10 questions with.. Jue Hunter

How long have you been involved in search and rescue?

I joined the Christchurch LandSAR group in 2011. I was already into the outdoors, so I thought I’d try volunteering for LandSAR and 10 years later I’m still here.

What’s your current role within SAR?

I’ve previously volunteered as the group secretary and treasurer, but I’m currently a general committee member. I also represent the Christchurch group at the Canterbury region meetings.

What’s your day job?

I’m currently on parental leave, but before that I was a detective working in the Child Protection Unit. I’m also a member of the Canterbury Police SAR Squad, which includes some disaster victim identification work.

Can you tell us about a memorable SAR operation you’ve been involved in?

There have been so many memorable searches but the one that’s jumping out at me is a search for a despondent male on Mount Grey in Canterbury. His car was found in the Mount Grey car park so we started tracking from there. His track took us miles from his car. Towards the end of the first day of searching I found him. The reason it’s so memorable is because it was the first time I’d found someone, and also because I was by myself at the time I found him. It’s such a sense of accomplishment to find or rescue someone. It makes all those hours of searching in adverse conditions worth it.

How do you find being a member of both Police and LandSAR?

I’m in the unique position of having an insight into both worlds. If I’m running a search as a member of the Police SAR Squad, I’m always thinking about how the LandSAR volunteers are feeling because I’ve walked in their shoes. LandSAR is my hobby, I love what we do, and I also love the people I’ve met along the way. We all share a love for the outdoors but we’ve also been through a lot together, so there are some strong bonds there.

You received a LandSAR scholarship to attend a SAR conference in Iceland in 2018. How did that come about?

I heard about the scholarships and thought I’d give it a crack. I love a bit of travel and I love search and rescue so why not combine the two. The reason I picked the ICE-SAR (Iceland Search and Rescue) conference is because it has a reputation of being one of the best in the world.

While you and your partner were the only Kiwis at the conference, you soon discovered another New Zealand connection at ICE-SAR – tell us about that.

It was completely out of the blue. I was standing in line to pick up my registration pack and right next to me was Robert Koester, who wrote Lost Person Behaviour, which we refer to a lot in search and rescue. He was wearing a LandSAR t-shirt that he’d picked up on a trip to New Zealand. What are the odds of that? He’s very well known in SAR circles and I was pretty stoked to get to spend some time with him.

How does SAR in Iceland compare to New Zealand?

The level of commitment to SAR in Iceland is incredible. They’ve got a population about the same as Christchurch – around 370,000 people – but 3,500 of them volunteer for search and rescue across 100 teams. In New Zealand, there are about 3,500 LandSAR volunteers across the whole country.

What’s the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you in SAR?

I met my partner through LandSAR – that was definitely unexpected! We’re both still very much involved and my partner is now chairman of Christchurch LandSAR. What do you like to do in your spare time? My partner and I are both into the outdoors. We spend a lot of time tramping and hunting around the South Island. I’m also looking forward to taking our son on some of the amazing walks our country has to offer.

This article was first published in the March 2022 issue of Link Magazine