New Zealand’s first ever Chief Coroner is looking forward to turning off his phone this weekend, as he officially hands over the mantle.

Judge Neil MacLean is retiring from the top job today, after more than eight years in the role.

He says things have changed significantly since he first became a coroner in 1978.

Judge MacLean says the coroner system used to be part time and largely police driven.

Looking back, what he’s most proud of from his career is fulfilling a vision to transform that system.

"The public of NZ will not put up with a sluggish system. They want a responsive system, they don't want to be told 'Sorry, it's the weekend. We can't help you.'

"Because death doesn't observe business hours regrettably, there's nothing we can do about that."

"I think that's the thing that I probably take most satisfaction from. That we have genuinely become a truly 24/7, hopefully nationally consistent, service."

He says there’s still work to be done; his successor will have to grapple with the provision of pathology services, which is not currently 24/7.

Judge MacLean is a few months over his used-by date as he puts it, reaching the end of his official eight year tenure in 2014.

The law states the chief coroner must stay on until their replacement is in place.

It takes a special type of person to be a coroner.

"People often say, how do you control coroners? Well, you can't.

"You've just got to hope that you've picked people - and I've now been part of picking 17 or 18 coroners - who've got the legal skills, the nous, the common sense, the intellectual ability, the background of experience to do the job.

"And just let them get on with it.

"And I'm very confident that my successor, who is a remarkable woman, has all those attributes in spades."

That successor is Auckland coroner Deborah Marshall.

On his last day in the top job, Judge Neil MacLean is reflecting on some of the major cases from his career - including the Canterbury Earthquakes.

He says the one time in his life he was unable to sleep because of work was in the aftermath of the 2011 quakes.

"It was a bit of a blast from the past in that I was a territorial army officer and used to go out to Burnham camp regularly over a weekend, and stay in what they called the bachelor officer's quarter. And to go back into them 30 years later was quite a déjà vu experience."

Judge MacLean says there was a lot going on outside while he was living in an almost artificial bubble of calmness, conscious of the chaos and devastation just down the road.

"One was very aware that the eyes of the world were literally upon us and the team needed all the support it could get to be able just to do their task objectively, calmly, but above all accurately."

He says part of his role was to respond to ill-informed criticism about the perceived delay in their work.

"And just making the point, which we've seen in other big disasters in other parts of the world, these things can't be rushed. You can't afford to make a mistake."

Judge MacLean says being a coroner is a challenge.

"It's the job, you do it. And just as in a previous incarnation as a judge - which I'm now reverting back to - you are dealing with some pretty unpleasant, horrible situations.

He says you have to step back and just remain objective.

"No question about it, sometimes you see or become aware of things that kind of shake you."

Judge MacLean says the toughest time for him in his career as a coroner was when he was in his 30s, with young children of his own, living in Christchurch.

"We seemed to have the annual winter plague of what we then called cot deaths.

"And it made one very conscious of how fragile a baby's life is and that kind of helpless feeling that you have when you realise that sometimes you just can't control what's happening."

He says the deaths of children, including suicides, are the hardest.

Judge MacLean has spent many years advocating for open talks on suicide.

His parting message today on that front: "We've got to look out for each other."

He says seen the attitude towards suicide change markedly since he first became a coroner more than 36 years ago.

"From it being a taboo topic that no one ever really talked about, to increasingly a topic which the public and the media are intensively interested in. Not for prurient interest, but simply because we have this staggering phenomenon of suicides at 540-odd a year, bigger than the road toll now, and it just goes on week after week, 10 to 12 suicides."

He says the enormity of that is becoming more apparent.

But Judge MacLean says he's none the wiser now than he was back in 1978 about why New Zealand has such a high suicide rate. And there is no simple answer to that.

Judge MacLean suspects one of the reasons the suicide rate has dropped in Canterbury after the earthquakes is the realisation that lonely people need to be able to talk, be listened to and feel needed.

"It's ironic really that one of the side spin offs of a major natural disaster is that it actually forces people to look out for each other."

New Zealand's Chief Coroner says the fact it's not mandatory for people to respond to coroners' recommendations is a flaw in the system.

He says he's been banging on about the issue for a long time, without getting any traction.

"Coroners don't make recommendations lightly. They are based, or should be based, on the evidence before them, and should be realistic, focused, hopefully sensible. We don't just toss them out as a sort of an aside.”

Judge MacLean says a lot of time and trouble goes into making a recommendation; not just from the coroner, but from lawyers and experts who have provided information.

"If the recommendation that comes out just disappears into a vacuum, and there's no mechanism to require a response, I think that's a deficiency."

While coroners try and get around this, with a research council following up on recommendations, there are still obstacles to change.

"There's nothing to stop any powerful organisation, be it a DHB or a company, to simply say 'No, no, we're not commenting.' That's okay. Even if they say 'We think this is the most stupid, ill-considered recommendation; how one Earth the coroner could think this is right'. Alright, well just tell us that, and we'll take it on the chin, we'll take it on board, and we'll post it on our website.”

"And then it may come back to haunt the organisation later on when the same thing happens again."

The life of a coroner is often a battle, spent chipping away at the same old messages until they eventually get through. According to Judge MacLean, in order for mandatory responses to work, the recommendations need to be realistic.

He’s very clear on wanting mandatory response, not mandatory implementation. That would be a step too far.

"We're the judicial arm of government, we can't tell the executive government or the legislative wing what to do."

One area where he feels like the message is finally being heard is the danger of quad bikes, spending a lot of time talking to rural interest groups such as Federated Farmers about the issue.

"Almost the first thing they'd say to me was 'Some of those recommendations you townie coroners are making about quad bikes, they're just dreamland.

"'Safety belts on a quad bike, come on. Would you wear safety belts on a horse?'"

He says some of the recommendations were simply not sensible, but that's since changed, with coroners pushing more simple messages they are now gaining traction.

Those messages include not allowing children to ride quad bikes, having a rollover protective device, realising quad bikes are inherently unstable and not all terrain vehicles.

"But you're dealing with some powerful industry groups who have different views. Because it's all about cost. Many of my best friends are farmers, but the farming community in New Zealand and Australia has its own particular views.

"They don't like being told by Big Brother or the nanny state or some townie coroner what they should or should not do on their farms."

Judge MacLean says another area where it took a long time for recommendations to be listened to was the high rate of cot deaths, or sudden unexpected deaths in infants.

Coroners were consistently tried to spread the message, warning against co-sleeping.

"If that message had been heeded across the board earlier, there would have been a lot of babies who did not die."

At 70 years of age, Judge MacLean is not yet ready to fully hand in the towel.

Now it’s back into the bosom of the district court for two years, to sit fulltime as an Accident Compensation appeals judge.

At times he will miss the top job but not how much of his life must be devoted to it.

"It will make Valentine’s Day nicer for my wife because I can switch my phone off."

"You can never turn the phone off.

 “You are aware that if an earthquake strikes, or a major calamity, or a Masterton balloon tragedy...we've now structured a system whereby you've got to be available to give the immediate directions to get the system going."

"That will stop, my life will be much more predicable...I know where I am from now until next Christmas, whereas in this job I wouldn't know where I was next Tuesday because it’s evolving all the time."

Judge MacLean says being Chief Coroner means you're essentially on call the whole time.

He believes the most important thing he wants the public to know about coroners, is that they are there for people.

“We shouldn’t be doing it for self-glorification, or because it’s a fascinating, interesting job.

“We should be doing it so that the public of New Zealand get the service, so that when tragedy strikes we are contactable, we are informative, we’re sensitive, but above all we get on with sorting it out.

“Because people want answers, they want bodies released back, they don’t want unnecessary post mortems done.”

He says balancing all of the above is the daily diet of a duty coroner.

“The message: Expect and demand of us, the highest standard of service.

“We’re there for you, that would be the message, not for us.”