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Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>23</strong> <strong>2022</strong> <strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
17<br />
to poultry, property and politics<br />
How did that go?<br />
We bought our first 30 acres at<br />
Rolleston off the Crown (in the<br />
1990s). From the original Norm<br />
Kirk land, the Government<br />
had decided to release all this<br />
land they had had for 20-odd<br />
years. Then the neighbour put<br />
the adjoining 250 acres on the<br />
market, so we bought that as well.<br />
The new (rural to residential)<br />
zone changes were starting<br />
to come in, so we decided to<br />
hang onto the lot. Then we had<br />
a pretty major development<br />
on our hands. We lived on the<br />
development. That original 30<br />
acres is now Brookside Park,<br />
we sold that to the council. The<br />
major plan change that rezoned<br />
a lot of Rolleston, 38 landowners<br />
were involved. The first stage of<br />
Rolleston was 4400 people, this<br />
was the next plan change for the<br />
next stage (including the area of<br />
today’s town centre). It was huge.<br />
So that met a previous goal<br />
you mentioned, of making<br />
money?<br />
Yeah, I wished I had been<br />
a land developer instead of a<br />
poultry farmer! It was profitable,<br />
but it came with some big stress<br />
and big loans as well. When<br />
getting the land rezoned, the<br />
overdraft was climbing and there<br />
was no income coming in, so I<br />
thought I should go and earn the<br />
grocery bill. I answered an ad in<br />
the paper for a debt collector and<br />
private investigator, contracting<br />
to a private investigation<br />
company. I did that for three<br />
years. I was actually on the<br />
council at the same time. It<br />
was the sort of job I could work<br />
around every other commitment<br />
I had, and I could go out after tea<br />
and knock on people’s doors.<br />
Were people nice to you when<br />
you were collecting their debts?<br />
Well, I sort of saw myself as a<br />
bit of a social worker in a lot of<br />
ways, helping people through<br />
issues that caused the reason<br />
I was knocking on their door.<br />
You’ve got to know how to treat<br />
people and understand how they<br />
got into that situation.<br />
Did you ever encounter<br />
violence from the clients?<br />
Once! I got chased up the road<br />
and knocked to the ground. It<br />
was just a fat, drunk male. I was<br />
serving some documents on him.<br />
I thought I was nearly beaten at<br />
one stage. He ended up sitting<br />
on my chest. I thought that’s<br />
not too good, but I won. It was a<br />
good wrestle, I got away (with no<br />
injuries). In the police too, as an<br />
aside, I worked on the Wahine<br />
recovery.<br />
What was working on the<br />
Wahine recovery like?<br />
Never thought about it at<br />
the time. I was about 18, in the<br />
police training school, which<br />
was based at Trentham military<br />
SHIPWRECK:<br />
Jens<br />
Christensen<br />
(third from<br />
right holding<br />
the stretcher)<br />
was a trainee<br />
police officer<br />
when he<br />
helped save<br />
Wahine<br />
survivors.<br />
camp in Upper Hutt. I had the<br />
police van out, I could hear the<br />
Wahine’s sinking unfolding on<br />
the police radio. First thing I<br />
think I heard was “People are<br />
starting to abandon ship, they<br />
are jumping into the water”. I got<br />
on the two-way radio and said to<br />
the police central station, because<br />
phone lines were out to the Hutt<br />
Valley, “I will get this van back<br />
to Trentham and muster some<br />
manpower to get to Eastbourne<br />
Beach”. That’s what we did, we<br />
got instructors’ cars, the police<br />
van, anything that was mobile,<br />
out to Eastbourne. We got there,<br />
there was quite a few of the<br />
passengers had got to the beach<br />
head. A mate and I, we picked<br />
up a stretcher and we started<br />
carrying sick ones. And then at<br />
the end of the day we helped with<br />
picking up the dead ones.<br />
What was your most vivid<br />
memory from the rescue?<br />
Two vivid memories. The first<br />
one was probably seeing the first<br />
dead people I had ever seen in<br />
my life. There was three of them<br />
stacked together, and they looked<br />
that much alive I actually said<br />
to them “How are you?” The<br />
other was seeing all these bodies<br />
stacked up on the back of the<br />
army Bedford truck, just like<br />
logs of wood. When we got back<br />
to Trentham about 9.30pm, the<br />
cook had stayed behind to feed<br />
us. It was mashed potato and<br />
mince, and both of them flowed<br />
onto the plate. I looked at this<br />
pile of slop and thought about<br />
where I had been all day, and<br />
wasn’t hungry. I went to bed with<br />
no food.<br />
You have had a varied career.<br />
I say to people “I have had a<br />
life on P”. From a policeman, to<br />
working with a painter paper<br />
hanger and poultry farmer, I<br />
became a poultry farmer, then a<br />
property developer, when I had to<br />
get a job as a private investigator,<br />
and during that time I became a<br />
politician, on the <strong>Selwyn</strong> council.<br />
So everything I have sort of done<br />
in life starts with “P”.<br />
• Turn to page 18<br />
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