Tongariro man to swap snow storms for pampered possums

Ruapehu Bulletin, 1 September 1992, Page 17

Tongariro man to swap snow storms for pampered possums

BY

MARNIE

WOODD

Tongariro National Park's head ranger is swapping jobs with an Australian for six months at the end of September. Russell Montgomery, his wife and their two sons leave for Mt Buffalo National Park in Victoria, Australia, on 28 September. Mt Buffalo, initiators of the swap, will in exchange send ranger Andrew Nixon. Mt Buffalo park is smaller than Tongariro but similar as it has a hotel built around the. same time as the Chateau and a high level of commercial activity. Mr Montgomery is looking forward to going because of the trip's learning opportunity. "They do a lot of things over there that we don't, in particular they have a large number of marsupials and mammals so it will be nice not to think of possums as a curse," he said. Don Bogey will take over the field centre manager's job and Mr Nixon will do a mixture of Bogey's and Montgomery's jobs. Russell is disappointed he won't be involved iij a few major projects proposed for the area: the Chateau re-de-velopment, Whakapapa skifield's snowmaking expansion and the upgrading of some of Tongariro's tracks. "I can't help but pick up ideas and initiatives from working within their park system," he said. "I'm looking forward to bringing back some of the positive things. they do over there." This is one of the first exchanges overseas that DOC has got off the

ground. Two other people applied. The Montgomery's are paying for their travel out of their own pockets, however DOC will continue to pay Russell's

salary for the six months^ The family plans to holiday for a month before returning to New Zealand in March next year.