For my 10th birthday, during the end of the Second World War, in 1945, my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday cake and I said a battleship. So she made me just that. She asked if I wanted a birthday party, and I said oh yes. For the birthday party, she took me up to just below the airport where there was a lovely grove of taraire trees. We played cops and robbers, tag, and all the rest of it on the crunchy leaves. I remember it so vividly.
During the war, when NZ was under threat from the Japanese, because our school [Oturu Primary] was very close to some military installations, we had a practice every week to keep ourselves safe in the event of an invasion. When the teacher said ‘run,’ we had to run and get into a six-foot deep slip trench, and you had to run fast. That was scary stuff. I can still remember the smell of the damp soil, and the teacher would leave us there for 10 or 15 minutes. It was a very different time.
I had a very happy childhood. Most days were very enjoyable. I had very good parents. My mother had the biggest influence on me when I was younger. She was an ex-matron from Waiuku Hospital but had to give up her career when she married my father, who was a widower. She had more energy than my father, who I guess had already had his first family and perhaps wasn’t as interested in the second edition. A loving, caring, and charitable person my mother was. She taught my brother and me lots of domestic skills—cooking, ironing, and cleaning. She certainly taught me a love of books and reading, which went on to be very important in my life. Being charitable, I think, was one of the best things I learned from her. She was always inclined to help others, and I think a bit of that rubbed off on me.
I’d say to young me, go back to the start because it’s going to happen so rapidly in front of you. I’d also say travel isn’t the only way to garner your understanding of the world. Knowing your neighbours is just as important. Get to know the world around you. We had a rich community back then; people shared and cared, and everyone was interwoven. I think it is important to continue your relationship with your community. Don’t forget those friends you had in the beginning, keep with them. Keep your relationships going, they’re very important. It’s something I wish I did more of.
I wouldn’t call myself a passionate person, but a person that maintains a compendium of interests. The things that I most enjoy in life are human connections, having people around to meet and greet and talk to and entertain. The real stuff in life is in amongst the interactions with people.
My wife and I bought this bit of dirt in 1972 and turned a whole lot of gorse into a farm. My wife and I made a bloody good team and had a wonderful marriage. It’s almost five years since she passed now. I saw some past students the other day who told me Mrs. Shepherd was the best teacher they ever had. I said they were indeed lucky because she was a very good teacher. But she was also a wonderful mother and a great wife as well. I regret very much that we’ve had five years without her because we would’ve had a pretty good five years, I think. I doubt time will ever change that feeling.
Community development has always been something I’m committed to and interested in. The coalition of cooperative people on a committee or a board has always fascinated me—how the dynamics work and how decisions end up being made. I’ve spent half my life on committees, most of which have been for the benefit of the community, like one that resulted in the building of Te Ahu Centre.
In life, you get dealt cards that you’re not able to control the dealing of. I ended up in the army as a 21-year-old, and the rest of my mates were 18. When that happens, you end up as a leader by default because of your age. So I ended up going up in the ranks quite early on. Because of three men who drowned that were my neighbours, subsequent events meant that event changed my whole life because I most likely would’ve stayed there in Te Rawhiti for a few more years.
In my lifetime, I am most proud of the fact that I survived. There are a couple of times that I should have died. I should have had heart attacks and other things, but I survived because of good medical attention. I had a very supportive family and wife, and the right doctors and medical care at the time.
I think the special feeling that the Far North provides is very hard to put into words. Every single day, there’s something that makes me say, ‘Well, isn’t that lovely.’ There are always beautiful scenes to see, whether it’s rural or coastal. It’s a lovely, pumping little town, there always seems to be something happening around the edges.
I want to be remembered for being a good cook. I’ve preserved 154 jars of local produce this year so far. People can remember somebody else for the strangest reasons, maybe that will be mine.