to deal with the bigger stumps. Thanks Stihl, we have a few other items as well and I have had a lot of fun over the years taking on jobs that are “too big for the tools we have” and all of them have done and still go great.

Around 20 years ago I was a mowing contractor with around 220 regular clients. We went away for a Christmas break and during those 2 weeks my workshop and garages were broken into and everything was stolen. All my mowing tools, trailer, rideon mowers, tools, everything gone. I had nothing left to work with. I contacted the insurance and they came out quickly, but said it would be a while before the payout. I visited my Stihl shop and told the guy that I wouldn't be coming in for a while due to the break in. Amazingly he told me to choose all the gear that I needed and he would defer payment on everything until the insurance paid out. (4 months later!) I did and got a Stihl knapsack sprayer, 2 weedeaters, a chainsaw, a leaf blower and a honda mower. I could get back to work and soon caught up with the backlog. I'm not contracting anymore, but I still have one of the weedeaters, chainsaw and leaf blower that I use for my own lawns. I gave my son one of the weedeaters and my daughter has the other one. I have a range of Stihl gear from pruners to battery powered hedge trimmers and a mower. They are the very best tools, never let you down and without the whole Stihl ethos and customer service I would have been out of business in a heartbeat.