Accountant closes his books

One of Queenstown’s leading professionals retired last month, but will still be active in the local community. A fellow chartered accountant, Duncan Fea, who’s 66, was latterly managing partner of the local Findex office. Ironically, he first worked for the same firm, before countless name changes, in November 1977 after leaving Invercargill’s James Hargest College. Though Dunedin-born, “I had much pleasure telling anyone, including my children, much to their chagrin, ‘I’m a Southlander’”. After a year and a bit at Henderson Adam & Co, he went to university in Dunedin, taking a gap year in 1980 to become a freezing worker. On graduating he worked in Dunedin for three years for Deloitte (then part of Henderson Adam), transferring to Invercargill in ’85 then Queenstown in ’89. While in Invercargill he acted for two since-deceased clients who had major Queenstown interests — Bill Walker, who had E-Type Engineering and invented Skyline’s luge, and developer Jock Boyd. Duncan acted for Boyd when he bought a building in Queenstown’s Shotover St and developed the Glenda Dr industrial subdivision. He picked up other interesting clients in his early Queenstown days. They included developer David Broomfield’s Woodlot Properties. He vividly recalls meeting the latter’s overseas partners and signing a heads of agreement for them all to buy Closeburn Station on the day his son McGregor was born. Subsequently, through a pioneering tenure review, Closeburn became one of New Zealand’s “pre-eminent” developments, he says. Duncan was also involved with Broomfield developing the Quail Rise subdivision that was originally earmarked for a golf course. In ’90, local couple Lindsay and wife-to-be Robynne Williams walked into his office “and said, ‘oh, we’ve got a business idea, we think we can fly planes and throw people out with a parachute’”. They started the hugely-successful NZONE and Duncan also helped them sell it to an Australian company in 2015. He also recalls couple Cordelia and Mike Burgess wandering into his office after buying Winnies in The Mall, which morphed into the Republic Hospitality Group that recently sold to Aussies, too. Early on he developed a career-long expertise in receiverships. “What happens in most receiverships is those first few days are very challenging, and one of the first things parties might say after a few days is, ‘I had a sleep last night for the first time in a while’. “I enjoyed the challenges, I enjoyed trying to help and fix things.” Duncan was a director of Pioneer Energy after the carve-up of the Otago Central Electric Power Board which also saw Central Lakes Trust’s formation. A highlight was Pioneer buying off Trustpower the Monowai Power Station “which was dear to my heart as it’s in Southland”. He’s also been involved in other power company manoeuvres down south. Duncan enjoyed an extended eight years on the Queenstown Airport Corporation board, initially under Sir John Davies, when it undertook major expansions. “We really went at it and had to borrow what seemed a lot of money at the time.” Duncan recalls assisting in negotiating landing fees with the airlines — “that was a really enjoyable, challenging and very satisfying governance role”. One of his last acts in 2010 was controversially signing over a 24.99% share of the airport to Auckland International Airport — “I did what I believed was in the best interest of the company and the community”. Professionally, he was on the regional committee of the Institute of Directors. He’s also undertaken many community roles, such as running Wakatipu junior rugby and coaching kids’ teams, and also managing swimming teams “with the kids doing well at that”. He was also on the board of St Joseph’s School which his children Josh, Maggie and McGregor attended. A later highlight was accompanying Maggie to Ireland after she won the NZ Rose of Tralee title in 2015. Through his firm he organised the first 4WD ambulance for the local St John — “I went to the ASB, got an interest-free loan but I had to secure it over my own house”. “This was a really proud moment for us and we got a citation from the Governor-General who’s the patron of St John.” Duncan says in the short time he’s been retired “I’m surprisingly content”. He’s still a shareholder in a tourism company which has Rotorua Canopy Tours and Queenstown’s Million Dollar Cruise and is proposing guided ziplining in the local Twelve Mile Delta recreation reserve. Having acted for the Monk family he’s on the board of the Arrowtown Lifestyle Village. He has a “small interests” in five horses — “one’s really good” — and some yearlings. Currently he’s skiing Coronet Peak every morning for an hour and a-half “because that’s as much as the body will handle”. He’ll soon travel overseas with his wife, undertake a subdivision at his Kelvin Heights home and enjoy more boating. “From the early days when I arrived here, like us all, we just fell in love with this place because of the energy. “There's no one in town can get a free lunch — you’ve either got it on the line or you’re working for someone who’s got it on the line. “It’s a very competitive environment, but it breeds the best in us.” Duncan says he loves growth but it has to be managed growth. While the traffic congestion needs urgent attention, “I don’t want to be the person that says ‘stop everything’”. “But we need to fast-track infrastructure as a serious priority ahead of fast-track housing.” scoop@scene.co.nz