From professional hunter to proud franchisee – Kelvin Walker celebrates 10 years with CrestClean
Reaching 10 years as a CrestClean franchise owner is a milestone Kelvin Walker is proud of, but it’s just one chapter in a life filled with adventure and unexpected twists.
Before joining CrestClean, Kelvin’s career looked very different. He worked for the New Zealand Forest Service (now the Department of Conservation) as a professional hunter. From there, he moved into contracting, hunting pests across the country before teaming up with a friend in 1992 to start their own business.
Their skills soon took them far beyond New Zealand’s forests.
What began as local contracts grew into major eradication projects overseas, taking Kelvin to California, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Canada and Guam. His team specialised in removing unwanted animals from islands — pigs on Santa Cruz Island in California, deer on Santa Rosa Island, goats in the Caribbean. Each project offered new landscapes and challenges.
The work was demanding and often intense. On foot and by helicopter, Kelvin and his team were lifted into remote areas, using GPS and dogs to hunt before being flown back up to start the process again.
“We were the first in NZ to use a helicopter to reduce time wasted walking into the forest. Every hour was productive,” he says.
“There was lot of sweat lost!”
After 12 years, it wasn’t just the hunting that was wearing him down. The paperwork became the most time consuming part of the job. So, when Kelvin eventually decided it was time to return home to New Zealand, he imagined a quiet life back in his hometown, close to family.
But the quiet life didn’t sit well with him for long.
“I don’t like sitting still. If I sit still, I go mad,” he says.
With years of business experience behind him, he still wanted to run his own operation, just without the endless admin and stress he’d dealt with previously. CrestClean provided exactly what he was looking for.
Today, Kelvin enjoys the best of both worlds. He cleans one school, giving him plenty of spare time to enjoy Whangārei’s beautiful coast. At the same time, he’s upskilled to offer specialist services like carpet care and hard floor care, which keeps him busier than he expected.
“I want the quiet life, but I also want to keep busy,” he says.
Being out in the field gives Kelvin the freedom to manage his own workload and enjoy a good chat with his customers each day. While he once thought he might fully retire, Kelvin says that as long as he’s physically able, he likes to work and maintain a sense of purpose.
Ten years in and Kelvin’s found the perfect balance between a quiet life and keeping busy.
