'Nank would be chuffed' - Native bush stays in public hands thanks to donation from late conservationist

RNZ News

27-05-2025

Nank descending Elie De Beaumont.
Photo:
Supplied
When Wellington's regional council
placed the winning bid
on a huge block of farmland and native bush in the hills behind Eastbourne, it was only possible with the help of a million-dollar donation from the estate of a local conservationist.
John Nankervis, who died aged 75 in 2022 after a stroke, left his estate to conservation projects after a lifetime exploring the outdoors.
An avid tramper, climber and conservationist, his friends paint a picture of a thoughtful man with a wicked sense of humour, one who listened before he talked, and who often took on the role of mentor for younger adventurers.
Project Tongariro president Paul Green had known him for decades.
They had moved in the same circles since their early 20s, part of a growing group of Wellington trampers and climbers in the days when those pursuits were really becoming popular.
He rarely went by his given name - Green said he had called him John maybe twice, in formal settings. Instead, he went by Nank.
Green said they worked together closely in their various conservation roles, himself in national park management, and Nank serving on both the Tongariro-Taupō conservation board and the Conservation Authority.
Nank was a life member of Project Tongariro, and a little over $75,000 from his estate had been granted to two of its planting projects - at Whakaipo Bay at the northern edge of Lake Taupō, and the Oruatua Reserve Restoration Project beside the Tauranga-Taupō River.
John Nankervis - who died aged 75 in 2022 - left his estate for conservation projects.
Photo:
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Nank was a good sounding board, Green said, with a deep knowledge of the law and his familiarity with the landscape. He could be cryptic, sometimes cynical, often the devil's advocate. "He certainly kept me honest."
Nank's day job was as a lawyer in Wellington, but his friends suspected he would have preferred to follow in the footsteps of his famous grandfather Ernest Marsden, as a scientist.
He was one of the first people to climb all of New Zealand's 3000-metre peaks - "A real mission in the early days," Green said, "when access and equipment wasn't as good as it is today."
Nank climbed all over the world - in South America and the Himalayas, in India, Nepal, China, Pakistan, Antarctica, Mongolia, the European Alps, and the United Kingdom.
According to a story in a book of tributes from his friends, he twice declined invitations to join expeditions to Mount Everest, preferring the paths less travelled.
He served as president of the New Zealand Alpine Club, represented New Zealand at the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) for a decade, and was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to mountaineering in 2010.
A climbing accident in 2013, by which time Nank was in his sixties, changed his life irreversibly. The fall from a ridgeline on Mount Awful in Mount Aspiring National Park left him paralysed.
In 2013,
RNZ's Checkpoint
interviewed search and rescue mission co-ordinator Dave Wilson, who said Nank fell 100 metres, and suffered multiple injuries, including to his head.
He was taken to Queenstown Medical Centre by rescue helicopter, and then transferred to Dunedin Hospital.
The fall broke his back, and he would use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but he remained a stalwart of the climbing and conservation scene.
Nank on Montague Spur.
Photo:
Supplied
Fellow climber Ross Cullen knew him for more than 40 years. Together, along with two others, they founded the Tūpiki Trust four years ago, with a goal to gather bequests and donations to support New Zealand climbers, and protect climbing areas.
"He was single, wealthy, and could allocate his time pretty much as he wished," Cullen said. "He was able to fit in a lot of work on boards, and managed to fit in a lot of trips into the mountains in New Zealand, and overseas."
The Tūpiki Trust had been able to provide grants for conservation projects worth more than $2 million in the past four years, Cullen said, with much of it coming from Nank's estate.
"People who read about what's happened say that Nank would be chuffed if he was here."
(From left) Guy Cotter, John Nankervis and Sir Edmund Hillary.
Photo:
Supplied
The trust had supported 60 projects so far, which was "quite remarkable", Cullen said.
Nank was an avid climber becoming one of the first to scale all NZ's 3000 metre peaks.
Photo:
Supplied
"It's succeeded in that sense beyond our wildest dreams," he said. "The challenge for the trust is to continue, and to draw in donations and bequests from other people, because Nank's money can't last forever."
The executors of Nank's estate preferred not to say how many projects had been funded, or by how much.
But Zealandia was another notable recipient.
Chief executive Danielle Shanahan said it had contributed to two significant projects within the Wellington eco-sanctuary.
The first was a raised path on Te Māhanga track to protect the Pepeketua/Hamilton's frogs, which were released from their enclosed pens into the wider sanctuary
in August last year
.
"It's a boardwalk that enables people to walk through the sanctuary without having an impact or crushing these little cryptic frogs," Shanahan said.
The second contribution was going towards the replacement of the Zealandia fence, which was by now 25 years old.
"We've got new metals that are options, new tools and techniques. We need to develop a blueprint to help us replace the rest of the fence going forward," Shanahan said.
These projects were "big, meaty asks". Zealandia could absorb its business-as-usual cost, she said, but to take things to the next level - "that's where philanthropy comes in".
"It really does enable that long-term thinking, and enables organisations like ours to think about what that future might look like."
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