Like her elder brother Christan, Robin left home at the age of 17 to spend her last year of school at Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka. She spent the following 2 summers working as a guide for Kapiti Island Nature Tours and travelling and working on ski fields over winter.
Growing up at Gorge River in the heart of New Zealand's beautiful wilderness has made Robin very passionate about protecting and caring for our native flora and fauna and she is currently based in Hokitika working for the Department of Conservation as a Biodiversity Monitoring Ranger. This involves counting birds and introduced mammals in various remote locations around the South Island as well assessing plant biodiversity and carbon storage in the forest.
As well as a competent birder she is now training to become a field botanist.
Robin also works for the West Coast Penguin Trust using motion sensing cameras to try to assess the effects of introduced mammals on the nesting success of Fiordland Crested Penguins/Tawaki which nest along the coastline at Gorge River. In spite of being the 3rd rarest penguin in the world next to nothing is known about these amazing birds and Robin has also carried out several surveys to better estimate the size and probable decline of the breeding population. In her spare time Robin loves doing anything creative such as drawing, painting, carving and sewing, as well as tramping, volunteering with other conservation programs and travelling the world.
Growing up at Gorge River in the heart of New Zealand's beautiful wilderness has made Robin very passionate about protecting and caring for our native flora and fauna and she is currently based in Hokitika working for the Department of Conservation as a Biodiversity Monitoring Ranger. This involves counting birds and introduced mammals in various remote locations around the South Island as well assessing plant biodiversity and carbon storage in the forest.
As well as a competent birder she is now training to become a field botanist.
Robin also works for the West Coast Penguin Trust using motion sensing cameras to try to assess the effects of introduced mammals on the nesting success of Fiordland Crested Penguins/Tawaki which nest along the coastline at Gorge River. In spite of being the 3rd rarest penguin in the world next to nothing is known about these amazing birds and Robin has also carried out several surveys to better estimate the size and probable decline of the breeding population. In her spare time Robin loves doing anything creative such as drawing, painting, carving and sewing, as well as tramping, volunteering with other conservation programs and travelling the world.