Bunny | Whangārei
“I was bought up on the other side of Māngere Mountain. There’s a marae out there, and we’re all related, born and bred there.
I live in Whangārei now; welder-fabricator up there, been up there for three years. Yeah, loving it. I’ve been pretty happy with last year, so as long as everything sort of flows on from last year, and I sort of carry on doing what I’ve been doing I’ll be happy with that. Working hard and doing my thing. As in change; yeah nah I’m pretty happy with how things are going in my life at the moment. So no change, carry on.
Well I’ve turned my life round in the last couple of years. I sort of was going down the wrong road for awhile there, and sort of with my marriage and that, things weren’t good. So I sort of ended up walking out on my marriage, and my daughter at the age of seven was, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, so I had no choice; I had to turn myself round. Now I have, and my relationship with my daughter is so much better, and I’m so thankful for that, so I’m just going to carry doing what I’ve been doing.
Oh, mate I’m a pretty simple person at the end of the day. Just the real deal, mate; that’s what I’m looking for, just real love, you know? That’s a pretty hard question to sort of cover straight with a simple answer, just loving and good friends. Since I’ve been up in Whāngarei for the last three years, I’ve met some real good people, and they’ve been my anchoring point up there. My mum lives in Māngere Bridge here, so I come down and whenever I’m down I come and visit her, and then I go and visit a few of my family members around here, and then I’m away back up through Albany. I’ll go and visit my daughter today.
I love our friendship, we’ve got a good friendship going on now. She’s just turned 11. She’s out of diabetes, she’s been there for the last three days, at a diabetes camp. Her mum picks her up today, so I’ll go out there and hang out with them for the day, and oh I’m so proud of what she’s gone through in the last three years. Basically it’s been life-altering, with Type 1 Diabetes, and I just want to carry on doing what I’ve been doing with her because she’s at an age where she needs her dad around her. Because me and her mum are no longer together I’ve been making that effort to be down here with her when I can.
For other dads that are going through something like this, you’ve just got to get good people around you. That’s what it is; good friends, real friends. You know? They don’t have to give you everything, they just have to be there for you, and that’s what’s worked for me. I had to get right out of the situation I was in, and thankfully I had friends up in Whangārei that let me go up there and stay with them for a month before I sorted myself out and got my own place and that, and it’s just gone from there. I was only going up there for a couple of months, and then I was going to probably go back and carry on doing what I was doing, and one thing led to another, and I’ve been up there for three years and, and loving it, loving life, enjoying it. 2018, bring it on, yeah.”
