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JOHN BREEN is a professional quantity surveyor who has worked in the family construction business since 1966, acting as manager from 1978–2003. He has taken on building contracts throughout Central Otago, often in extreme conditions. A keen hunter, fisherman, climber and skier, he was introduced to the incomparable wilds of the Waiatoto by Kerry Eggeling in 1977.
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT FROM JOHN BREEN:
I was born in 1943 at Ranfurly, Central Otago. When I left school, I wanted to spend my life in the country, in the land of blue and gold, the land of the big skies: Central Otago. And I would be a builder. That is where I wanted to be, that is what I wanted to do, no question.
But the wider homeland drew me, like a honey bee to clover. I would hunt, fish, climb, ski, gawk, marvel at, fossick and explore through and around, wonder, inquire, worry and scheme about, fly around, work, sweat, shiver and shake in the incomparable wilds of Southern New Zealand.
I worked as a contractor throughout the lands of Central and elsewhere. I worked on the edge, on the frontiers, and, on occasion, within the wilderness itself.
Which is how I began contracting in Haast in 1977.
Which is where I met Kerry Eggeling; who introduced
me to the Waiatoto.
Which is how, thirty years on, this book has come to
be.
Which, deep down, pleases me mightily.
I hope the book pleases you too.
John Breen
DECEMBER 2008