Brian | Hokitika, West Coast

“A recent one was moving from Christchurch over here to Hokitika to be with the grandchildren, spending time with them. Really enjoy them, appreciate the time. 

I lived in Christchurch all my life, and the last two years we had an old house and decided we had enough of renovating the weatherboards all our life. Our son and his partner and grandchildren had moved to Hokitika to have good jobs over here. We were coming over here regularly every four to five weeks, so we thought we may as well up-sticks and move over here, and we really enjoy it now. The peace and quiet of life. The people are very friendly. Laid-back lifestyle. No-one’s in a hurry. Everyone’s got time to talk to you. It’s a lovely part of the world. It was a big upheaval to start with. It took us about 12-18 months to make up our minds. We were very undecided. We were looking at moving into a retirement village. Didn’t feel we were ready for that as yet. So, we pondered and pondered, and put the house on the market, and before we knew it, the house was sold, and we had no choice. We had to make a move in a hurry. We had a very short possession date, so we decided we’d give this a go for two or three years, and see how we like it. Whether we’re ready for a retirement village later on, we don’t know, but at the moment, no. We’re just enjoying our freedom and enjoying health, which is one of the biggest things in our life, having good health, more-so than anything else. You can have a lot of money, but it certainly doesn’t change your lifestyle if you’re not happy. We see people around here, people that have got nothing, people that have got a lot, they’re all friendly, all on the same level, whereas I find back in Christchurch, where we were born and bred, people were getting very, oh I wouldn’t say ambitious, but it’s a very stressful life over there. We notice it now when we go back to Christchurch, just in the aggressive driving style over there. People don’t really have time to sit. You’re lucky to get a hello from some people, but over here, we’ve all the time in the world. You don’t really need a watch. Put it that way.

Being retired, you spend a lot more time with the grandchildren. The first lot of grandchildren are in Australia. We only saw them occasionally, every two or three years, and didn’t really have a lot of time to spend with them, but having the children here now, and being retired, we can spend as much time as we can with them, and we really appreciate our time with them, because we know they won’t be young for long, and you treasure those moments. We spend a lot of time just doing very little on the beach, around the parks. Just having child time. You know? You can come down in your older years and become a bigger child again, in the playgrounds and things. You can let loose with the kids. We find that very, very enjoyable. Very enlightening, and they’re memories we’ll always keep and treasure.

Back in Christchurch I was in a joinery warehouse supplying joinery and building materials. Then, I went out on my own with the brother-in-law and did some building renovation work for 10 years or so. Then, the health got the better of us. I sort of gave up work. Well, I had to give up work when I was about 55, and just saw life in a different, different perspective.

I had testicular cancer, and spinal problems. We’ve got a family history of osteoporosis. So, we’ve got degenerative spines. We just find we can’t do a full day’s work any longer. Well, I couldn’t. That’s basically where we went. After having the cancer, it definitely changed my outlook on life. There’s more to life than chasing rainbows and ladders, you come down to earth with a thud very quickly. 

That was a good 15-20 odd years ago when I had that. You sort of look at your days, whether they’re numbered, and you see things very quickly change. Things that were important to you before you were diagnosed suddenly they go down the drain. You pull the plug and watch them go, because it doesn’t mean a thing to you any longer. You just appreciate every day, and that’s what I do now, just appreciate every day.”