The engineering alumna moonlighting as a polar guide

This is adventure with a capital A. When Rochelle Kirby is landing Arctic cruise tourists on Norway’s Svalbard, she always carries a rifle. That’s in case a polar bear comes close and hasn’t already been put off by flares and noise deterrents.

“We maintain our vigil when guests are on the shore, scanning the perimeter, keeping watch,” says Rochelle, when describing this aspect of her polar tour-guiding duties. “Bears can swim, so I’m often scouting in the Zodiac [boat].”

Between voyages, the team keep their skills sharp at local rifle ranges – but shooting would be a last resort. “If I see fresh tracks before the excursion, we won’t land the guests.”

Over her two Arctic seasons, she’s seen polar bears feasting on a washed-up sperm whale; humpback whales trapping schools of fish using ‘bubble nets’; and five blue whales swimming together alongside the cruise ship. On days at sea – between Norwegian islands, Greenland and Iceland – she gives lectures about the intelligence and physiology of Arctic birds.

It’s literally almost an entire world away from Rochelle’s usual life in Tauranga, where the 2019 engineering graduate works for Beca as a mechanical engineer, specialising in building services. She also volunteers as a Coastguard rescue crew member and a watch assistant onboard the Spirit of New Zealand.

But wait, there’s more: thanks to her understanding bosses and flexible working arrangement, by the time you read this, Rochelle will be prepping to swap polar bears for penguins, to guide tourists in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, for her second southern polar season.  

In fact, some of Rochelle’s favourite places are New Zealand’s own sub-Antarctic Campbell Islands and Auckland Islands, which she describes as “the most beautiful, wild, intriguing places I’ve ever been” – in part due to their unique mega-herbs. The islands are where Rochelle got her first taste of cold summer adventures, thanks to a True Young Explorer scholarship with Heritage Expeditions in 2021. That experience also inspired her to pursue the qualifications in skippering and ornithology necessary for polar guiding.

The sea is the common element among all her lives. Rochelle grew up with boats in Auckland, and both sailing and engineering are in her heritage: her grandfather was in the Merchant Navy and her father was in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Now working as a marine slurry engineer, Rochelle’s dad encouraged her to pursue engineering as it suited her skill set.

She studied mechanical engineering for its wide variety of career options, but the most useful skills she learned weren’t always the technical ones. “The [engineering degree] course teaches you how to manage your time and manage your projects,” she says. “It teaches you the principles, how to put the puzzle pieces together in whatever job you end up in; it teaches you teamwork. And the degree shows employers you’ve got a brain to solve reasonably complex problems.” 

Rochelle also successfully applied for the Dean’s Leadership Programme, which enables a select cohort of undergraduates to hear from leaders in professional fields, support each other, and connect with potential internships.

These days she helps to design heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems for buildings such as hospitals and schools as well as for Tauranga’s new civic precinct, Te Manawataki o Te Papa. She enjoys the variety and collegiality of her day job. “Our team are keen to share their knowledge with you, and I appreciate that.”

Back in polar-guide mode, Rochelle’s favourite animal is the northern rockhopper penguin, which sports impressive spiky yellow eyebrows. And her life goal is “trying to see all 18 species of penguin in their natural habitats. The guiding job is helpful for that … some species are extremely remote.”

In the meantime, “I just want to keep learning,” she says. “I take more risks and opportunities now than when I was younger. Each year you do something cool and you’re like ‘how am I going to top that?’”

If anyone can – it’s Rochelle.