Nick Clark - Trailblazer

Nick Clark knows every track and trail in the basin like the back of his hand. He helped, or built, many of them during his 42 years working for DOC, formerly the Lands and Survey Department.

He was even local DOC legend Neill Simpson’s assistant overseeing development of tracks and revegetation during construction of the Remarkables Skifield in the 1980s.

Now at 75, Nick is still in his happy place, this region’s stunning outdoors, where he’s been a highly successful fishing guide for 32 years, guiding mostly American anglers.

Raised in the heart of Ngāpuhi territory in rural smalltown Moerewa – a freezing works town, his father was transferred to the meat company’s head office in Auckland when Nick was 13 – a far cry from his hardy rural upbringing. “They thought I was half Māori at Pakuranga College because of the way I spoke,” he grins.

Sadly, his father died of cancer soon after, aged 48, which obviously had a huge impact. “I was pretty wild for a while.” Nick found solace during hunting trips to his grandmother’s near Taumarunui.

“I’d become a Christian through coffee club-type evangelism, so I went to Bible College and studied for two years,” he says. “It had been pretty crazy after Dad died.”

Nick wasn’t going on any African missions so after graduating he set off for three years OE, aged 20, hitching around the US and travelling the world, ending up in London where his sister had a “lovely, warm, centrally heated flat”.

While living in London he met Jo, who’d come over from Ireland, tired of being shot at on her way to work as a hospital radiographer in Belfast, and being escorted there by soldiers, during the massive unrest in the ‘70s.

They married in Ireland, Nick 24, and have now been together 52 years. Nick lured her home to New Zealand where they travelled the country in a Morris van in the mid-70s “looking for places to buy land and raise a family”. “Queenstown even then was progressive, and we found this 13 acres (5.2ha) at Closeburn and bought it for $16,000 when normal people could,” he says.

Nick built their home, including space for his mum who joined them.

DOC boss Neill Simpson employed Nick to manage government work start programmes, like PEP and Restart, in the early 1980s. “We had ratbags come here for a good time and they were made to work for the Lands and Survey clearing and creating tracks or their dole (benefit) was cut off.”

They were mostly fun days, but he was overseeing plenty of people who’d been in trouble with the law, Nick recalling one “mysterious” death on a project by Oxenbridge Tunnel when one of the guys went over the edge into the Shotover.

“We had a lot of people who had drug convictions and didn’t want to work,” he says. He’d often have to go to their flats, get them up and take them to work.

During his time with Lands and Survey they built the One Mile, Bob’s Cove and 12 Mile-Mount Crichton tracks, all without red tape restrictions. “They were awesome days. We didn’t have bureaucrats in offices saying you have to have six months training before you can use a chainsaw,” he grins. “You just started working.”

Nick’s role expanded when DOC was formed in 1987, also overseeing Forest Service hunters, involved in the Skippers buildings restoration, Queenstown Gardens and Otago Goldfields site staff.

Nick helped form the western side of the Lake Hayes track with a digger, but it didn’t always go according to plan. The Glenorchy guy told him to blow up some aging explosives on the side of the track. “It reverberated around the basin, the Frankton Fire Brigade turning out and Lake Hayes people reporting an earthquake,” Nick laughs. A huge blast building The Shirtfront at Kingston also went awry, with the lookout guy seemingly unfazed that flying rock had just soared over moored boats below.

Nick’s job included fighting rural fires – some big ones, he and Jo forced to evacuate their Closeburn property three times due to out of control burn offs.

In the early 2000s Nick took summers off for his passion, fly fishing guiding - the envy of his workmates.

He’s fished everyone from the quick-witted Hollywood scriptwriter for M.A.S.H. to a renowned American NASA scientist who worked on the joint American Russian space shuttle project for five years. “He really gelled with my faith, in awe of God’s incredible creation around here.”

Nick says he’s made lifelong friends with these clients who return annually, and he’s now guiding three generations in.

He and wife Jo managed the huge task of Wakatipu Presbyterian Church’s popular ski season Pasta Café for 10 years – a six-week free feed and entertainment that ran weekly for almost 20 years.

As for that coffee-style evangelism, Nick may not have trekked into deepest Africa but every Sunday he and others lead Manna Café – a relaxed, interactive, thought-provoking gathering at St Andrew’s Church.