About Us

Carey lives in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds with her partner Marion, having recently retired from a working lifetime in the health sector. They enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren in Wellington and in the Sounds.

She has a wide range of interests and hobbies which keep her busy. She loves the sea and the mountains and enjoys fishing and boating. In the past she has been a keen sailor, skier and mountaineer. She has recently taken up e-mountain biking after many years as a road cyclist and cycle commuter. For the first 20 years of her working life she worked as a midwife and for the last 20 years in senior hospital management.

Carey is one of the founding EICT members and is currently the chair of the Trust. She has held this position since 2010. As chair and trustee she enjoys being part of an effective community organisation that has a positive impact on restoring our environment. “It has been rewarding to see the positive differences that we can make to our environment, evidenced by regular bird monitoring and a recent sighting of a fernbird in our wetlands and a South Island robin in the Pines.”

Liz has spent many years visiting Ruakaka Bay in the Sounds. However, in 2018 her family became captivated by the charms of Endeavour Inlet and jumped camp to The Pines. Although based in Wellington, she now spends a significant portion of the year in the Inlet. Through the Trust, Liz is pleased to contribute to projects that aim to restore natural habitats where native flora and fauna will thrive and that can be enjoyed by future generations.

Liz has always worked in education and has a particular interest in this aspect of the Trust’s work. Her previous roles include teaching, policy and advisory roles in the Ministry of Education and, more recently, senior management and advisory roles in the tertiary education sector.

Ian has been visiting the Sounds for family holidays since he was a young boy, after his mother, Bev Sutton, did the same since she was a young girl. The Suttons built their own home in the Inlet in 2008 and have been even more regular visitors since. Ian is a keen tramper and fisherman, though the true magic of the Sounds for him is “getting away from it all” and spending quality time with the family away from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

He started out as a computer programmer and then founded his own software company, which he ran from 1997 until 2015. Since then he has been supporting other innovative and driven Wellington tech start-up companies.

Mathea and her partner Keran have had a property in Endeavour Inlet since 2001. Mathea aims to spend a week a month in the Inlet; the other three weeks she’s in Wellington, pretty much a perfect work-life balance. She loves the Inlet dawn chorus and watching the birds in the bush around the house. It’s amazing to look back at old photos and see how much the forest has regenerated over the years.

Mathea recently completed a PhD in evaluation (that had a focus on values, and practical ways to incorporate them when evaluating policies and programmes). She is a senior consultant for a company that “gives a damn” about what it does. That pretty much sums up her own values and why she supports the work of the EICT.

Having married his way into the Sounds via Rachel Sharp, a relative of the Howden and Cathie families, Stu began talking with other locals about their various pest problems and control efforts. There was so much great stuff happening in the Inlet, but no coordinated effort to protect the wonderful natural habitat. Not really able to sit still, Stu thought it was time to add a conservation project into his busy fishing, walking, bird watching and orchid hunting Sounds schedule.

Stu worked in the conservation field for over a decade with Goodnature and is now involved in conservation trust and advisory work along with purpose-driven company development and charity work. Along with native bird and orchid nerding, he is a keen surfer and mountain biker, gardener, guitar player and devoted father.

Kent’s family has owned a property on the western side of Endeavour Inlet since 2015. The Sounds are a long way from their home in Dunedin, but there is a draw here that is difficult to resist. A large part of that draw is the native forest and the native species within it. Kent hopes that being a trustee will help improve the health of the forest and the future for the species that inhabit it. He says it’s also great to be involved in a community-led group like the EICT.

He comes from an operations and land management background, working as a senior manager in a forest company. He is also a board member of Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin.

Jayne is excited to be part of the conservation efforts in Endeavour Inlet and is passionate about preserving our native flora and fauna. She has worked as an educator for the past 30 years, and for the last 15 years has worked at an Enviroschool. Some of the most rewarding teaching experiences she has had have been equipping students to take actions for more sustainable living. She brings skills in education, communication and administration to the Trust, as well as helping out with the physical work of checking trap lines, planting and so on.

Jayne and her husband William have a property in the Inlet and it has been their aim to spend more time in the area. They have two adult children and three young grandchildren and enjoy sharing family time in natural places. They are looking forward to making the Inlet their permanent home from July 2023.

Steve has been a member of the Pines community since 2020 and owns “Le Shack”. Steve grew up on a sheep and potato farm just south of Christchurch. He has always had a connection with nature and the natural environment, whether it was skiing in the alps or sailing and diving around the Sounds. He spent most of his career working at Southern Woods Tree Nursery as the Maintenance and Projects Manager, gaining a diverse range of skills, knowledge and experience. He has also spent six years representing NZ at two Winter Paralympic Games and one World Champs. The rest of his time is spent being a full-time dad to his three kids and volunteering with Paralympics NZ as a Paralympic selector, board member of Adaptive Snowsports Canterbury, and a peer support provider for the NZ Artificial Limb Service, providing valuable support for new amputees. In his spare time he loves gardening, road and MTB cycling, scuba diving, philosophy, meditation and spiritual practices, natural medicines and living in harmony with Gaia.

Steve is looking forward to this opportunity to connect with the community and the land, and to work in collaboration with each other and the environment, so that we may all benefit from the stunning environment in Endeavour Inlet for many generations to come.