Geoff Harrow

Geoffrey Harrow was a New Zealand amateur ornithologist and mountaineer, born on 20 December 1926, the youngest child of Edward John and Rachel Harrow. He grew up in Ashburton and Christchurch, joined Forest and Bird at twelve, and from the age of fourteen developed a passion for tramping and climbing after meeting members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club at Arthur's Pass. He was one of the few people to have climbed all of New Zealand's 3,000 metre peaks, climbed every peak in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park within four years, made a number of first ascents, and helped found the Craigieburn Ski Club. On 21 February 1965 he rediscovered the nesting grounds of the threatened Hutton's shearwater in the Seaward Kaikoura mountains and spent the next fifty years helping to save the species.