'Capybara tamer': Outgoing mayor Justin Lester mulls job options

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester. Photo / Georgina Campbell

A future as a "professional Mt Victoria tunnel tooter" or "capybara tamer" may be a career option going forward for outgoing Wellington mayor Justin Lester.

Lester posted the tongue-in-cheek possible job options list to Facebook, after narrowly losing the mayoral race to Andy Foster over the weekend.

At the top of Lester's list was an "extra on Lord of the Rings" - but that had been crossed off.

Veteran councillor Foster received financial backing from Sir Peter Jackson for his mayoral campaign.

Been weighing up some job options.

Posted by Justin Lester on Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Other options for Lester's future career included being a World of Wearable Art model, a bus driver - as apparently there's a shortage - and a light rail cab driver.

Lester said the list was a little bit of fun and self-deprecation.

"I've had a lot of people reach out to me in the past week and say, look we know you'll go on to do good things... it's also nice to just show a little bit of humour."

He said capybara tamer was an option because, "how could you not love an animal that looks part guinea pig, part rat that's the size of a miniature horse and can run like the wind?"

"I've subsequently had the zoo reach out and said I might be able to borrow the capybaras for a weekend, we could pop in and do some selfies with the capybaras."

Any chance of being cast in the new Lord of the Rings TV series as a hobbit or an elf have been ruled out, Lester said he put a "line through that pretty quickly".

Lester was now planning on doing financial literacy work and setting up an affordable housing charity with his wife. He would also be looking to help a couple of Wellington businesses who had ambitions to grow.