Under his watch, 31 toilets worth $5.1 million have been built - which have won numerous awards - and he is now enjoying seeing other projects, like the One Mile Power House restoration, grow.
He raised eyebrows wanting to spend more than
$350,000 to create Wanaka's dinosaur playground but ''10 years on the playground is still going''.
Paul Wilson, the Queenstown Lakes District Council's former community services manager (a position that no longer exists after an organisational review), said his favourite project during his 10-year tenure with the council was the cycleways.
Mr Wilson finished working with the council as acting parks manager and operations on Friday.
One of his projects, the Frankton Track, is now accessible to wheelchair users from the Queenstown Gardens to the Frankton Domain after undergoing improvement works, and he recalls when the popular track was purely ''an access track for the sewer line which runs between here and Frankton''.
In 2002, then council chief executive Duncan Field, and Chris Eden from the Department of Conservation, had the idea to establish a trails trust.
He cites the biggest challenge in trail construction as ''our terrain'' but the positives are many.
The landowners required to give easements were co-operative, other groups such as the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club had helped and the council and the Queenstown Trails Trust made ''a great team''.
''It's a real privilege to work with [the] council where you can see the fruits of your labour,'' he said, and after an overseas break he will start a role with recreation consultancy firm XYST Ltd.
Across the district
Projects Paul Wilson has been involved with during his time with the Queenstown Lakes District Council:
• Purchase of the Snow Farm
• Dinosaur park playground in Wanaka
• Rose Douglas Park
• Jack Reid Park
• Frankton bus shelter
• Earnslaw Park toilets and kiosk
• Queenstown Trail
• Freedom camping bylaw and controls One Mile Power House Shotover St redevelopment
• Marine Parade
• Brian Smith Park
• Gardens management plan
• Establishment of the horticulture team
• Gibbston Reserve
• Queenstown skate park
• Eely point
• Pembroke Park
