My Life Story

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.

Retired Salvation Army Major John Richards’ heritage is one steeped in rich head of the lake history, growing up as a descendent of Kinloch’s famous farming and entrepreneurial Bryant family.

He’d have to be this region’s most legendary cowboy, movie stuntman and animal trainer and wrangler.

She was there when the first parapenters landed in the playground, at the helm in the search for the stolen school bell, and consoling children when Wicky the school cat ate a classroom’s pet mice and goldfish.

The daughter of Queenstown’s two most famous early hoteliers, Pat Doyle (O’Connell), who arrived here aged two in 1937, was number four out of 10 children, gravitating towards hospitality from a young age.

It was 1977 when an extremely talented, young wanderlust artist from Canada discovered the sleepy tourist town of Queenstown.

Local heritage doesn’t come much richer than that of Queenstown builder Richard Short whose grandfather, shut out of a wealthy inheritance, turned to goldmining at Skippers and bought all of Battery Hill with the profits.

When Ming Han arrived in Queenstown, just 24 and speaking minimal English more than 11,000kms from home, ironically, he was returning to his roots.

It was the early 70s, small town lure of quaint, untouched Arrowtown that drew a young teacher from the ‘Naki south, but a go-getter blonde farmgirl from the Young Farmers Club who kept him here.