“If they knew how much I love my job, they’d stop paying me,” Chris Oord jokes as he’s preparing to take a boat out at Lower Nihotupu Dam in Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges.

“I spent my youth surfing and tramping out here with my mates, and now I get to work in this beautiful place every day.”

His role as a dam technician at Watercare means he spends most of his working week at the five Waitākere Ranges dams that supply about 20 per cent of Auckland’s drinking water. He and his colleagues on the headworks team are responsible for the routine inspection of these dams as well as three water supply dams in Helensville, and wastewater retention dams all the way up to Wellsford.

“We’re here to pick up small change. Big problems are always easier to fix when they start off as small problems,” Chris says.

The role is both structured and flexible; The team has lists of daily, weekly, monthly and annual inspections and checks – but each dam technician manages their own work programme.

“As well as the critical inspections, we do a lot of project management of maintenance work and also support other Watercare staff – for example, our hydrologists who come out here to calibrate and check our remote rain gauges and dam level instrumentation.

“We’ve also started holding regular tours with student engineers or high school groups out at Waitākere Dam – Auckland’s oldest dam. I enjoy taking these tours – I think it’s really important to get people out to these places to see where their water comes from and help them understand the whole system a bit better. It is also great to show young tamariki that these cool jobs exist.

“In this role, you get the opportunity to be really independent, to be out in these beautiful spaces on your own. But we also work really well as a team. It probably helps that we are not cooped up together in an office for the full 40-hour week!

“We’re similar minded – we enjoy nature and being outside, we’re practical and we like fixing things and problem solving.

“I’m very lucky to have an awesome boss – operations controller AJ Grobler. He’s understanding, caring and the right person for the role. The skills he brought from the Nerve Centre really strengthened the team.

“One of the things I love in Watercare is how passionate people are about their jobs and what they do. People do really care… there’s more than just people coming for a pay cheque.”

Life before Watercare

Before the water industry engulfed him five years ago, Chris had already had an incredibly varied career. Having struggled with the rigidity of classroom learning at high school, he left without a clear idea of what he wanted to do, and went to the Netherlands to explore his Dutch roots.

There, he worked as a ground steward at Amsterdam’s airport, doing everything from checking in passengers and connecting air bridges to meeting celebrities including Lionel Richie and the boy band Five.

When he returned home a few years later, he began an electrical apprenticeship – a career that soon evolved to managing electrical departments in the boat-building industry. He worked on ferries and superyachts, where sometimes his office for the day was up the top of a 96-metre-tall mast, swaying from port to starboard.

When that no longer floated his boat, he moved to an automation company, specialising in packaging robots and equipment for food processing and manufacturing. But he soon realised he found little satisfaction in this type of work – and instead took up the role of greenskeeper at Titirangi Golf Course.

“This gave me better hours and better job satisfaction. My kids were young at the time, and I could finish at 2.30pm to pick them up from school.

“My mum always thought I was just mowing grass but there’s actually a real science to sports turf agronomy.”

Diagnoses bring relief

In his 30s, Chris was having some difficult times and after a referral to a psychiatrist by his GP, he was diagnosed with ADHD.

This was a massive relief.

“I’d known there were complexities to my learning, and if I wasn’t really into a subject it was really difficult for me to retain that information.

“But being diagnosed with ADHD and being prescribed Ritalin made me feel like I could go and do any profession. My learning wasn't limited anymore. I felt empowered with my brain working - like what was my three-wheeled race car of a brain finally got its fourth wheel.”

A few years later he was diagnosed with autism – an experience that let him show a part of himself he’d kept under lock and key.

“For me, I was really hiding about 15 per cent of how I was experiencing the world. At an early age I stopped telling people what I was experiencing because it was always met with the response of ‘No, it’s not like that – you’re too sensitive’. Being diagnosed really makes you hate less on yourself for your differences – because you have a reason and it is not in your control and not your fault.”

Chris says as a school student he was written off by teachers as a naughty kid, who didn’t concentrate enough, or try hard enough.

“The reality was, I was actually trying harder than everyone else. Now, being able to talk to people about the hypersensitivities I have through my autism, allows me to be more myself.”

Finding his calling

It was his sister Mirjam who encouraged Chris to apply for the dam technician role at Watercare. She’d worked in the people team, and knew the job would appeal to her nature-loving little brother.

Chris says he soon realised his ADHD was an asset in this role.

“I find my skills at spotting change and anomalies are really useful, because that’s what I’m here for – to spot small change or something that shouldn’t be there.

“I thought the job would be awesome before I started, but being able to find something that you’re good at and you enjoy – it’s even greater than I thought it would be.

“I get a lot of praise for ‘good spotting’. Growing up with undiagnosed neurodiversities, you don’t get told you’re good at much.”

Chris’s boss AJ describes him as an asset to the headworks team.

“Chris is currently mentoring our two new starters – he’s always keen to help out where he can and share his knowledge.

“He’s our health and safety rep and he absolutely thrives in that role. He always gives 100 per cent and is passionate about a lot of things, but most of all about the health and safety of our people. He’s always advocating for best practice and raising awareness.”

Chris recently worked with Watercare’s learning and development team to create a learning module about gas monitors – and has been getting great feedback.

The job also means he can indulge his passions for botany, wildlife, history and amateur photography.

One of the highlights is the eels trap and haul season. The headworks team is responsible for providing transport assistance to both juvenile eels looking to get into our dams and continue upstream, as well as mature eels in the water supply lakes who are ready to head back to the ocean to breed.

“Since working with eels, I’ve gained so much respect for them,” Chris says. “It’s amazing what they do – their life cycle – and I like to be part of helping that life cycle. Having lots of eels means healthy water, so I’m definitely on board.”

He says the pristine native bush and photogenic water supply lakes make the perfect office.

“It’s 100 per cent good for your mental health. I think working out in this environment full of beauty, you can’t help but be in a good mood.

“For many dam technicians, it’s a really good launching pad into the business. But I see it as something I want to do for the next 20 years. I’m really happy here.

“I often say ‘you need to be able to see luck to be lucky’. I definitely see how lucky I am to have found this job and work alongside the fantastic people in the headworks team. If I can find this, you too can find your dream job. Start looking!.”