About Nic Vallance

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Nicola - or Nic as we call her - has been passionate about New Zealand's wildlife and wild places for as long as she can remember.

She drove her parents mad with her ongoing selection of pets (cockabullys, praying mantises, caterpillars), and collection of bits and pieces she came across in her adventures (including a dried stinky shark's head she found on the beach, and a dead penguin).

Continuing her passion for all things wildlife at university, Nicola gained a zoology degree, studying moult in Adelie penguin chicks on the Antarctic Peninsula. She worked in a variety of jobs following graduation, including as a field assistant studying bottlenose dolphins in Fiordland and being a Hector's dolphin swimming guide on Banks Peninsula.

Nic started her career at the Department Of Conservation (DOC) as the journalist in Otago for three years, where she started her regular feature column Naturally Otago, on the weird and wonderful wildlife of the region (she still writes wildlife features for various papers).

She has travelled around and through New Zealand's Subantarctic Islands twice, and recently became DOC's national media advisor.

Nic loves every aspect of her job, which she reckons is all about showing and telling New Zealanders all about the special wildlife and wild places that belong to them.

She says that the biggest challenge of the job is "chewing down science" so that the information is accessible to everyone.

Nic says, "It's really inspiring to work at DOC, and meet some of our staff that are so dedicated to their jobs, that they think nothing of camping out in the bush for weeks at a time - sometimes in pretty horrendous weather, just to make sure that some of our native wildlife gets a fair chance at life."

Nic would really like to encourage people to go to NZ's wild places and enjoy them, and reminds New Zealanders that "there is something for everyone out there, for all levels of fitness and interest. You can take a five minute walk to a breathtaking waterfall from a carpark, or you can travel into the heart of our wilderness for days or weeks at a time. It's your country, get out there and enjoy it!"