94-year-old volunteer helps DoC build safer Mount Somers walking tracks

Peter Winter (left) and Department of Conservation Ranger Chad Adams (right).

At 94, Peter Winter remains skilled with a shovel.

These are the skills that help the Department of Conservation (DoC) rangers upgrade walking tracks in the Canterbury back country, a mission that Winter has played a key role in.

“I just love it,” Winter said, describing it as a “type of work that keeps him feeling young”.

Winter is part of the Mt Somers Walkway Society, a volunteer group of mainly retired farmers founded about 40 years ago.

Described as the “third arm” of the department, volunteers such as Winter spend hundreds of hours looking after the Mt Somers tracks and biodiversity.

Most recently, this work involved helping to build a new zigzag walk on the very popular Woolshed Creek track.

The Woolshed Creek track hut.

Mount Somers Walkway Society President Robert Schikker said Winter is a “real character and he’s been around for a long time”.

“Being retired farmers, we love hard physical work,” Schikker said.

“He’s apparently never been to the doctor. I reckon it’s this outdoor work and staying fit that keeps him going.

“We all enjoy a day out and bonding with each other, and we love the idea that we are creating something that others can enjoy.”

DoC Geraldine operations manager Tony Preston said Winter and the Mount Somers Walkway Society are the most productive, passionate, and committed community group he had ever worked with.

“As well as Woolshed Creek, they constructed a new walk to Sharplin Falls, funded and managed by them,” he said.

“Plus, they’ve done an enormous amount of broom and gorse control in the Mt Somers area.”

Peter Winter, 94, is part of the Mount Somers Walkway Society, founded about 40 years ago.

DoC ranger Chad Adams said the group, and volunteers such as Winter, were a key partner in the projects his team needs to get done.

“A lot of the work we do would be very difficult to achieve without them, we see them as one of us,” Adams said.

“It means we can focus on other areas.

“These guys are always ‘naturing’, there wouldn’t be a day go by when one of these guys isn’t out doing something.

“Peter’s a classic. He’s amazing at 94 to be going strong and what an inspiration.”

The Mount Somers group is now looking for more volunteers and considering scheduling weekend working bees to attract younger people.