MICK LISTER
2013: Lister held Duke of Edinburgh bronze and silver awards, and had gained placings in several speech and geography competitions. He wanted to become a geography teacher.
2023: Lister is a land surveyor for Auckland consultancy KWC Subdivision Specialists. Although he planned to teach geography, the then dean of the School of Surveying wrote to him after he received a Class Act award, suggesting he take the first-year surveying course as an interest paper. Lister took her up on her suggestion and graduated with honours. During his time at the University of Otago, he represented it at the 2017 University Challenge competition and continued his interest in the arts, joining various choirs and theatre groups. He is secretary of the Auckland branch of Survey and Spatial NZ (previously called the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors) and recently organised a charity ball with some friends to raise money for the East Coast Relief Fund.
SARAH LINDSAY
2013: An Otago netball representative, Lindsay also captained the school’s senior A volleyball and basketball teams and excelled at long jump and triple jump. She wanted to avoid a "monotonous office job" and hoped to join the New Zealand Police.
2023: A machine operator at the OceanaGold Mine at Macraes, Lindsay drives water carts and 300-tonne dump trucks. The job involvescarting out waste rock to get to the gold, and carting ore to the processing plant. On her days off, she runs her own massage therapy business, The Knot Stop. The Palmerston woman has a level 4 machine operator’s qualification and a diploma of massage therapy. She has played a mixture of premier and senior grade netball and currently plays for the Eastern Netball Club in the Dunedin competition. She has also played sevens and 10s rugby for Eastern.
