Chris Stewart

Chris began work as a national park labourer between 1971 and 1976 during school holidays at Arthur’s Pass. In 1975 he was in the first intake of the full-time Diploma in Parks and Recreation at Lincoln College. In 1978, after finishing the Diploma, Chris went to the Antipodes Islands with Senior Ranger John Newton to build a new hut. He then started work at Aoraki Mount Cook National Park where he stayed until 1984.

He transferred to a Reserves Ranger position in Dunedin, becoming Field Centre Manager in DOC. In 1997. Chris moved to Christchurch to work with the High Country Tenure Review team. In 2008 he returned to Arthur’s Pass as Senior Ranger.

Since retiring from DOC in 2020 Chris has worked as a volunteer trapper, weed-sprayer, civil defence coordinator, and fire brigade member. He is also a tour guide with Road Scholars and has written several chapters of Through the Alps – The Ōtira Railway Tunnel (2023) for the Ōtira Tunnel centenary. He also mows lawns around the Arthur’s Pass village.