Career
She was instrumental in the founding of The Sunlight League in 1930, for which she held fundraising garden parties at "Fownhope", the Wilding family home in Street Martins, Christchurch, and also the Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand in 1932. She had trained as a physiotherapist in Dunedin during World War I, and been introduced to youth hostels during her extensive European travels in the 1920s when she painted and studied outdoor activities. Her father was a lawyer, and an athlete and cricket and tennis player.
She retired as a physiotherapist in 1948, and moved from Christchurch to Kaikoura, where she painted for many years.
She was made a patron of the Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand in 1938 and a life member in 1968. The first Christchurch youth hostel (1965–1997), formerly Avebury House the Flesher home, was called the "Cora Wilding Youth Hostel" in her honour.