Wanaka man Stu Thorne is retiring after 40 years with the
Department of Conservation. Photo by Matthew Haggart.
Long-serving Wanaka conservationist Stu Thorne has
retired from his day-job of 40 years to volunteer for more of
the same on a remote Pacific Island, 1000km away from New
Zealand.
The Wanaka area branch of the Department of Conservation
recently farewelled Mr Thorne and his wife Heather.
The pair are readying themselves for a six-month sojourn to
Raoul Island, a remote piece of the Doc estate about 1000km
northwest of Cape Reinga and the largest island in the
Kermadec archipelago.
The Thornes will be part of a volunteer programme carrying
out Doc services on the island and its surrounding marine
reserve.
In March 2006, the island claimed the life of Doc worker Mark
Kearney, who was killed in a volcanic eruption while
stationed at Raoul.
His body has never been found.
Mr Thorne said work on the island would include monitoring a
MetService weather station, maintenance of the island's
ecosytem, and a weeding programme to help re-establish native
vegetation.
"I guess in way it will be more of the same of some of the
paid work I've been doing for Doc for years," he said,
laughing.
The pair hope to spend more time together travelling with
their caravan, fishing, and tramping once they return from
Raoul Island in August.
Mr Thorne started working at the Department of Lands and
Survey (DLS) - the forerunner to Doc - in 1970 and was
initially based at Mt Cook.
He moved to Wanaka, three years later, to spend the rest of
his career working among the mountain valleys of Mt Aspiring
National Park and the many remote conservation areas of the
Doc estate.
He first worked as a ranger within the huts and tracks
programme with DLS.
Mr Thorne helped build walking tracks throughout the Wanaka
and Makarora Doc estates, as well as replacing and renovating
many of the numerous mountain huts scattered throughout the
district.
He moved to work with Doc's fledging biodiversity programme
after 12 years in the job and has since headed breeding,
recovery, and re-establishment programmes of several native
species in and around Wanaka.
He lists the Lake Wanaka islands breeding programme of buff
weka as a highlight of this time, while other bio-diversity
programmes he has been involved with include the monitoring
of Otago grand skinks, kea, black robins, and native bats at
Makarora.
Alongside his bio-diversity work, Mr Thorne has been an
educational adviser, taking Doc's conservation messages and
programmes into schools.
He has also spent 35 years as a voluntary adviser to Wanaka
LandSAR, his knowledge of the Mt Aspiring National Park and
its surrounds playing a part in many search and rescue
call-outs.
He has also visited the Antarctic eight times on Doc work but
the "outstanding" Matukituki Valley is a place which will
stay in his memory, particularly the Cascade Saddle track.
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