My Life Story

He was one of the Wakatipu’s top sportsmen in his day, roaming a totally forested Queenstown Hill as his playground growing up, and representing Central Otago and Otago Country in tennis and rugby.

Seldom do the secateurs stop snipping for Jean Britton, who’s been at it with flowers for more than 60 years, including decades at the helm of flower shows and rose societies across the region.

Gary Mullings is a busy man. He may have supposedly ‘retired’ at 49 after working in multiple careers and successfully launching and selling multiple businesses, but somehow Gary’s entrepreneurial eye never closes.

All good love stories should have a happy ending, and, despite immense trauma and loss, Emma Wilson’s does.

Jim Moore grew up around hospitality. His Irish tea trader father brought the family to Auckland from their home in Sri Lanka soon after Jim was born.

No fancy hospitality school launched longtime Queenstown restaurateur Tony Robertson’s 45-year career.

After more than 50 years peering into grimacing, toothy grins, Queenstown’s longest serving dentist John Molloy has found something new to get his teeth into.

A fascination with New Zealand eventually led to long-time Queenstown Japanese hiking guide ‘Kuzzy’ Kogure landing a job at Tokyo’s NZ Embassy, moving to Queenstown, and becoming a TV icon in his homeland.

Colin Macnicol doesn’t like to sit idle, so when he and wife Jean supposedly ‘semi-retired’ from their Southland deer farm to Arrowtown in 2006, Colin got busy.

She’s mother to many - ‘Mother Teresa’ to abandoned orphans across the world, and a whole generation later the immense satisfaction Sue van Schreven receives from making such a difference in these young lives keeps driving her to do more.

Music runs through the veins of the Coutts family line, but it took some wild teenage tamperings and a few risky adventures for long-time Queenstown musician Noel Coutts to find the right note.

He was New Zealand’s longest running breakfast radio announcer, starting out as the youngest at 24 and clocking more than 40 years in the game.

If you’re heading into the mountains, then Tarn Pilkington’s the guy you want around. They don’t come much more qualified than this highly experienced Wakatipu LandSAR Alpine Cliff Rescue team leader and guide of all things adventure.

She was born in small-town rural Canterbury, a country girl with a love of horticulture, destined for a life on snow, both passions deeply etched into her DNA.

From bagpiping ice hockey star to organic farmer and health food retailer, Graeme Glass has always followed his passions, rather than following the crowd.

David John is best known in the south for his incredible artistic talents, but his quick wit and words have also been recognised on the national and international stage as a playwright, poet, and scriptwriter.

When a young 22-year-old South Otago farm boy bought the very rough 1.214ha (3000-acre) Queenstown Hill farm high above Lake Wakatipu he had no idea it might one day become a highly sought after goldmine – and one he’s preferred not to cash in.

He’s best known as a quick-witted funnyman MC and broadcaster, but behind all the hilarity Grant Stewart also has an impressive serious side.

You could say he was the Crocodile Dundee of the Wakatipu backcountry, spending much of his childhood at Skippers skinning goats and deer for big money, even walking away unscathed when his car careered off a 100-foot (30.4m) bluff into the canyon.

Garry Hall’s always been a good guy to have around.