Overachieving soulmates
Returning from a full day of climbing in Arthur’s Pass, a young Mike Nelson and his friends picked up a hitchhiker and gave her a ride home to Christchurch. He had no idea she would stay by his side for the next six decades.
After 62 years of adventuring together, intrepid couple Mike and Jean Nelson died eight weeks apart.
Their lengthy death notices detailed years spent researching, climbing, sailing, skiing and hosting friends and family on their travels through South America, but did not even touch on half of their achievements.
Michael Nelson – known as Mike – died on January 1, 2018, at Dunstan Hospital, aged 89. His wife, Jean Nelson, ne´ e Adams, was 85 when she died surrounded by family in the same hospital on February 25.
Mike was born and bred in Hastings and his mother wanted him to move to Cambridge and become a doctor. But, ‘‘in true Michael Nelson independent style’’, he opted for Central Otago to pursue high country farming.
Quickly realising he had no experience and limited knowledge, he completed a bachelor of agricultural science at Lincoln University and graduated with a scholarship to Oregon State University. In a joint statement, his family said his time in Canterbury ‘‘sparked a love affair with high peaks’’, and a passion for climbing he enjoyed for his whole life.
While studying in America, he wrote a heavily praised and prized PhD in agricultural economics and was awarded a position at the Stanford Research Institute, an American nonprofit organisation, where he was stationed in Argentina.
His wife Jean, the daughter of the namesake of baking titan Ernest Adams, was born in Christchurch on April 13, 1932. Equally as academic, she graduated with a bachelor of arts from Canterbury University in 1955 before joining Mike to complete her masters degree. The pair’s love inspired a long-distance romance before they married in England and spent six months honeymooning around Europe, fostering their insatiable desire for travel.
They lived together in California and Buenos Aires, before settling in Santiago, Chile’s capital, for 43 years bar brief stints in Mexico City and and Washington DC. Mike, a resource economist, was a passionate environmentalist and advocate for rural development.
Jean’s accomplishments were just as impressive as her husband’s. She was a renowned climber and the sister of Ruth Adams, who was injured in the Mt La Perouse rescue – ‘‘the most arduous rescue in New Zealand’s climbing history’’. Jean’s accolades included being the second woman to summit the 6768-metre-high Huascaran in the Peruvian Andes and accidently climbing Alpamayo, having intended to attempt Chacararaju.
She was a formidable skier, built a kitset bach in 1968 on a then-nascent ski field, and was a member of the first combined Australia and New Zealand Olympic ski team in Oslo in 1952.
Mike and Jean were ‘‘the ultimate expat hosts’’. They welcomed every New Zealand ambassador and helped them get up to speed on the realities of the Chile and South America. They retired to Wanaka with their ‘‘normal gusto’’ and spent their last years travelling, and spending time with their daughters, Lindie and Ximena, son Chris, and three grandchildren. Mike became a stalwart member of Forest and Bird, U3A and Probus.
The pair’s long-term friend, Hans Gregersen, recalled Mike’s intellect and warm, caring spirit, and said Jean was a ‘‘kindred spirit, full of enthusiasm and love for life and family’’.
Mike’s book, Development of Tropical Lands: policy issues in Latin America, had a strong influence on planned settlement approaches and garnered respect from colleagues all over the world, he said.
Youngest daughter Ximena said the family were still ‘‘reeling from the suddenness’’ of their deaths. A private funeral for Mike was held on January 3 and a gathering for Jean was held in Wanaka on March 4. A formal memorial in Christchurch is yet to come.