Nor'West News: May 12, 2022

Thursday May 12 2022 5
‘You can change things for the better’
• By Emily Moorhouse
HELPING stranded whales and
preserving endangered plants
might seem pretty out there for
some, but for park ranger Dave
Rate-Smith this is just another
day in the office.
The 43-year-old is trained in
horticulture, construction and
fine arts, and said being a park
ranger lets him use all these skills.
“You could be answering
emails, then fixing a broken
waterline or making park furniture,”
he said. “I’m prone to
getting bored easily and being a
ranger I don’t get bored.”
Before Rate-Smith became a
ranger four years ago, he owned
a construction business, after
seeing the need for it following
the earthquakes.
After seven years he closed the
business and joined ecological
firm Wai-ora, working his way
up to team leader in two years
before jumping at the opportunity
to become a ranger for
Bottle Lake Forest Park.
Now Rate-Smith looks after
multiple parks including Styx
Mill, The Groynes, McLeans
Island and Roto Kohatu.
He said the job changes everyday
and you have to be prepared
to “throw your plans out the
window at any given second.”
Rate-Smith especially likes
Sundays because that’s when he
can talk to the public the most.
“It’s when you actually do that
DREAM JOB: Dave Rate-Smith has been a park ranger for four years and said he gets
excited about going to work.
PHOTOS: EMILY MOORHOUSE
you become aware of problems
you might have missed,” he
said. “I really like seeing their
reactions when we change and
improve an area.”
The responsibilities of a ranger
seem endless. The job requires
problem-solving skills, having
to be a trained firefighter, and
handling animals such as whales
and sea lions.
“We end up with a good range
of skills but not being specialists
in any of them, which suits me to
a tee,” Rate-Smith said.
Describing himself as an outdoors
person, Rate-Smith said
being out in nature is definitely
one of the highlights of the job.
“It’s what calms me as a person,
that’s my happy place in life,
hearing the fantails twittering
away,” he said. “That really sort
of puts a smile on my face.
NATURE: Rate-Smith said
being outdoors is one of
the highlights of being a
park ranger.
“There’s times I think I’d love
to go off and work for DOC in
the middle of nowhere but aside
from my wife not appreciating it,
I would actually miss the social
side of it.”
When asked what the strangest
“It’s not a day in parks
until you pick up a pair of
undies”
– Dave Rate-Smith
thing he’s come across at one of
the parks he laughed and said
“those would not be appropriate
for paper”.
“We see some shocking things
aye, we see the best and the worst
of human nature,” he said.
“People go to parks to do weird
things, they really do. It’s not a
day in parks until you pick up a
pair of undies.”
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