Happy New Year! 🎉 We hope everyone had a wonderful break. To kick off 2023 we’d like to share our “Conversation with the Team” with Jens Rekker, a principal hydrogeologist at KSL
𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱?
I had always been fascinated with freshwater in my formative years. So, after four years working in South Island hydro-electricity schemes I enrolled in papers in aquatic biology, geography and geology. I rolled out of university as a geologist with specialisations in hydrogeology. I had to travel around the globe to get my first job and two years of experience, where my second nationality to the Netherlands came in handy. I landed back in New Zealand during the 1990s recession and went into survival mode to keep myself employed in hydrogeology. I have worked for myself, small consultancies, multinational consulting corporations, regional councils and a university over the last thirty years and loved most of it.
I have a strong affinity for regional authority work where most water management in NZ is actually carried out, plus the research that informs it. However, I keep coming back to consulting, which I consider is an important interface between the community and water environmental managers, and therefore an important role to fill.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻?
The new and emerging mineral sands industry has been a pre-occupation this past year, which looks like it will continue for a few years to come. My first mineral sands hydrological assessment was in 2018 and now I am contributing to investigations on three separate West Coast deposits. It’s always exciting working from the ground up with drilling, aquifer testing and instrumentation programmes to characterise unexplored groundwater systems.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮?
The usual consulting industry challenges of keeping all of the pots on the stovetop simmering without boiling over during a busy year for everyone.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮?
Getting vehicles and rigs in and out of muddy paddocks in one of the wettest years and on our wettest Coast! Actually, that was mostly the drilling contractors’ success but I spent a lot of hours worrying about what to do if we remained stuck.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆?
I am noticing more collaboration and cooperation between hydrologists in different organisations working in the same patch. It’s something heartening to see.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸?
I started canoeing on the Otago Harbour when I was barely 7 years old. In my teens, twenties and thirties, I loved nothing more than to kayak whitewater gorges all over the South Island. Nowadays I find myself canoeing on Otago Harbour again but in a much flasher, expensive new kayak!
