Gerry | Three Kings

“Probably a lot less children being raised out of poor state into good states. So it’s good to see we’ve got a Labour Government in, because they will actually do something for the poor people.

I was born in Hastings, and I lived down in Hawke’s Bay for the first 12 years. Then I came up to Auckland. After three years at secondary school, I joined the Navy, and as a seaman boy, after five years I was sent to the UK for an officer course, and I completed 26 years in the Navy, having had during that time in command of several ships. I then worked for Maritime Transport for eight years, in Oil Pollution. I then went back to sea in the Merchant Navy for six years, and I retired in 2001, and since then I’ve been writing books about the Navy.

Well, I’m actually writing a book at the moment, that’s why I’m over here, because I’m going to the Navy Museum, and I really would be very pleased when I get finished with this book. I’ve spent two years on it, and it’s becoming a bit of a pain, but I’m on the homeward stretch. So in a month’s time I’ll probably be free, and be able to walk my dog a little more, and enjoy life.

I’ve seen people having to live in cars, and can’t go to school because they haven’t got any shoes. This is criminal because in those kids there could be, well there are, there are so many of them in there, in those kids, [who] are our potential leaders. Whether it’s industry or social services or anything else, everyone deserves a good education so everyone can reach their potential. If they’re living in cars, you know, the Government is here to ensure that everyone has a home, and the last Government was sure as hell making sure that we didn’t have a home, like selling off state houses. Well, just because they’re in the wrong position; all you need to do is move them. Move them to where you want them. Don’t sell them.

It’s about the cruise of the Royalist, the last cruise that the New Zealand Navy had. I had a lot of trouble with Microsoft 10, and trouble with Spark last year. I lost, oh about two months work, struggling to get them sorted out, and it cost me a fair amount of money, because this book should have been finished by Christmas. But do I enjoy writing? Well, I enjoy researching and, as I’ve now written 20 books, I’ve got a process that I follow and people enjoy them. So I don’t make any money off it, but [it] gives others pleasure so, I like to record stories before the people who had those stories are no longer with us, like myself maybe. You can learn a lot from history and you can learn a lot from mistakes of others, and it’s important that people have histories recorded, because people are interested in history. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing these books, or I wouldn’t be selling them, although it’s a fairly small market who I’m aiming for the it does fill a hole in the Navy’s history.

There’s a great shortage of books in the Navy Museum. I enjoy researching and putting a story together, and I hope to be able to do that for another five or six years.”

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