Marian Hobbs responded with shock when in 1999 she was asked by Prime Minister Helen Clark to become the environment minister.
"I said I only got 15% in school cert science. She said `please don't tell the reporters'.''
What she did then, and plans to do now, is be open about what she does not know.
"There is so much I have to learn. I'm going to ask questions.''
As Ms Hobbs was flung into the leadership position last Thursday, she felt "embarrassed'' about how it all happened.
Councillors were not necessarily voting for her specifically, she said, but against the status quo.
That meant two-term deputy chairwoman Gretchen Robertson, who had been a councillor since 2004, was outvoted 7 to 5.
"It was savage, and I did feel for Gretchen. I have to do a lot of work to be able to use her very good skills and her knowledge.''
Ms Hobbs initially wanted to stand in 2016, but became occupied nursing her partner Richard McElligott, who died that year.
Her drive came from thinking about the future for her three grandchildren.
"Here's where the guilt comes in. I don't think we did nearly enough about climate change when I was minister, although I was not the minister responsible for it.
"I want a planet that they can live on and enjoy. I've just got to translate that passion to practice.''
Ms Hobbs was born in Christchurch, but moved to Dunedin for seven years during her schooling at St Dominic's College.
She moved back to Christchurch and worked as a teacher and then a principal.
There she learned her biggest lessons about leadership.
"I learned very fast, when you're managing 130 staff, unless you actually get the best out of them, you fail.''
It was also as a principal she developed some insight into environmental issues.
"I'm standing outside Avonside Girls' High looking at the chimney stack pumping particulates up into the air, although I didn't know they were called particulates then, and I said `is anyone in charge of that, because I think it's quite disgusting?'.''
She had four terms as a Labour MP and was in Cabinet for two of them.
While much of that time was taken up with talk about genetic modification, in regards to protecting water ecosystems she was proud of establishing the Fiordland Marine Guardians.
The idea was to fund locals to provide advice on how to protect their environments.
"They know exactly which bay you're allowed to put lobster pots in. That's the kind of work I'd like to do here, but I'll have to figure out how.''
The regional council from the outside seemed beset by its own problems and not getting things done, she said.
"It has to engage. It's not that it has to roll over and have its tummy tickled, but it has to actually engage with people.''
She may come as a shock to some in rural communities considering she is self-described as "at the left of the Labour Party''.
Her views were even more radical in her youth, during which she was a member of the Communist Party.
"But I've always had an ability to see the good in people and work from that. Many farmers actually love their land.''
But she had problems with the growing number of huge farms owned by large landowners and corporations and farmed by others.
"I wonder if they have the same love for the land, but that may be a prejudice I have to sort out.''
Her deputy on the council is former National MP Michael Laws, who she admits can be a divisive figure.
"I think that he will respond to straightness and honesty, and if he doesn't, there's a rule book.''
She did not meet him in Parliament because he was "very low on the pecking order'', she said.
"I don't mean to sound snobby.''
Ms Hobbs believed the council should retain control of public transport and thought encouraging its use was "hugely important''.
"In all of New Zealand usage is pretty low. We have a love affair with individual vehicles.''
Because of people living in towns like Cromwell and working in Queenstown and Wanaka, regional transport was needed.
She was also passionate about clean air, and encouraging better insulation and cleaner heating.
Ms Hobbs retired as an MP in 2008 and taught in England before returning to Dunedin in 2013.
She now lives by herself in Careys Bay and chairs many community groups, some of which she will now step aside from.
There were big issues she needed to get her head around, such as deemed permit expiries, especially in the Manuherikia catchment.
"I'll have to sit down and read the conflicting science reports.''
She believed the pendulum had swung from people thinking they had the right to do whatever they wanted with their land.
"No you bloody well don't.''
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Comments
"In all of New Zealand usage is pretty low. We have a love affair with individual vehicles.''
Errr no we don't, most people need their vehicles, particularly if they are elderly, sick or infirm etc and the bus service is too expensive or doesn't go where it is needed.
"She believed the pendulum had swung from people thinking they had the right to do whatever they wanted with their land.
"No you bloody well don't.''
So you bought the land and houses etc and think you can dictate terms and conditions (on the quiet enjoyment) on their own bought and paid for land?.
No you bloody well can't.
Oh thanks nivaman. I'll just set up my nuclear power plant over in the corner of my plot: It won't bother anyone will it? Oh, and you don't mind me digging up all my topsoil and piling it in the river bed do you? I need to get at the gold-bearing gravel underneath the field. The topsoil piles will look cute with all my pet goats on them. You don't mind, do you? Oh, and those little fires. You don't mind those, do you? I'm just burning the piles of left-over tannalised timber from my enormous un-consented barn for growing psychedelic mushrooms, so I can heat my cannabis greenhouses. That smoke with dioxins in it? Oh don't worry about it. It should go upwards. Mostly.
Go for your life, I don't mind a bit.
Seems you were triggered by my comment and besides ........you wouldn't do it save to have a wee rant on here.
"But she had problems with the growing number of huge farms owned by large landowners and corporations and farmed by others." YES - they are not in love with the land- they are in love with the mighty $.