Be it in the ski industry, airline and coach operations or in community affairs, including council, Hudson Turnbull’s been a one-man hive of activity in Queenstown for 50-plus years.
It’s why he’ll be missed when he shifts to Wellington next month, just eight days before turning 80.
Though Auckland-born, he moved to the South Island as a baby as his dad, who’d flown with the air force during World War 2, ventured into farming — eventually landing a farm, by ballot, in Hedgehope, Southland.
Hudson, who boarded at Timaru Boys’ High, was set to follow him farming, doing an agricultural diploma at Lincoln College.
Meanwhile, he’d started skiing through Southland Ski Club weekend trips to Queenstown’s Coronet Peak — "I took to it like a duck to water" — and joined its then-voluntary ski patrol.
When his dad took ill, his parents sold the farm and moved to Christchurch.
Needing a job, Hudson contacted Coronet boss Sugar Robinson who placed him on New Zealand’s first paid ski patrol team.
Then also writing a weekly skiing column for The Southland Times, he offered to look after NZ ski champ Chris Womersley at the world champs in Val Gardena, Italy, in 1970.
That began seven winters of him managing the NZ men’s ski team, culminating in the Sapporo Olympics in Japan in 1972.
Wanting to settle down with his new wife, he got a job for Mount Cook (which then owned an airline as well as Coronet Peak) in operations and check-ins at the airport.
"You could drive your car out the front of the terminal."
Hudson next ran a ski shop in Shotover St, and in summer sold fruit and veg next door before realising it wasn’t profitable.
His mother-in-law being from Canada, he and his wife moved there to work at Banff Sunshine Village for three years from 1980.
He wound up having back surgery in Calgary, having been born with a loose vertebra, then left after his marriage broke up.
After initially settling in Christchurch, he returned to Queenstown to help Mount Cook set up The Remarkables skifield, including the challenging access road.
Hudson was effectively the interface between the company and the contractors.
After it opened in 1985 he ran a Mount Cook ski shop in Rees St, before working again for the company at the airport.
In ’88 he was made redundant and was out of work for a while till landing an airport ops job with new airline, Ansett NZ, where he spent nine enjoyable years.
In ’92, having gained profile from a weekly ‘No Bull Turnbull’ newspaper column, he was elected on to council — "I felt I could make a difference".
During his two terms, one huge task was working on the district plan, the first under the Resource Management Act, with fellow councillor, the late Les McAndrew.
He was on the team that put together the Queenstown Events Centre, even giving it its name.
He first learnt about people’s negativity when many — wrongly, in the event — thought it’d be a white elephant.
"I hesitate to tell you but it was my idea to run the Melbourne-Henry St link [opening today] and have it go up Man St and down to the One Mile.
"People making comments about ‘the road to nowhere’ don’t know what they’re talking about."
Hudson says he also pushed for the Hawthorne Dr link around the airport.
His council innings ended when he unsuccessfully stood for the mayoralty against incumbent Warren Cooper.
However, council work hasn’t been his sole community contribution — he’s also headed the Wakatipu High PTA, Frankton Community Association and Whakatipu Ski Club and been longtime secretary of Queenstown’s masonic lodge.
After Ansett, Hudson and his partner bought the Queenstown airport shuttles and airport information desk — "I finished up with two limos and five super-shuttles and we had 20 or 30 staff".
When new Auckland owners took over, though, "we had to shut that down, we lost a lot of money".
Eschewing retirement, he subsequently worked for Milford Sound Flights at the airport and driven Milford coaches, latterly for RealNZ, where he’s also had an ops role.
As for his Wellington move, Hudson say his new "lady friend", whom he’s known all his life, invited him — "I didn’t turn down the invitation".
Ironically, he has more family up there — his son, a daughter and three grandsons, while his sister’s in Masterton.
His final message, echoing Cooper, is that those wanting to stop others moving to Queenstown are selfish — "someone’s going to arrive tomorrow who loves what they see, accepts the way it is and wants to live and work here".
