New Year Honours: View's just fine after climb to the top

By IRENE CHAPPLE

The weather's been a bit squally so John Goulter has been steering his launch in and out of Bay of Islands beaches looking for sheltered spots.

Goulter, one of New Zealand's most successful company leaders, was about two hours' motoring from his home in Paihia when he rang the Herald.

He had collected the message late, being out of range, and climbed 20 minutes up a hill. After catching his breath he spoke about his New Year honour.

Goulter has been described as phlegmatic. Yesterday, as he looked towards Russell and the Hole in the Rock, he was full of laughter.

A self-described "passionate New Zealander", Goulter is now a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

The honour will be celebrated with "quiet contemplation". New Year's will be busy, after all, dealing with the huge numbers expected at the Paihia Motel he and his wife own.

But Goulter is "very thrilled ... very honoured ... and very humbled. In many respects I was just doing my job, so it was very much a surprise".

The honour caps a spectacular year for the former managing director of Auckland Airport, a position from which he retired in September.

Although retirement is a word that rankles.

"It suggests you've reached the end of the road," mused Goulter in an earlier interview. "I look at myself as restructuring, in a positive sense. I'm off to do my own thing, become more of a free spirit and spend more time with family and friends."

In the same interview Goulter said that the demands of his job had kept him from enjoying other hobbies, such as the pursuit of natural history.

"What's special about New Zealand is you can quickly get away from people, head up a stream or river to solitude and nature. But, with my job, if that means going out of mobile phone range, I've got to turn back."

Despite the relaxing of such requirements, Goulter made the effort to return the Herald's calls.

"One is always conscious of what the community has done for you," the 61-year old says. "So I made a 20-minute hill climb for you."

Goulter's departure from Auckland Airport after 15 years was signalled for more than a year and the farewells were emotional.

At last year's annual meeting a musical tribute was played: the Exponents' sing-along classic I'll Say Goodbye, with a video detailing highlights for the company.

This year Herald columnist Brian Gaynor awarded Goulter 13 points out of 15 for his achievements at Auckland Airport since its incorporation in 1998.

The prospectus net profit forecast of $35 million for the year to June 1999 was easily surpassed and the company has been a stockmarket sweetheart since.

Despite Goulter's "retirement", work still takes up 60 per cent of his time. He is chairman of Advance Whangarei, remains a director of the Reserve Bank and is an adviser to ABN Amro, among other things.

Goulter has some advice for the upcoming businesspeople of New Zealand: Remember, success is about "hard work and a bit of luck".

Before his time at the airport Goulter worked for 25 years at Ceramco under Sir Tom Clark.

He started work in 1959 as a wages clerk at Holeproof Mills in Auckland, then went to Morrow Taylor, a shoemaker famous for its Gadabout brand.