My Life Story

She may have left school and her tiny hometown at 16, headed for bright lights and the first career that was on offer - hairdressing, but 40 years later Arrowtown’s Tracy Pool had become the boss of a leading Queenstown hospitality company managing 11 bars.

He’s been a builder, jetboat driver, not so confident horse handler and a very successful tourism events organiser. Geoff Clear may not have excelled academically at school but he did know how to party, which, coupled with a good sense of humour and an enterprising spirit, saw him develop a successful corporate events business with wife Janice some 30 years ago.

For more than 50 years he’s played a key role in Search and Rescue at the head of Lake Wakatipu, often in treacherous alpine terrain, with some 100 operations under his pack belt.

Aside from the hustle and bustle of Queenstown’s tourism buzz, a humble South American man – the spiritual backbone of the local Brazilian community, is quietly beavering away, ensuring the wellbeing of our migrant community.

A young Gore lawyer, he arrived in Queenstown in the mid-80s, after copping flak for his foray into politics, hoping to open a wine bar. Unfortunately, impending licensing law changes were delayed so Kevin Phillips, 76, now a retired southern District Court judge, was forced to open a Queenstown legal practice instead.

He’s managed legendary Southland Rugby teams and eyed up many an up-and-coming All Black during his rugby administration and selector days, but it’s bowls where rugby legend Owen Todd, 99, left his mark in Queenstown.

He arrived in Queenstown in 1982, a long-haired, well-travelled, jobless Auckland law graduate, fronting up to a notoriously scary southern judge.

He served for 53 years in the Glenorchy Fire Brigade, chief for almost 25 years, built notorious Wakatipu backcountry roads, leapt from choppers for Sir Tim Wallis, was chased by airborne Turkish Police with AK-47s and starred in the Lord of the Rings.

He began his Police training at Trentham, just 17, hitting the Auckland beat in 1976 at 18. In an almost 50-year career Phil Jones has survived a stabbing, arrested the Rainbow Warrior bombers, overseen mass meth and cocaine seizures and protected everyone from US presidents to British Royals.

She’s been privy to some top-secret local government deliberations and was responsible for that election tie coin toss that earned Glyn Lewers a council seat.

She grew up in the rugged Wakatipu backcountry – resilient and independent, ready to give anything a go, so it’s hardly surprising that Mandy de Vries (Herron) now runs an innovative, award-winning tourism business in Fiji.

If you want to get the job done, Kerry Dunlop’s your man.

He hails from one of the Wakatipu’s best-known farming and original tourism pioneering families, their family farm now probably the largest expanse of untouched greenbelt and spectacular hill country in the Wakatipu. And that’s the way Mike Mee and his family want it to stay.

From teenage Kiwi farm hand to the Hollywood film industry, even for him, Ivan Clarke’s life has been “surreal”.

He’s hosted Taylor Swift, Hugh Jackman and Sir Peter Jackson at his place, Sir Ian McKellen called it his favourite place on earth, and Internet billionaire Kim Dotcom was among many famous people wanting to buy it.

‘If you stop, you drop’, is Ella Wilson’s motto, and at 82, her life is sure testament to this.

She’s been investing in the development of hundreds of curious little Arrowtown minds during almost 40 years at the helm of the popular and flourishing Arrowtown Preschool.

Growing up under strict Communist rule in Poland, highly respected Queenstown osteopath Kasia (Katrina) Lukaszewicz saved £900 waitressing in London to marry a random Irishman in a bid to escape.

Peter Norris is what you’d call ‘old school Queenstown’, born just before World War II broke out in 1939, in a town of just over 1500 people, the solo local cop never far behind him and his mates and their boyhood antics.

Legendary Queenstown award-winning architect Michael Wyatt doesn’t just love drawing. He’s pretty keen on cars, now the proud owner of seven classy classics, including a 1968 4.9-litre V8 Maserati - his “babies”.