Angus McKay accepted a job as chief controller with the Ministry for Primary Industries, and will be moving to Wellington next month.
The decision was not taken lightly, but he accepted the job to keep challenging himself and to be closer to his family.
"For me, it is an opportunity to do something with a central government department.
"It is a a new role that can be very interesting.
"My daughter is also living in Wellington and my son is in Auckland — so it will be good to
be closer to them."
Mr McKay said his new role was within New Zealand’s biosecurity team, and part of it would be helping with regional responses to emergencies throughout the country.
"We [Southland] had a few of those in the recent years."
Leaving the Southland role, which he has been in for the last five and a-half years, was not due to the huge task he faced this year with floods, Covid-19, snow and more floods.
"It has been good to use all the planning, in a way ...
"The team always laughed at me because I said for years that we needed to have a little emergency just to test everything.
"We certainly had that this year."
Mr McKay said he had a mix of feelings about his departure, but said he was excited about "moving forward".
He wanted to thank the community for its help.
"I just want to give a big thank you for all the support and the help that they gave us.
"I couldn’t have done my job without them."
