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 Gavin was born on the West Coast. There he spent his early years, before moving to Christchurch to further his education. He still lives in Christchurch with Adrienne, who is an analyst with Statistics New Zealand. But, “once a Coaster, always a Coaster” and Gavin is frequently seen in that area taking walks or what he believes to be his share of the whitebait.
Prior to his life with Tourist Times, Gavin was also employed at Statistics New Zealand. In fact, he’d been there for thirty years and specialised in tourism statistics. He travelled widely throughout Asia and the Pacific as an advisor on data collection, and contracted to organisations such as the United Nations and Asian Development Bank.
If anyone wants to know what really happened in the military coup in Fiji in 2000, ask Gavin when he calls on you – he was there at the time! On another occasion he found himself barricaded inside a hotel room for two days in Honiara, while the locals torched the town. In spite of this obvious leaning towards adventure tourism, in 2006 Gavin took a change in direction… the opportunity to acquire the license to operate the West Coast-Nelson-Marlborough edition of Tourist Times was too attractive to ignore. Now he is promoting the part of the world he enjoys the most and, since taking it over, he’s no longer having to dodge bullets or duck for cover. The real bonus for Gav is working with and helping his like-minded tourism clientele.
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