Tony and June feel like the luckiest people at Princess Alexandra Village.
The couple have lived in their large, sunny serviced apartment for four years now and still can’t quite believe what a good score it was.
“It was the best thing we’ve done,” says June. “It’s north facing, so it gets lots of light, and it’s a good size, so I’ve got room for my card-making supplies.”
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“My stipulation was to have a balcony,” adds Tony. “I often sit there with my legs up enjoying the sun.”
It’s hard to believe that Tony was initially reluctant to move across from the townhouse they’d lived in since moving into the Ahuriri, Napier village in 2013.
But then again, he was similarly resistant when the conversation first turned to retirement living in 2010.
“I was reluctant to come into the village, like most men!” admits Tony, who will turn 90 next year.
But seeing friends deciding to stay in their large family home convinced him it was the right thing to do.
“We came in on our own terms,” he says.
“That’s the important thing, to come when you want to,” says June. “People are leaving it too late and waiting until somebody’s hurt.”
Tony, a retired banker, soon found that the lifestyle suited him well, and while they continued with their interests outside of the village, they also got involved in village activities too.
“Since being here I have relaxed a lot more. I used to be relatively reserved but the atmosphere here, I can chuck a bit of cheek to people and have a bit of fun with them.
“It’s almost like an extended family.”
The couple has maintained their Probus membership and then June enjoys her card-making and Tony has joined the village choir, although equally they both feel they are pretty ‘self-contained’ in their apartment.
“We adapted really quickly and well,” says June, who worked as a sub-editor on the local newspaper. “We’re both complete in ourselves, we don’t need company but we also like it.”
The couple has been happily married for 37 years, after friends set them up on a blind date when they both found themselves unwittingly single.
Amazingly, Tony later remembered he’d already met June many years earlier when she was a teenager working in the sweets section of Mackenzie’s department store.
“I remember thinking some lucky bugger’s going to marry her,” Tony says. “Thirty years later, when I found out June used to work there after school on a Friday night and I saw a younger photo of her, I realised that lucky bugger was me!”
These days, life has slowed down a little since then, with both having a few health issues to contend with, so just the fact that there is help with daily chores has lightened the load considerably.
“We do our own tea and breakfast here and we get our main meal cooked,” says June.
“I can’t speak more highly of the staff, we’re very lucky with the staff,” adds Tony.
“They’re so wonderful,” nods June.
They both enjoy reading, keeping up with current affairs or playing on the computer, with Tony particularly loving to research his genealogy and his collections of coins, notes and crystals.
“There’s a good little library here and the activities are good too,” Tony says.
With the couple recently selling their car and the adjustment that comes with that, June says she is glad the village provides alternatives.
“We go shopping in the village van once a week and then there’s a scenic drive on a Friday. Everything is here.”
She adds: “We really love the lifestyle here. We’re so lucky and we know that.”