My Life Story

He’s forged himself a highly successful career in snow, his expertise in demand worldwide, all due to pursuing a passion for skiing 50 years ago, which became a passion for snow safety.

She helped deliver hundreds of babies in almost 15 years as a midwife, starting at the old Sydney Street Queenstown Maternity Home, (later Bungi Backpackers), during the boom times of the 1980s and 90s, up to eight mums often packed into the five-bed home.

He’s saved many lives in his time and risked his own a few, just for the thrill of a good ride, but these days one of Queenstown’s original 1970s rafting guides and tandem paragliding pilots, John ‘J.R.’ McCormack, is an artist, kicking back eating whitebait on the West Coast.

He may have been born in South Africa to a Kiwi mum and a Bermudian dad, but retired Queenstown lawyer Simon Stamers-Smith’s family heritage is steeped richly in Queenstown.

Jane Scheib epitomises ‘Kiwi can do’ – the girl power kind. You have to when you want to fund life in the Greek Islands for four months of the year.

When Marty Newell arrived in Queenstown in late 1994, his weekly rent was just $75 a week and his Pizza Hut wages not much better.

He’s rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, had a yarn with the Queen and Nelson Mandela, and even donned wizard regalia for an Air NZ Middle Earth TV campaign.

She’s managed and partied with tour loads of young Contiki travellers in Europe and Queenstown, helped save the Earnslaw in a record flood and officiated at over 1,000 local weddings, declining an unusual photo request at one.

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.