After the dust settled and John sold JRT, it was clear John and Josie needed a new beginning. At the time, he admits, he had no idea what that might be, but he knew it had to be something completely different.

Moving to Tauranga, the couple purchased a cleaning company, employing between 35 and 40 staff. “We worked almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” John recalls. Business was good, but staff issues and that type of business not really being his forte saw the cleaning company on-sold.

John then purchased a contract working for Benchmark (Bunnings) in Tauranga; just a small four-wheeler doing local deliveries. He says he really enjoyed the work. With issues having frames and trusses delivered, John asked if Bunnings might be interested in him getting a hiab and doing some of its timber from various mills. Bunnings agreed and John says, “away we went! We started Tauranga Transport Holdings, eventually running nine trucks.”

Although running a transport company again, John recalls having thoughts about driver licensing. A decision was made to finish up the transport company and pursue the new path. “I had a friend Russell, who often borrowed our trucks to do the practical tests. I spoke to him, and I have to say without his help, the idea would have gone nowhere.” John says that once he came to grips with the terminology it wasn’t so bad. He credits Josie for her patience and correcting his spelling. The support saw him progress to being able to do all the relevant driving assessments and endorsements.

Following on, John became a forklift and crane assessor covering Telehandler, Gantry, Hiab and mobile crane assessments. Once qualified, he worked from North Cape to Bluff, and John says the work, places and people were hugely interesting.

A week under the Auckland Harbour Bridge doing gantry courses, Fuller Ferrys doing Hiab courses, every Fonterra site in New Zealand doing gantry courses. Most NZR depots did forklift and gantry courses. Macraes Gold Mine in Palmerston; from practical Hiab tests in the underground mine to open pit … He jokes, “Just about every course I could do, I did at Macraes. It was hugely fulfilling work.”

“New Zealand is full of some very intelligent people. I would never have believed we did some of those things in New Zealand,” he says.

John’s career only finally ended at 76 due to a crook hip. Speaking with him – now 79 – you get a sense of a very full life; a hard-working man happy to pass on knowledge from a career that started as a seven-year-old behind the wheel of his father’s truck in the bush in Rangataua. John jokes the experience wasn’t without its issues, as he ended up getting the truck bogged and having to be towed out …

John says of Barry Maher (see Top Truck): “I’ve known the Maher family since the early 1960s. Barry’s mother is my wife’s cousin. I was the local rural mail contractor when Barry was born. So, we go way back.” Though, quips John, he doesn’t recall just how Barry came to work for him.

“He was a quick learner, always looking for something to do. It’s great to see him and Lara thriving in their own venture. I can only imagine how proud Barry feels on his achievement and feel quite sure he will build a great rural transport company.”