The administrator of the UN's Development Programme - and the world body's third-highest-ranked leader - was flown to the Routeburn area yesterday in her new role as patron of the Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust.
She returns to work, based in New York, next week after a three-week holiday, mostly spent at Waihi Beach, that included the flying visit to Queenstown with husband Peter Davis to see first-hand the trust's work.
Asked by the Otago Daily Times when she would decide whether to apply for the job, she said it was difficult to say because the process was ‘‘obscure''.
Last month, the president of the UN General Assembly had asked member nations to put candidates' names forward, and had called for women to apply for the position, Miss Clark (65) said.
‘‘The general feeling is that it won't heat up for a while yet. The member states vote on it and what they have to be discussing is what is the skill set they want.
‘‘That is the fundamental issue - in a world with problems such as these, what sort of person are you looking for to lead this organisation? I would say it has to be somebody who's prepared to take on some pretty tough challenges.''
The term of Ban Ki-moon, the present Secretary-General, will finish at the end of this year. The selection process for his replacement is scheduled to begin by the end of July.
Whenever the post is publicly discussed, Miss Clark's name appears high on the list of potential candidates.
Speaking to the ODT after spending the day in the mountains, she said it was ‘‘great to go back up there and see what the trust is trying to do with the habitat for birds''.
Miss Clark was flown to the Harris Basin to be shown stoat traplines designed to protect the endangered rock wren. Miss Clark then walked into the north branch of the Routeburn Valley before meeting trustees near Glenorchy.
She said she strongly endorsed the trust's aim to ‘‘bring back the birdsong'' by creating a pest-free ‘‘island sanctuary'' for threatened birds, such as mohua (yellowhead), whio (blue duck) and rock wren (tuke).
‘‘The New Zealand bush is so beautiful and lovely for people to walk in but these parks are pretty quiet because of the predator problem,'' Miss Clark said.
The decline of native bird populations was ‘‘like a slow train wreck''.
‘‘It's high noon for a lot of these species but hopefully, with the extensive pest management that's being done, they can get more success.''
She had accepted the invitation to be the trust's patron because of her fondness for the region and her contact with some of its members in their fight against the Dart Passage tunnel proposal.
The Routeburn and Hollyford valleys were vulnerable because they were close to Queenstown and the threat of ‘‘inappropriate development'', Miss Clark said.
‘‘If we're complacent, we'll see things happen in these parks, like the loss of species and inappropriate development.
‘‘So someone needs to take a stand and good on the Glenorchy people for doing that.''
In her role as patron, she could offer credibility to the group's cause and use her social media profile to raise its profile.
Formed in 2014, the trust is working with the Department of Conservation and Air New Zealand to boost predator control in the Routeburn and Dart valleys and their tributaries.
Trustee Amanda Hasselman said Miss Clark offered the trust ‘‘profile, profile, profile''.
‘‘We are a young trust with a lot of work ahead of us.''
The Routeburn Dart Wildlife Trust already had more than 1000 traps in the Routeburn Valley and had applied to Air New Zealand for funding to extend its trapping into the Hollyford Valley. A decision on the application was expected within the next few weeks.
