Mike Tooker: computer buff, tramper and environmental worker

August 28th, 2011
By David Armstrong

Mike Tooker says he is fitter now than he was when he arrived in Motueka from Auckland 10 years ago, ample testament to the opportunities this region offers to people like Mike who enjoy outdoor activities like tramping and improving the environment.

This 75-year-old ex-seaman and ex-computer analyst with the soft, twinkling sense of humour is relishing retirement and the time it affords him to keep doing "more of the same" across a range of physical and intellectual pursuits.

Mike was born in England where he worked on a farm until, after leaving school, he began an apprenticeship for work in the merchant navy, then got a job as a crewman. For three years he sailed on cargo ships while getting his Second Mate certificate, and then worked on Shell tankers for two further years, leading to his First Mate certificate.

After marrying, in 1958 he applied for a position with a brand new ship built for the Union Company and worked his passage to New Zealand - all part of a plan. "I'd spent most of my apprenticeship time on the Australian run, which I enjoyed but I didn't really want to move there. A lot of Australians said New Zealand's the place to go to. I thought, 'If you guys think it's good, it must be good'. Plus dad might have had a bit of influence. He flew with lots of allies during the war and said the Newzies, as he called them, were the best."

So he sailed to Auckland and his wife followed. They had the first of his two daughters. Mike didn't stay long with the shipping company, but jobs were everywhere at the time so no problem. "I think there were nine people unemployed in the country," he laughs. After a few short-term jobs he became a management trainee at a brickmakers, as over a few years he moved up to the senior supervisor role.

"They couldn't pay me any more, but at that time fortuitously computers were invented - I think there were four of five of them in the country in 1966," he says. A younger colleague got a job at NCR, one of the few companies that brought in huge computers which were used to service the accounting work of other companies. NCR were looking for more people - preferably "older" people in their thirties to give an age spread - to learn the software and support clients (and hardware salesmen) who bought these computing beasts.

Mike trained as a computer programmer and learned the art of software analysis. He effectively was the dedicated support person for one large client, Consolidated Plastics, for nearly two years. Finally he became an employee there as an analyst, but eventually moving up to manage their computer department.

In 1988 he was made redundant ("I got run over by the company bus") so he went out on his own as a contracting consultant, providing computer advice and analysis/programming, through to his retirement from the workforce in 2000.

His first marriage broke up back in 1969 and three years later he married his present wife, Jess.

In the late 1970s Mike took an interest in beekeeping. Their property in Birkenhead had an area of regenerated bush in a gully out the back, ideal for dabbling in this new hobby. He joined the beekeepers club and "somehow managed" to end up as president. In that role he wrote a manual on beekeeping education - like seasonal notes - which he could hand on to others who would later run the club.

Mike is a 'systems' man. "I don't believe in going on and on doing the same job for too long," he explains. "I like to set up some kind of system or succession."

It was at this time that he also began tramping, initially with work friends in the Waitakeres and then Tongariro National Park. He joined the Auckland Tramping Club.

Why tramping? "In Auckland we were quite cocooned in a way. You'd get up in a nice warm house, drive to work in a nice warm car, work in a nice warm office, and then home again. It was quite enjoyable just shocking the system occasionally, carrying all your needs on your back, seeing places most people would never see."

In 2000, Mike and Jess decided to sell their house and visit the South Island for a three-month summer, rent a place as a base and go tramping. They chose Motueka. They had been to Motueka twice in the 80s but didn't really know the place, and their three month holiday helped them decide that this would be the place to settle. By 2002, after various house improvements and renovations, they were entrenched in their present house and ready for new adventures.

Mike joined both the 50+ Walking Group and the Motueka Tramping Club. He is now the walks planner for the walking group and has helped develop a more formal structure for the group. He was also secretary of the tramping club for four years.

The 50+ group meets weekly and allows for varying fitness levels, being a more social activity with occasional lunches. It has about 200 members. The tramping club, with about 50 members, are more serious about it. They alternate each week between day trips and overnighters, and much smaller groups take part.

Mike is still beekeeping, on some private land overlooking Split Apple. He does a little maintenance for the absentee owner in exchange for keeping his two bee hives there. He visits roughly once a month, depending on the bees' seasonal activities. "It's lovely up there on a sunny day, with the bees buzzing, and you can see all the way up the Abel Tasman coast - very tranquil."

He is also an active committee member with Keep Motueka Beautiful. He joined about four years ago after he heard that they were putting through the track between Up The Garden Path and Old Wharf Road. He was aware of the work KMB were doing, but thought, "I really have to do something now because the track would allow me to ride a bike up to the town centre".

He offered help with plantings along the path in the Inlet Reserve, and then when large-scale plantings (4,000 of them donated) got underway he organised about 50 of his walking group as volunteer planters. This created the first dozen plots of what is now the 'Adopt a Plot' area. Mike adopted one plot to care for - number 6.

Next came the idea, originated by Mike early this year, to regenerate the saltmarsh area on the margins between the new plots and connecting paths and the outer perimeter of inlet itself. This involved planting of clumps of reeds and shading marginal bushes, and the suppressing of the gorse.

Mike is also taking part in camera classes and the U3A geology group, and is beginning the task of organising a filing box full of "family history stuff" and using genealogy software. One big project he is still keen to bring together is an online database of walks information and history for the walking group, at www.motueka50pluswalkers.org.nz. It is well developed already, but he has some "loose ends" to tie up.

Being so fit, he still has a list of things he'd like to get back to or continue, including playing classical guitar and going to new walking destinations. Everything he's doing now is very satisfying and fulfilling, so life ahead is "more of the same" for Mike.

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