Te Anau
Scouts and community
For Noel and Sue Walker, accepting their King’s Service Medals together is as natural as the sky being blue.
The pair have done everything together — they have been co-directors of the Otago Gang Show since 1980, ran a Te Anau scout group together since 1989 and now in 2026, have retired together.
‘‘We didn't expect anything like that at all, so it's amazing ... but's more than just us, they are awards for the whole community, really.’’
The Walkers have been involved with Scouts for 50 years in Otago and Te Anau.
They revived the Scouts Gang Show from near closure which now involved over 70 youth performers and more than 100 volunteers from the Otago and Southland regions.
Mr Walker has been group leader of Te Anau Scout Group since 1989 and Western Southland zone administrator since 2003, until last week when he retired alongside his wife.
Mrs Walker served as the assistant group leader and cub leader since 1989, and was Western Southland Scouts zone training leader from 2003-24 .
They had been involved with the Te Anau Kepler Challenge Mountain Run for 28 years.
As founding committee members, they were instrumental to organising the event from 1989 to 2000 and served as race commentators from 1991 to 2015.
The Walkers wrote the book Calling them Home for the 25th anniversary of the event, which supported the local economy and distributed around $20,000 to local charitable organisations annually.
Mr Walker said getting the awards was a nice finish to a very happy three decades in Te Anau.
The couple, as of last week, have relocated to Dunedin in part to be closer to the Gang Show.
