My Life Story

Cheryl Collie has always had the music in her. From the age of six learning piano with the Convent nuns in Riverton, as a family it was “just what we did”.

Erina McLean’s been turning heads with her unique fashion style since rolling into town on her honeymoon in 1970, dressed in stiletto heels and a big picture hat.

He’s one of the country’s foremost botanists and ecologists, his vast knowledge still drawn on nationally as a conservation consultant, and still roaming the backcountry, despite turning 90 this month (August 21).

He’s been one of the region’s leading Search and Rescue [SAR] volunteers and a top NZ heli-ski guide with 42 years’ experience. With a CV stretching the length of the South Island, Russell Carr’s never been one for ‘just another day at the office’.

In a cost-of-living crisis Kiwi American backcountry adventurer Jef Desbecker is just the guy you need around. A self-professed ‘professional ski bum’ in his younger days, Jef wound his way all over the US using skills and savvy he’d learned along the way to carve a lifestyle on snow and rivers.

At 76, Dennis Deavoll could still be mistaken for a bit of a bad boy biker, rocking it with the best, but really, he just loves to live life to the full…and a little bit on the edge.

She’s rubbed shoulders with global leaders, been Mum to five kids, two times mayoress, motelier, and wife of a NZ Cabinet Minister, but somehow Lorraine Cooper got it all done with graciousness and calm. Now 86, it’s fair to say she was a superwoman in her day.

Stuart Maclean was one of Queenstown’s tourism leaders back in the day, having arrived in 1969 at 26, as an NZI insurance salesman from Invercargill.

He’s an entertainment icon, playing ukelele publicly from age seven, backing NZ’s leading 1960s and 70s stars and even jamming with singer-actress Bette Midler.

Born into a strong Kiwi rugby culture, Queenstown’s ‘Ferg’ Ferguson was knocking on the door of a long-held All Black dream when injury put paid to his rugby career.

Arriving in NZ by ship at two, little Rezi Gousmett and her, then single, Latvian mum were refugees fresh from a post-World War II ‘Displaced Persons’ Camp’ in Germany.

We have him to thank for leading the charge to preserve the beautiful central Queenstown Park Street Reserve and protecting the district’s outstanding natural landscapes, and, at 72, Greg Thompson is still advocating for the local environment.

Born into a legendary Wakatipu high country station family, Joy Veint enjoyed a fabulous outdoor childhood growing up on beautiful Mount Aurum Station at Skippers. Her runholder father, ‘Mick’ Sarginson, was renowned locally for his tenacity tackling the rugged and remote sheep station from 1957 until 1969.

Growing up in West Auckland across the road from Barry Crump, Jeff Hylton would later become Crump’s late 1970s pool partner at Queenstown’s Arthur’s Point Pub.

He may be driving the local school bus and tour coaches these days, but acclaimed Queenstown chef Grant Jackson has cooked for dignitaries like former US President Bill Clinton, and trained some of NZ’s best chef exports.

She’s now passing on a lifelong passion for poetry and reading to future generations with works published and the first of her plays performed locally this week, but Wendy Clarke’s talents haven’t always been recognised.

She launched into life from a small town Southland upbringing to a love story and life trajectory that before long would see her delight in being immersed into both Maori and Japanese culture. Maree Aoake took it all in her stride.

She’s been Queenstown’s queen of the stage for 30 years, bringing a little taste of her Broadway hometown of New York City to small town NZ. In that time, Margaret O’Hanlon’s directed, produced, written or performed in some 20 local shows and taught upwards of around 500 local singers, some now taking the world stage.

An unwavering advocate for Queenstown’s tourism industry during his 36 years here, John MacDonald has left his stamp on the place, going to great lengths to enhance Queenstown’s reputation.

They don’t come much more ‘local’ than Frankton farmer Bill Grant, who was driving the tractor while his dad fed out hay from age four, through much harsher winters than we have now.