Herb Spannagl

In Herb's words:

I started in 1960 as a deer culler, then after marrying Sue, I became a rabbiter.    All great outdoor jobs but without any career prospects. Being a hunter I tried for a Wildlife Rangers job in Rotorua but was rejected as I was not keen "to tackle Maoris in the dark".  This was one of the questions at my interview.  It was a law enforcement job targeting pigeon and trout poachers. 

I then applied multiple times to become a park ranger, which I finally found at Tongariro. My interview (interrogation) was in the old wooden government building and was conducted by the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Wellington.  When he finally finished he turned to the board members present, and said " What do you reckon, one more wog up there won't make any difference?"    "Up there" was the Chateau Tongariro, which had quite a cosmopolitan workforce.

He was a tough fellow and came from the land development branch of L&S.  Surprisingly we got on really well over the years.