International recovery specialist Paul Bayly happy to be home in Whanganui

Whanganui prodigal son Paul Bayly is happy to finally be home and feeling optimistic about our future. Photo / Supplied

Paul Bayly is optimistic about New Zealand's ability to recover from the Covid-19 emergency and he is probably better placed than most to have an opinion about it.

Bayly recently returned to his Whanganui hometown after a 33-year absence and what can accurately be described as an illustrious working life.

Most recently he led the billion dollar recovery programme for the hurricane-devastated British Virgin Islands and prior to that he was working in Fiji to assist the country in its recovery after Cyclone Winston.

A national lockdown against a life-threatening virus may be very different from a natural disaster but Bayly said there are some universal truths to any economic recovery.

"I think that the New Zealand Government is doing a very good job of macro-managing the economic response to the current crisis but it will be up to communities to deal with the micromanagement.

"Councils, iwi groups and chambers of commerce will have to work to support those small businesses to get up and running again when the lockdown is over."

When asked if he thinks the Government should fund local bodies to support the recovery, Bayly said it is not necessarily about money.

"In my experience, small business owners need help to get their confidence back more than anything.

"I imagine those small businesses in the Whanganui region have loyal customers ready to come back and support them as well."

Moving back to his home town has been a good lifestyle choice for his family, Bayly said.

"We did actually plan to settle here before I was offered the Virgin Islands position.

"They called me back for second and third interviews and I was unable to refuse after all that."

Paul Bayly (right) is back in his home town after leading economic recovery programmes in the British Virgin Islands and Fiji. Photo / Supplied

Bayly is one of six sons of Kai Iwi farmer and horse trainer Phil Bayly and his wife Mildred.

"I don't imagine we were that popular when we visited people," Bayly says.

"Seeing six boys getting out of the car would have been pretty daunting."

Bayly and his twin brother Andrew would later found and direct merchant banking company Cranleigh Partners together.

In the meantime, Bayly and his brothers were boarders at St George's and Collegiate in Whanganui and he later attended Massey University where he completed his Bachelor of Business Studies.

It would be the first of many tertiary qualifications including a Bachelor of Science achieved at the London School of Economics and masters of philosophy (defence and strategic studies).

In 2008 Bayly joined the senior executive fellowship programme to study public administration and management at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

He is a retired New Zealand Army Colonel and has worked with the United Nations, across southern and eastern Africa as a UN specialist, and in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and East Timor as a military observer.

While stationed in Zambia in the early 1990s, Bayly was inspired to write his biographical book David Livingstone - Africa's Greatest Explorer, The Man, the Missionary and the Myth.

"I was curious about these exotic palms growing along ridges and forming these long pathways into forested areas," Bayly said.

"I learned that they had been planted by slave traders and I became curious about the local history and the life of the intrepid Scottish missionary."

Bayly has undertaken his own adventures with the Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003 where he sailed on the reconstructed 700AD century ship from Indonesia to the Seychelles.

Then, from 2008 to 2012, he was project advisor for the Phoenician Ship Expedition and sailed from Crete to London on the reconstructed 600BC ship.

Bayly says he is sure there will be some great adventures to be had back on his home turf, and, yes, there may be another book to be written.

"I'm looking forward to working through the next few months and I have a great deal of optimism but it really is just very nice to be here."