Whare – Ōtahuhu
“I’ve lived here in Ōtahuhu for 14 and a half years, and I travel over to work in Pt Chev at Te Mahurehure Marae and I’m in hospitality.
I like Auckland because this is where all the action is, because I’m from down the Bay of Plenty, from Tūrangi, and it’s pretty quiet down there. So you’ve got to go where all the, where all the people are. Where people are, there’s work.
Today when you first met me, that was my landlady, and she is having physiotherapy. She’s been off her job two and a half months now, and I support her in every way I can, because she broke her leg, her ankle, so I go to the pool, and I support her, and help in any way I can. Hence the reason why I come here each day – we spend up to two hours each day, and part of her physiotherapy.
Any way I can help, you know, because I’m physically mobile, and do all the things that she’s unable to do; the shopping and the small things, but they all add up. Stopping and going out of my way to help someone. Taking the time, because everyone’s too much in a hurry. Doesn’t matter who you are, what you’re doing, if I see anyone out there I’ll help them. I grew up in the Central North Island. I’m from a farming background. We have a farm down the western side of Lake Taupo. A place called Kurtau. We’ve got a 5,000 hectare farm, and we still have it in our family, and we have people managing it, and I had a good background. I come from a whānau of five other brothers and three sisters. We had a wonderful upbringing. Had no money. We just worked the land. The only time we ever went to town was to get our basic shopping, but we lived off the land.
Change of lifestyle after both my parents passed over. I came up here. I was heading north to Kaitaia, and a cousin of mine in the city whom got me into AUT, which I knew nothing about, being from the rural areas, confinements and so I did a course on cheffing and what have you, and when I completed that, gave me a whole different outlook, a new lease in life. Well, it’s what you know. Live in the moment. I wake up every morning. I don’t have any sicknesses or illnesses, and I give thanks to our creator, and I can open my eyes, and look to the light, and living in the moment, and well what else can I say. It’s not having any ailments, and very thankful. At my age, I’m 62, yeah so I give thanks to our creator.
I found that people who discriminate, they have problems, their own personal problems, and I mean, who are we to judge, and you know, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, what nationality you are, you never judge a book by it’s cover. It’s being racist, and we don’t need this. We’re only here for a short time, so you might the most of it, and I see all that on the TV. Too much of it going on out there.
You just watched out for your younger siblings, and the older ones looked after the younger ones and, and you know, it was just, that’s how it was. Our father was always working hard. So was our mother, keep running the house, we’d go roaming over the farm and we had big gardens and we went fishing. It was very adventurous. So you never had that mindset. It was just totally, you know, we didn’t know what town was, and it was just a way of life.
I don’t have children, but I have a lot of nephews and nieces, and extended whānau. I was raised by my grandmother and, and that gave me access to get to know the wider whanau. I learned a lot from my grandparents, and their people.
Doing your part, like going to cut the wood if you’re going to keep the house warm. You had to play your part. You know, like we’d saw the wood up, and we had jobs, like working. You never sat around. TV didn’t come in till ’64. So you know, the things like that, it’s different. It’s totally different. I mean I, look back at people today and I’m meaning they get things handed on a platter. You’ve got benefits and stuff. You have more options. Education.
I think it’s wonderful. Yeah there’s nothing wrong. I don’t have any problems with that. I do all those things. When I’m not at the Marae, I’m at home here. As for my friend who I live with, who owns the home, I keep the house, keep it running, so there’s less problems. She doesn’t have to worry about, cooking and stuff. I do all that. And yeah having a stable mind. It’s what you do with yourself each day. It’s, you know, have time on your hand, and you utilise that time, doing good things. I read and I go for long walks like I’ve never, ever been sick. So I’m very fortunate in that way.”
