Andrew | Blockhouse Bay

“First are my children, actually. My kids. That changed me a lot. I was pretty much a carefree dude travelling the world, and came home and settled, and got married, and had kids, and that changes your life hugely because it’s not just about yourself anymore.

You’ve got a bunch of people that you’ve got to look after and you’ve got to give them values and standards and a sense of who they are, and try and raise good people. 

How has it changed me?  It’s learning patience. Having to be very patient. Because obviously their understanding of the world isn’t what yours is, because you’ve got life experience, they’ve got that much, whereas you’ve got that much, and so patience, understanding, communication. Having to make them understand something that might be really basic to you, but to them is a really big concept. So, it’s been a big learning curve, and my eldest has just started high school, so next year he’ll be 16 and saying, oh Dad can I get a car? It’s watching them grow,  it’s quite humbling.

I was born in South Africa. My dad’s originally from Zimbabwe. My mum’s a Kiwi. They met in London. I was born in South Africa, because Dad didn’t want to go back into the armed forces in Zimbabwe, and he wanted to see his family and my mother wanted to see her family, so we came to New Zealand because her father, my grandfather had just died, and we ended up staying because she was pregnant with my sister. I pretty much grew up in Blockhouse Bay, and then when I was about 18, I joined the Army for five years, and then at 24 I left New Zealand to travel, and I came back when I was 35, worked as a chef. I’d been working as a chef since I left the Army, got married, raised some kids.

What’s really important is understanding your fellow human beings, because there’s not a lot of tolerance out there, and leaving something good behind, because you want something good for your kids, to inherit, isn’t just a monetary thing, but something bigger, you know. We’re not doing really that well, in the world at the moment. There’s just a lot of shit that’s going on, and we’re not doing very well conservation-wise. If we don’t start now, they get nothing. So, I want a better world for my kids. So, that’s up to us to create that. Just leaving behind a better place for them to grow up, and for them, if they wish, to raise kids, and for everybody else. Let’s just all get along.”