Tim Bark has put his knowledge of tourism to good use, helping to tell the stories of Wānaka locals to visitors and working to improve the environment.
He lost his job in tourism because of it Covid-19 pandemic inspired Wanaka man Tim Bark to use his knowledge of the industry to help improve the environment, tell the stories of local residents and educate visitors about what makes the city tick, writes Alison Smith.
When Tim Bark bought his property in Wānaka just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, he planned to enjoy the country lifestyle and commute to Queenstown for his corporate work.
Heading up Totally Tourism, the umbrella company for 12 aviation, adventure tourism and cruise boat businesses, the pandemic meant Barke soon found himself out of that job and working alongside the Jobs For Nature workforce.
“We were climbing the mountains and cutting down pine trees,” he said.
“It was incredible – brutally cold – our coldest days were minus 8 degrees.”
Bark said he started working with his son, who as a mountain bike trail builder was also out of work.
“It was an experience I would never have had, spending four months in the mountains with my son.
“Everyone on the team came from different backgrounds – ex-CEOs, people who washed dishes – everyone was earning the same. It was an amazing experience.”
The experience led Barke to the environmental organisation, Wai Wānaka, which aims to improve the health of waterways in the rural catchment.
Wai Wānaka achieves this by committing to 84 per cent of the Upper Clutha’s larger farms and includes more than 60 properties larger than 20 hectares, such as Barke’s.
After the borders were reopened, a role emerged with Lake Wānaka tourism.
Barke saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the local industry by collaborating with Wai Wānaka to put his knowledge of tourism into environmental action.
“One of the reasons we bought our property is that we’re really interested in soil regeneration and regenerative farming practices and trying things to see what makes a difference,” he said.
“We’re small enough that we can try things without them costing too much, but big enough to try them in different sections.”
The Wai Wānaka team helped with soil analysis and guidance on tools such as visual soil assessments and rabbit and wild pine control.
Wai Wānaka also connects Barke to its neighbors in the Poplar Beach Subwatershed.
The organization has helped establish six of the seven watershed groups and four small landowner groups working in the Central Lakes region.
These groups set their priorities for each catchment area, receiving a pool of funding to help facilitate the group. They also get access to experts, tools and resources.
The science behind how the groups work is based on a three-year research project involving more than 75 agricultural businesses in New Zealand, funded by Our Land and Water.
Wai Wānaka’s actions are based on the Community Catchment Plan.
Barke believed Wai Wānaka made it easier for locals to meet and work with their neighbors and provided invaluable results with a science-based plan.
“As communities, we’re much more mobile than we used to be, so people are moving houses, cities and regions more than in the old days, so these networks are harder to build and maintain,” he said.
“For me personally, it was a really useful opportunity to get to know my neighbors. We were new to Wānaka and it shortened the process.
“Having these experts gives you a lot more confidence than just catching up with the neighbors and spitting out ideas.
“You can speed things up more easily when you have scientific data behind the decisions you make.”
He said bringing people together and understanding what works and what doesn’t is an interesting process.
“Overall, we are all trying to achieve the same thing – to be stewards of the earth and to help the health of the earth and its ecosystems.
“Some of those in our catchment group the only income is produced from the land, but they can only do that if the land is healthy.”
Bark said there are “enormous benefits” for groups if they can achieve cost-effective processes that help regenerate soil and ecosystems.
Barke’s entire career has been in tourism, starting in the late 1980s.
From the outset, he could see the opportunities that tourism offered – but also the potential impact on the natural resources it relied on – something that travelers also began to realize.
Bark said this is partly about destination planning and how a region functions.
“Our job used to be to sell as many travel products as possible overseas – it was literally bums on the seats.
“Through the repositioning of the brand and the destination management process that we went through over two years, we found that the community quickly felt pressured by tourism and felt like they were being pushed out, with tourism taking precedence over locals.”
Bark and his team have redeveloped www.wanaka.co.nz to tell stories about who Wānaka locals are, what they do as part of their ideal lifestyle and how locals look after their place.
“Then we offer an invitation to people that resonates with.”
He said this way, visitors have a better idea of how to fit into the community.
“We’re trying to create opportunities for visitors to get involved and better understand how we care for the place and their role in that.”
“It attracts the people who are going to be the best fit.
“It is [also] promoting tourism products that have a regenerative focus, such as taking people to four-wheel drive to stations in the Highlands to check for pests and learn why it is done, or approaching selling as a storytelling process, and not as marketing.”
The result is twofold.
“People who want to come here have a much better understanding of where and to whom they are coming.
“So they have a better understanding of what they can expect, but also what is expected of them when they come.”
In collaboration with the Wai Wānaka team, the tourism offering is a real outcome for the good of the catchment.
Back on his land, Barke was eager to make progress, along with his neighbors, in reforesting a barren hillside that had only weeds and rabbits on it.
“If we can trigger a local ecosystem, we can connect Wānaka to Luggate through a natural corridor and potentially give people access to explore it.
“That in itself would have an impact on the weather – having a decent-sized forest can affect the amount of rainfall.”
