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Ray Bellringer
Ranger - Fox GlacierRanger - Westland Tai Poutini National ParkNZ Parks WorkedAoraki Mount Cook National ParkWestland Tai Poutini National ParkLand Districts WorkedWestland Land DistrictBiography Ray first volunteered to work in Te Papakura o Taranaki Mount Egmont National Park when a secondary school student in the late 1960s, and has always been an active mountaineer and mountain rescuer. He completed many alpine routes in the Aoraki Mount Cook region in the early ‘70s and into the ‘80s. He was employed as a mountaineer at Aoraki Mount Cook several times, and was Club Captain of the Taranaki Alpine Club in 1973.
Inthe 1973 and 1974 seasons Ray successfully climber Mount Cook and several other peaks.
After 1984 Ray held multiple Ranger positions at Fox Glacier, Westland Tai Poutini National Park and Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. Ray has a strong family history in Taranaki, where he was born. His grandfather owned the farm on the park boundary opposite Rahiri Cottage and across to the Waiwhakaiho from the 1930s to the 1960s, and his mother – now 93 (in 2025) – spent her childhood and early adult life working on the mountain. From 1946 to the early 1950s Ray’s father was the chef at the North Egmont Chalet.
