Advocate
Advocate Nicola Vallance
Local Hero
PHOTO: David Baird
Nicola Vallance has seen the most beautiful,
inspiring and unusual jewels of New Zealand’s
outdoors. She’s gotten up close with wild
Kaimanawa horses, Maui’s dolphins and handreared
kakapo chicks. She knows how good
our backyard is, and she’s passionate about
protecting it.
Until the beginning of this year, the 32-
year-old was national media manager for the
Department of Conservation and the researcher,
writer and presenter for TVNZ’s Meet the
Locals, a series of 204 short programmes about
New Zealand’s natural heritage. But when the
government declared that our national parks
were rich in minerals just waiting for removal,
Nicola decided it was time to move on from DOC.
“The decision to look into opening up national
parks for mining made me really uncomfortable
to be working for the government. I loved my time
with DOC but I couldn’t stay. I grew up in Aoraki
Mount Cook National Park, so I couldn’t stomach
the thought that the government wanted to mine
in our most precious places.” Now a conservation
advocate with the Canterbury branch of Forest &
Bird, Nicola’s thrilled to be back on the mainland.
A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Nicola spent
a good deal of her childhood camping, tramping,
horse riding, rabbit shooting and watching keas
destroy her favourite toys. Studying zoology and
law at Otago University was followed by studying
Adélie penguins in Antarctica and work as a
Hector’s dolphin swim guide. With DOC, she
visited the most remote parts of New Zealand.
“I’ve seen all the best parts: the wildest, the
wackiest, the most out-in-the-boondocks you
can imagine.” She’s met virtually every creature
native to this country—and she’s been pooed on
by most of them. As for a favourite, that would
have to be the Hector’s dolphin.
“I just love them. They and the Maui are the
only dolphins with the dorsal fin shaped liked
a Mickey Mouse ear. They are very, very cute.”
Ever the enthusiast, Nicola can’t stop at one. “I’m
also a big fan of fantails, and every time I’ve held
a tuatara it’s been a moving experience. It’s like
holding onto a time machine.”
Nicola’s well-informed love of natural New
Zealand makes her a valued addition to the
Forest & Bird team. “My big job is the Mackenzie
Country. I spent five years of my childhood
in Twizel so I’m singing the praises of our
Mackenzie heritage and trying to protect it from
what seems to be happening: big corporate dairy
farms and subdivision. Those golden landscapes
are being developed into green paddocks.”
Another key role is helping out with the
mining campaign. “I’m not sure that the message
about what’s being planned is getting through.
There seems to be quite a clear intention from
government for this to go ahead, and that’s
a concern when these places belong to New
Zealanders, and future Kiwis. I think the reason
I’m so passionate about this is not only did I grow
up in a national park, I’ve been to places like
Great Barrier and stood on Mt Hobson and seen
how beautiful it is. Experiencing these places
makes me want to protect them.”
Nicola’s got some big challenges on her
plate, so the second children’s book in her
Nic’s New Zealand Nature series is on the backburner
for now. The first, Invaders, came out last
year and takes a quirky look at the invaders—
hedgehogs, gorse, possums—that threaten
New Zealand wildlife. She thinks book two will
be about partnerships between species. “The
interconnectedness of nature fascinates me. If
you lose one, you lose another.”
Sophie Bond
