Master's candidate Dr Geoff Hughes has always enjoyed the outdoors.
There's no way master's student Geoff Hughes is ever going to get stuck in a rut.
The ex-pat Brit retired from clinical practise a few years ago after decades as a clinician, academic and editor in the medical field.
Since then, he has taken on a leadership role in a Whakatipu Basin conservation organisation and started a Master's degree in International Studies.
And those are just some of his latest undertakings in what has been a varied life with the brain fully engaged.
He had not long finished high school when he decided to apply to university to study Medicine, Dr Hughes says.
That led to a prominent career in emergency medicine and trauma in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
“Medicine is a fascinating profession to go into, it's intellectually interesting, it is practically and technically very rewarding, and dealing with patients is obviously a very special interaction.”
He says a particular highlight of what has been a “fulfilling and rewarding career” was working as doctor for the Chelsea Football Club.
“I love football. I love all sports, but professional football is my favourite.”
He held the role from the late 1980s and until 1997, at a time when professional football was not quite as intense as today and he another doctor were able to look after the team in their spare time.
“That was great fun. The demands on us were not quite as much as would be now.”
He looks forward to the Women's Football World Cup kicking off in New Zealand in a few weeks' time.
“It will be a tremendous tournament for the sport, but also a tremendous inspiration for young girls and young women.”
Dr Hughes comes from Dorset which is on the south coast of England, an area he says is “steeped in Thomas Hardy”.
From the playing fields of the school he attended – which is the same school Hardy attended – he could see the house Hardy lived in as a mature author, penning novels The Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
Dr Hughes says he has always had in interest in writing and words.
“I'm a book worm, I love literature, I love newspapers and journals, I always had an interest in that sort of thing.”
When Dr Hughes had completed his specialist training he did a writing course run by the British Medical Association and hosted by a copy editor from a Fleet Street newspaper. The course was for people in the medical profession and it kindled an interest in medical publishing and medical writing.
He has subsequently been an editor for three journals over the past 18 years, including being the editor-in-chief for an Australasian journal Emergency Medicine Australasia, for the last 10 years.
Living a principle of staying curious, he and wife Caroline moved to New Zealand in 1997, when he was offered the role of director of Wellington Hospital's emergency department, which he did for seven years before spending the final decade of his medical career as executive clincal director at The Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Dr Hughes, pictured in Franz Josef Land, Russia, says his love of the outdoors has seen him and his wife travel to many parts of the world.
He retired from clinical practise in 2015 and the couple relocated to Queenstown.
Looking to do some volunteer work for a conservation organisation in Otago, when a local group that fundraises and supports predator trapping in the Whakatipu Basin had a vacancy for an executive officer, he threw his hat in the ring.
Having always enjoyed the outdoors and been “fascinated” with wildlife, it is nice to be doing something quite different from medicine, he says.
Another project he has taken on that is quite different to medicine is a Master's of International Studies at Otago University.
It is a degree that blends international politics, global economics, international law and peace and conflict studies.
He is completing the course part time over two years and has just finished his first semester.
He is enjoying the degree, saying he has had a lifelong interest in international affairs.
“Even as a young boy growing up, I can remember newspaper headlines when the Berlin Wall was built in the 1960s. I'm a child of the Cold War and the Space Race. The Vietnam War was going on in the background in my formative years," he says.
The course has made him think about international politics in a “more structured and professional way.
“Doing this really is, for me, something fun in my later life. There is evidence that if you challenge yourself with something new to learn and understand it is probably good for an aging brain.”
He's enjoying interacting with the other students on the course, and says if the course goes well, he may consider further study.
“But I'm not doing it for any career reasons at all, all purely personal interest.”
Although he is towards the end of his working life, he doesn't want to stop doing things.
“I want to keep contributing, that's why I do the conservation work. If you are in the position of being able to do things, I think you should just keep going," he says.
"If your circumstances allow it, stay curious about our world and our planet... curiosity is key and a very positive force for living your life.
“Despite all the myriad challenges we face, our world and planet are astonishing things... You can't ever stop learning new things about them. Be curious, it's good for you.”