Bill | Pirongia, Waikato

“I was brought up in what you’d call a middle-class, Pākehā family, and I was the black sheep of the family, and I think that probably influenced a lot of my life. But as I’ve got older, I’ve settled down, and do more normal stuff.

I was a little bit naughty when I was younger, and I think that’s always given me a broad outlook on life. I’m not narrow-minded, I like to know a lot about how other people live, or why they do things. When I was a teenager, I developed an interest in motorcycles, which for a part of my life wound me up with gangs and things like that, and then after that, I met my ex-wife, and we had children, and that took me away from that.

Meeting my first wife at the time, got me out of that, I knew a lot of people in them, and for a long time in my life, and even now, I still know gang members, but I don’t really have anything to do with them, as far as anything to do with their gangs. but I can go and see them, and say, hi. But people will say gangs are bad, but you meet a lot of really good personalities in them, and nobody really stays in the gang forever.

How do I see myself now? I see myself as being a pretty happy, normal person, and it’s just given me a different way to look at life, and it’s part of the reason that we’re doing this trip around here at the moment. We came round here in 1962 with my family, and I’ve never been around here since, and it was a good memory, so we’re doing it here, now.

I think that growing up, it’s best to try and get as many different experiences as you possibly can, as long as the experiences don’t hurt people, and it certainly influenced me as far as I can move amongst everyone. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Māori, or anyone, and feel quite relaxed, and it’s never a problem for me.

I was born in Hamilton. Did all my schooling in Hamilton, and then moved and met my wife at the time, and she was from Te Awamutu, so I moved to Te Awamutu where I spent just about all of my time. I’m now living in Pirongia.”