U3A Cromwell Session 3 - Life Without A Plan

Speaker: Jamie Ward 

Topic: Life Without A Plan 

Jamie grew up in the small seaside town of Riverton, the second oldest town in New Zealand. From these beginnings in a rural and fishing supply town he has kind of fallen into things his whole life. He ended up at  Otago University before working in a variety of deer farming science roles for AgResearch at Invermay and now finds himself in Wānaka working for Fish and Game. He has tried his hand at a lot of different sports and is passionate about recreation and wild places.

 Jamie will preface with his youth, growing up at the  bottom of the South Island, a little on the edge of a couple of booms (crayfishing and venison).Hopefully there will be interweaving threads through his life story which connect, as he is a system person who looks for connections and associations. Some of this will include his personal observations of change, societal, environmental and ecological that he has seen.He will talk about his sporting and recreational interests, from archery to ultra-running and some lessons he has learned from that, including facing your fearsThere will be a fairly generous section on deer farming, deer farming science and the people who he has worked with in that industry (they say never meet your heroes - Is that really true?) In that theme he will give a side mention on moose in Fiordland.Part of his life story is about health, his diagnosis with coeliac disease and maybe a few bumps and bruises along the way.Finally, he will round off with his new life in Central  Otago and a few little snippets from Fish and Game for the anglers and game birders out there.