"If people aren't willing to risk embarrassment by standing up and doing what's right, nothing will ever get better."
The former Green co-leader leaves Parliament after seven years and with no experience of being in Government.
This did not bother him, he said, because the Greens had forced change in Opposition. He did not need to be a minister to help stop mining in national parks.
"We've turned the Green Party into a big, strong party which will have an enduring voice in New Zealand politics," he said.
Dr Norman said he would miss Parliamentary question time, though he felt it was less "electric" since the departure of former Speaker Lockwood Smith. He would not miss the "unnecessary" formality of Parliament or the big egos he encountered in the Cabinet and within Government departments - who he would not name.
He starts work at Greenpeace on Monday. He has no plans for a shakeup, saying the organisation is in good financial shape and is celebrating a recent victory in keeping oil giant Shell out of the Arctic.
Some of Greenpeace's global campaigns were run out of the Auckland office, and its biggest project was the sustainable tuna fishing campaign in the Pacific.
Domestically, the organisation would continue to focus on deep sea oil drilling, and increasingly on water quality and marine reserves.
It was also focused on harnessing "people power" in large-scale campaigns instead of being "an elite group of environmentalists" trying to save the world on behalf of everyone else.
And like his Tibetan protest, Dr Norman promised plenty more stunts.
"Nobody else does direct action like Greenpeace does it," he said.
"I will certainly continue that."
