My Life Story

One of the country’s most successful young hairstylists, David Bradford failed two attempts at School Cert but went on to become New Zealand’s first timeshare innovator and Mayor of the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

He’s helped guide thousands of aircraft safely in and out of Queenstown, even the US President’s Air Force One, and faced the heat helping fight hundreds of local fires, clocking an impressive track record of protecting and saving lives over 40 years.

The daughter of an Olympic skier-high country farmer father, and artist mother, Brigit van der Kaag was bound to be adventurous, resourceful and headed for the snow.

A great, great nephew of one of Queenstown’s first two doctors, his mother also one of the Wakatipu’s renowned Dagg farming family, Bruce Douglas was born to work the land.

He refers to himself as a ‘disaster junkie’, a man who spent decades ensuring thousands of tonnes of food aid arrived and was distributed safely to tens of millions of displaced people in need.

He managed the purse strings for the Queenstown Lakes District Council for nearly 30 years, overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of expenditure in one of the fastest growing districts in the country.

He’s one of New Zealand’s most successful tourism entrepreneurs, having headed up and owned renowned Kiwi tourism operations, but Mark Quickfall didn’t need a business degree to get there.

Few people can boast reaching the pinnacle of their career at 73 and coaching local swim champions to national stardom, but quietly spoken, cool, calm Frank Wylie can.

As a veteran firefighter Stu Ide has devoted his life to saving other people’s. It’s in his blood.

She’s milked cows, driven school and tour buses on remote dusty roads and rubbed shoulders with Hollywood elite, not to mention the four kids she’d had by age 25. For Helen Hillary, it’s all just a case of “knuckle down and do what you can”.

Arriving in Queenstown as a young bank manager at 26, Alan Brown became one of the town’s most renowned moteliers, heading the industry nationally and sitting on the New Zealand Tourism Board in the late 1970s, early 80s.

He was affectionately known as ‘Mr D’ during his 40 years teaching at Queenstown Primary School, where Mark Douglas wore shorts year-round and always had a referee’s whistle draped around his neck.

A Queenstown GP in the 70s and 80s, Mike Anderson oversaw delivery of well over 500 babies, while working with fantastic midwives, Queenstown Maternity Hospital becoming renowned nationally for exploring gentle births. Mike’s only prerequisite: “But if I say, ‘We’re going to Invercargill’, we’re going.”

From JP and Waitaki District councillor to Lakes District Museum chairman, Arrowtown MenzShed founder and go to ‘Wasp Man’, Russell Heckler is a humble, no fuss and tireless community contributor.

The eldest daughter of renowned Routeburn Station runholder ‘Wattie’ Watson, Elaine Kirkland has always been a practical woman who remains unfazed and gets the job done.

A Queenstown hospitality frontline icon in his heyday, Englishman Roger Goddard learned the trade from the best, doing the hard graft, 16-hours, seven days a week, as a first class, fine dining waiter on cruise ships around the world.

From clandestine historic French bridge leaps with bungy pioneer AJ Hackett to conquering New Zealand’s highest mountain Aoraki Mount Cook, experienced Queenstown physio Pip Lane has lived life to the full.

From a ‘beach baby’ growing up in Surfers Paradise to practice nurse for famous rock stars like Mick Jagger, Mel Stadler was perhaps the most unlikely contender for a 30-year Queenstown hospitality career.

She might be small in stature, but her word is final and local netballers young and old know that while you don’t mess with Shaz’s rulings on court, there’s warmth and encouragement behind every call.

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.