Jeff Hylton - An entrepreneurial eye
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.
“We’d shoot rats in his pumpkin patch with slug guns and catch eels in our backyard growing up in the 50s and early 60s,” says Jeff.
While at Hamilton Boys High, Jeff took the Barry Crump connection literally, heading for a much rougher education in the Kaiangaroa Forest single men’s camp, aged 16, as a trainee woodsman.
Here he learned “how to avoid getting a beating” because he could run, and developed a love of the bush and outdoors.
Building in Hamilton, Jeff quickly became a qualified carpenter, setting up his own business at 21, self-employed ever since.
He discovered surfing, spending hours driving to remote surf breaks. “We were the only ones out in the waves most days.” He built lifelong friendships, some that would eventually help him set up in retail.
In 1977 Jeff headed to Queenstown in his Bedford van to learn to ski, working as a builder at the new Turoa Ski Area on the way. “I was completely broke.”
That first night at Eichardt’s Pub he made lifelong friends and scored an instant building job.
“I earned $3 an hour. A single bed flat, or garage, was $40 a week.”
While Jeff loved Queenstown he couldn’t afford to stay so moved to Sydney where they paid builders $15 an hour, plus the surfing was great. He’d return to Queenstown regularly to ski, but a piece of Aussie had already taken hold.
“I met my wife, Suzie, a trainee nurse, at the local pub in Terrigal where Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and other famous bands, played to relatively small audiences.” They travelled around Australia until he convinced Suzie to come to Queenstown.
“Our first rented house, in Shotover Street is where NZ Shred is now.” Jeff had to retrieve the pet goat he had tied up on the front lawn many times as people had marched it to the Police Station.
They bought their first section off agent Andy Hooper for $12,000 in the original Arthurs Point subdivision above the pub, where Jeff filled in as lunchtime chef for drinks, in lieu of pay. “Barry Crump rode his horse in from Moonlight and tied it up outside the pub.”
Building around Queenstown for more than 40 years, Jeff’s built and on-sold six family homes, also building countless houses for clients.
Aerobics and Jane Fonda were big in the 80s and, in typical ‘Hylty’ style, there were no decent classes locally so he started some. “After class we’d all go to The Mountaineer for jugs of beer, spending the money I’d just earned.”
Jeff developed a love for mountain bikes – the new craze of the 80s, quickly becoming addicted. He organised his own triathlons – Moke Lake, the Macetown Massacre and Queenstown Bay Tri among them.
Jeff launched Queenstown’s first retail surf shop, True Grit, which ran for 20 years, and together with Avanti their team won the local Peak to Park Race five years running.
True Grit sponsored many sports, but Jeff was most renowned for his intolerance for shoplifting. “I took it personally and broke more than one bone in my fists dealing with the odd wayward thief.”
Something of a downtown vigilante, Jeff occasionally roped in neighbouring retailers, like Geoff Bradley and Tony Sparks, Dave Ness as runner, to help corner the culprits, springing on them and marching them to the police station. “I spent some minutes in the police station but no handcuffs,” grins Jeff.
He also started The Queenstown Cap Company and NZ Shred.
The ‘John Wayne’ in him resurfaced when he discovered horses and the annual Central Otago Cavalcade six-day ride.
After kids Zach and Daisy arrived Jeff sought some male solace in a group he formed – SLAGS – Southern Lakes Association of Gentleman Skiers, a group heavily regulated by fines with all proceeds going to heli-skiing. These guys had his back on regular ‘apres ski debt collecting excursions’, travelling as far as Wānaka seeking outstanding payments after the 1987 sharemarket crash. “Often the police were involved but we were always on the side of right,” he assures.
Jeff ran the old Gardens Ice Rink for a time, project managing its new build, and after learning to skate at 40, formed, and was president of, the Jurassic League for 10 years with its hundreds of Masters ice hockey players.
Drumming has been a passion, also playing for the Queenstown Ukelele Orchestra, and currently drumming for Reel to Reel with son Zach.
Always a passionate hunter, Jeff still hunts once a week and even made deer antler chandeliers until recently, selling many locally and overseas.
