I thought Nah, village living isn't for me. You know, they’re all like Coronation St (little houses stacked in rows). One morning my wife Joy got the local rag and said, "oh, there’s a place in Levin," I said, "Levin? Why would I want to go and live in Levin?"
We thought we better check it out.
We drove in the gates, and I said, “Where’s the office? Because this is me!”
There are different groups, the golfers, the bowlers and then there are the ratbags like us, we take off and go to all the music festivals and things like that. Everything is looked after while you’re away, it is an amazing place.
We’re actually spoiled in here, and it’s very cheap to live here. Rates, insurance, gardening and rubbish are all covered in our corporate fee. The only other thing we’ve got is power, and it’s pretty cheap.
I look after a group of ambassadors and we really look after each other, especially the older ones that lose a partner. There’s always someone knocking on their door, making sure their rubbish is put out. Mail is collected, having a cup of tea with them so they’re not lonely and that type of thing.
There are some lovely people around here and always something to do.
This is not like a retirement village, it’s like a family town where everybody is enjoying everybody’s company and looking after everybody. It’s just not like a retirement village. Believe me, in 8 years in a motorhome, I’ve been into every one of them checking them out - there’s nothing that can hold a torch to this.