Barbara Chinn has lived in Lake Hawea for nearly 20 years and she’s seen a lot of change. In fact, as she said when we met for a cup of tea in a busy Wanaka cafe, “change is the only constant”.

When the historian and author moved from Dunedin to Lake Hawea with her husband about 18 years ago, there were fewer than 100 pupils in the local primary school. That number has more than doubled now.

She says she sees the growth in the community every day but, however much it has changed, it’s still her favourite place in the world.

“I think one of the main interesting things is the way the community is growing. There are different opinions about how it should grow and there’s quite a lot of controversy at present.

“What I like about it is that many of the houses have been built for families where the parents work locally and so they live there, they’re not holiday houses. What I don’t like is the idea of the special housing area, which is beyond what we thought was the boundary of the township and has no public transport. It’s ridiculous.”

Barbara is heavily involved in the community and is passionate about identifying and trying to solve the challenges it faces. She’s part of the Hawea Community Association, as well as the Lake Hawea Guardians, and the Foreshore Group. She works with the Upper Clutha Historical Record Society, and is also applying for funding for Hawea archives to be housed in the Lake Hawea Community Centre.

“We’ve got quite a few records in there already and I have to sort them out. I’m currently applying for funding. It’ll be a year or so before it’s underway,” she said.

She might be in her seventies, but she’s not letting age slow her down.

“On Thursday mornings I work with the foreshore group, and we do weeding. Then later that day, I leave and I go with the ‘grans group’ to the Hawea school. We meet up with very young children at the library and they each bring their reading book and they read to us. When they’re done, they choose a book and we read to them,” she explained.

Her husband Trevor Chinn, who she refers to as Trev, passed away late last year. Since then, Barbara’s seen even more examples of what a tight-knit community Hawea is.

“We don’t know everybody but everybody cares for everybody else. Since Trev died, I’ve noticed it even more,” she said, explaining how everyone made sure she was looked after through that tough period.

The loss of Trevor was a loss for the community and for New Zealand as a whole, as the country lost one of its great meteorologists and glaciology experts. But no one felt the loss as deeply as Barbara.

The couple had been together since their university days in Christchurch.

“I got together with him because of our shared interest in the outdoors and the mountains,” she said.

He taught her what he knew about glaciers and she inspired his love of tramping in wild places. By the time they met, Barbara had been tramping and climbing for years, since before becoming a teenager. He hadn’t done much tramping at all but took to it like a natural.

“We did a lot of climbing and tramping together. Including one or two first ascents of minor peaks,” she said.

Her passion for tramping and climbing came from her uncle and aunt, with whom she used to spend her holidays as a young girl, just outside Christchurch.

She had to wait to turn 15-years-old before joining the local tramping club, which she did as soon as she was allowed.

“After I’d been married for seven or eight years, I started teaching, and I ran the school tramping club at Christchurch Girls (where I’d been a pupil). I taught English but tramping was very important to me. I used to take the kids on ski trips as well on the weekends,” she said.

It was their love for the mountains that drove Trevor and Barbara to settle in Hawea. “We had a kayak, mountain bikes, we went tramping… we thought it was perfect. I still think it’s a great place to live, even if I can’t do most of those things now.

“You can’t live in this area and not appreciate the outdoors. I was lecturing in Otago shortly after we moved here and I used to get up very early on Monday morning to be in my office [in Dunedin] by 9am. Then I’d come home on Wednesday and as I got closer and closer my heart would lift. I knew we’d done the right thing.”

The historian says she’s not “particularly optimistic” about the future but sees the current movement trying to fight climate change as a positive thing. “It’s incredibly important. Much more important than many people realise,” she said.

Barbara believes that, in 50 years time, future historians will look back at our time and be astonished at the way we’re burning all the fossil fuels. “That’s the main thing.”

As for local matters, she thinks it’s important to address the growth of the region but she’s not sure what the right answer or approach could be.

“We came here because we didn’t like living in the city. Other people are perfectly entitled to feel the same way. I wonder whether the growth can or should be stopped. It’s tricky.”

Whatever happens to Lake Hawea, one thing is certain: Barbara’s heart will continue to lift any time she gets closer to the mountains.

PHOTO: Supplied