Finding the positive

Landing in Lofung: Helen became used to flying around the Solomon Islands by helicopter and transferring into the police boats as part of her role as staff officer. Picture supplied

Helen Harris has held some high profile jobs in New Zealand and the Pacific, from managing staff on a police mission to the Solomons to working on counter-terrorism during the Rugby World Cup. Andrew McKenna finds she has never lost the pull of home.

After working for two years in the Solomon Islands, Helen Harris never complained about not having a pen after she came home. Seeing how little people lived with there made her realise we weren't doing too badly in New Zealand.

In 2005, after working in road safety for 12 years in Wellington, she'd been headhunted to join RAMSI, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.

But going back a step or two, Helen was born in Tiniroto and grew up in Tolaga Bay. Schooled in Tolaga and then at Gisborne Girls' High, her “Coastie” origins give her fond memories.

“We had great experiences in Tolaga Bay and it's a favourite place of mine,” she says.

“It was a community and we were part of it, mum set up the Cub Scouts, I did Brownies there, Dad drove trucks, it was a real family experience.”

Her older brothers were schooled locally and the family moved into Gisborne when she started at Gisborne Girls' High.

After she finished school she started work in the Department of Social Welfare, but then came an accident when she was knocked off her bicycle by a hit-and-run driver, and her life took a new turn. That accident informed her professional career ever since.

“I got a passion for road safety, and I was injured and all the rest of it,” she says, “and the traffic officer who came to the scene inspired me to join the Ministry of Transport in the Traffic Safety Service”.

She was hit within metres of her home at the corner of Dickson Street and Wainui Road. The officer was kind and caring and she was touched by his compassion, from the side of the road through to the court process afterwards.

“That set me on a path as to where I wanted to be,” she says.

Traffic officers joined with the police in 1992 as the Ministry of Transport merged with the police.

Under that new department Helen was National Coordinator for School Road Safety Education, at the head of a team of 120 police education officers regionally based, teaching the road safety message to children around the country. Coincidentally, she ended up working next to the officer who had attended her by the roadside.

“We delivered road safety programmes like Stop, Look and Listen, messages about how to ride a bike, and the principles behind being a good driver,” she says.

After 12 years in police national headquarters in Wellington, she was shoulder-tapped for a six-month stint with RAMSI in the Solomons, which eventually lasted two years. The Solomons had been racked by fighting between ethnic groups and tensions still ran high in the country.

RAMSI was an Australian Federal Police-run mission, and New Zealand and nine other Pacific nations supported them by sending police to work with the local force. Helen was one of around 30 staff from New Zealand — and at one stage eight of them had links to Gisborne.

Based in Honiara, Helen's job was first and foremost as staff officer to the New Zealand police contingent and the nine other nations.

“I looked after the staff — everything, their placements, their welfare, their interactions with back home. I looked after police staff all around the islands, I travelled to visit them and see how they were going, if they required rotations.”

But it wasn't all about staffing requirements. While she was there she set up the inaugural bicycle squad, teaching local police to ride bikes.

“In New Zealand we take for granted that we learn to walk, ride a bike, drive a car, so I had to teach them the skills to ride a bike as part of their community policing effort.”

But learning about life and Pacific culture was not her only achievement in the Solomons.

“I was recognised by the New Zealand Commissioner of Police, and received a commendation for my service there, and that's something I'm really proud of because it wasn't easy to be there.”

On returning to New Zealand, Helen's career took on a new and maybe slightly more serious twist. She was asked to join the counter-terrorism planning squad, preparing a response to potential terror attacks leading up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

“It was new for New Zealand that the threat of terrorism was a risk that needed to be considered and planned for, and we had an all-of-government approach. We had a team of people set up focusing on the operational aspects and risks. I did some study offshore on understanding counter-terrorism, and how to lead effective exercises when we hadn't been exposed to this threat before.”

The Cup went off without a hitch, with New Zealand winning, and Helen's training and, by now, considerable experience stood her in good stead to keep working in crisis management. In 2010 she was sent to work as part of the operations group on the Pike River mine disaster and then the following year to the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.

No doubt there is something of an adrenaline rush in that kind of work that keeps people motivated, but Helen had another matter niggling at her the longer she worked away from Gisborne.

“Every time I came over the Whareratas . . . you get drawn, and it was about time to move back home. My parents were getting older, so I took a job as journeys manager. It was almost a 360 degree turn as it's effectively back in road safety.”

That was 2015 and it was in a GDC-Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency joint venture called Tairawhiti Roads.

“I was really happy to be back. I'd been in Wellington for 20 years. I spent time with Mum and Dad and nursed them both to their passing on my return.”

That position was focused on the community and on the big challenges locally, such as the environmental conditions that make roadwork a constant job.

“I learned quickly and realised that people are very passionate about the roads they live or drive on. Because I lived here I understood it. It's positioning, a level of comfort I understood, I wasn't a faceless person in Wellington. I live here. I get it, my family drive on these roads, I drive on these roads.”

She started that job in January 2015. Since then she has been leading the transport agency's response to problems and disasters in our region.

“With the flooding in March this year, I remember thinking this is going to be bad, this is bad. What was coming through that first day was ‘we're in trouble here'. I knew the community connections were really important, connections to Waikato Hospital, food and services, I know how important the road is to companies like Leaderbrand, so it weighs heavily sometimes.”

She works closely with other agencies, planning to get emergency services in when there are no passable roads. Her training and experience make her good at thinking and planning ahead, at integrating with other services when the chips are down.

“I know when to take myself away and when I need to ask someone else to step in. I set myself up to be the best version of myself, I know what's important, I know how important our roads are to our community, I know when to prioritise, to have some thinking time, and when I get out of bed I aim to be the best I possibly can.

“You hope that other people are doing the same thing.”

In August last year her role changed again, and she is now national journeys manager. While she still has a soft spot for the Coast, Tairawhiti and its roads and people, she now brings her experience to bear nationwide. She is chuffed that she does not need to be based in Auckland or Wellington to do that job, and delighted she has a passionate team of nine staff and contractors here in Gisborne to back her up.

But Helen's life is not all hi-viz vests and emergency planning into the small hours of the night. She has a couple of interesting sidelines going, including cycle trips in New Zealand and walking and cooking tours of Italy. She is able to compartmentalise the stressful demands of work.

“The Amalfi coast is stunning. I'm very passionate about Italy. I've been there a number of times and I was set to go again in 2020 when Covid hit. I couldn't travel so I said to myself, instead of learning how to order a bottle of wine in Italian I might have to talk to a doctor, so I've started learning Italian over the last couple of years in case I ended up in hospital.

“The thing I love about Italy is . . . it's like my experience in the Solomons, it's about family, and those family connections. I love cooking, and Italy is about the cooking, the wine, the family, it doesn't matter where you are it's very family-oriented.”

She has also completed some big cycling trips closer to home.

“I did the Timber Trail and the Otago Rail Trail, and have more coming up in July and September. I've been able to get out and see the country.

“I was in the Solomons during riots and you learn a level of resilience, you know when it is done it's done, the adrenaline has gone. What I know and have learned is how do we transition from response to recovery and once it's off the front page of the paper everyone thinks it's over but it's not, and I know the impacts the roads have on all of us.

“I'm passionate about finding the positive in an emergency.”