The Star: June 25, 2020

The Star Thursday June 25 2020
16
OUR PEOPLE
‘You have to enjoy things while you are able to’
What have you been up to
since retiring in 2017?
I’ve gone back to work to help
them out a couple of times and
most recently, I’ve helped out
within the Operation Dean
family liaison team working
within the communities
associated with both Al Noor
and the Linwood mosques. I
found that a very rewarding
opportunity, working again with
a motivated group of people
who were trying to help the
community bring themselves out
of the grief and tragedy that had
happened.
I play a bit of golf. I do a
lot of cycling and try to keep
myself relatively active when the
weather’s right.
I’m hopefully active within my
family, so it’s great. I have three
grandchildren and two children.
What is the most valuable
lesson you learnt during your
time in the police?
Gut feeling and caution. By
gut feeling, if you don’t feel
confident with something, then
do a meticulous investigation.
Go with your gut feeling and
make sure that a meticulous
investigation gets undertaken.
How much of a role did your
family play in supporting you
throughout your career?
A tremendous role. I don’t
know whether to use the word
good fortune, but I was away
on many investigations out
of Christchurch and my wife
Sharon and family had to help
out with our children Brooke
and Scott. So, you know, if I use
the example of Operation Tam,
which is Ben [Smart] and Olivia
[Hope], I was away for four
months, if not longer.
Tell me about your golf game
and what you like about the
sport?
I have this awful philosophy
that you have to enjoy things
while you’re able to, and golf is
one of those individual sports,
yet it’s so important to enjoy the
opportunity of being able to play.
As you become older, the need
for company and exercise is so
HIGH
PROFILE:
Former
Detective
Senior
Sergeant David
Harvey worked
on cases
such as the
Marlborough
Sounds
murders of
Ben Smart
and Olivia
Hope.
important. So yes, I enjoy both
the company [and] I enjoy the
pressure that goes with the game
even though my game can’t take
the pressure.
I’m the club captain at Coringa
[Golf Club], so I’ve been involved
within the club for 20 years now
and I’ve played it much longer
than that.
FORE: In his spare time David
Harvey is a keen golfer, even
having played at St Andrew’s
in Scotland.
What is your golf handicap?
It fluctuates, it’s around about
eight.
What is the most memorable
thing that has ever happened to
you on a golf course?
We were playing at St Andrew’s
and [had] two holes to play and
I could see the weather coming
in from the sea and I was playing
with two Scottish guys. One
of them took his jersey off and
had his umbrella out. I said why
are you doing that? He said:
‘Well, you want to have a dry,
warm jersey when you go into
the clubrooms.’ Thunder and
lightning and rain hit as we got to
the 18th tee block and I thought I
was going to die on the course. I
would have been happy to die . . .
in my happy place
If you could play a round with
one golfer dead or alive, who
would it be?
Tiger Woods just because of his
stickability and guts. You have to
be. You’ve got to have stickability,
it’s one of the hugely important
things in life.
$400m
up to
$102m
1.81%