Ray Walter arrived on New Zealand's Tiritiri Matangi Island as a lighthouse keeper in 1980, when the job was already approaching its end. The country was automating its lighthouses, and in 1984 Walter's position disappeared when the Tiritiri Matangi light was automated. He did not leave the island. Instead, he moved into conservation work and became closely involved in a project to restore land that had spent decades under farming. By the time Walter retired from the Department of Conservation in 2006, he had spent 26 years on Tiritiri Matangi. During that period, thousands of volunteers planted 283,000 native trees as part of the island's restoration, according to the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi .
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