Only Two Seats Left - The Incredible Contiki Story

1. 'MUMMY'S BOY'

I was born a Scorpio in Wellington, New Zealand on 18 November 1938. My father was a dentist, my mother was a housewife. So begins my story.

When I arrived my mother became completely besotted. All mothers do, perhaps, with their first-born, but mine transferred all her love to me. My father stayed just five short years before he left. He went on to marry his dental nurse, an English lady who had already been married twice and had two daughters, one from each marriage. I inherited two stepsisters.

My father left Wellington and set up a new dental practice in Newmarket, Auckland. Fortunately my parents maintained a good relationship and I was able to visit him and his new-found family a couple of times a year. When I was about 14, he sold his Auckland practice, moved to London and started up a new dental practice in Kensington High Street.

I wrote regularly but my father responded intermittently. Like many fathers he wasn’t a good letter writer. However, I still have in my possession a couple of letters he did write which I treasure to this day. In one, he sent me a pencilled portrait a patient had drawn of him. It still sits on a shelf beside my desk where he watches over me every day.

My mother remarried a few years later. My new stepfather was a shirt salesman. Together they adopted a daughter, so I now had two stepsisters and a half sister. A few years later, greener pastures beckoned, and my stepfather left my mother. He married a woman from the next street. My mother didn’t venture into another marriage after the second one failed.

Throughout my life I’ve deeply regretted not having my father with me during my childhood. Yes, I visited him during the school holidays, but it wasn’t the same. My mother continued to heap all her love on me, making most of my decisions on my behalf. This carried on until I was a young adult. When I left school to start work, she laid out the clothes I was to wear the next day, even to the point of selecting my tie!

I never had a hands-on dad, and missed out on that special relationship a son can have with his father. It was always my mother on the sidelines of the rugby match, standing alongside all the other kids’ dads. I also missed the important opportunity to learn from him about how to be a father. When I eventually had my own children I didn’t have an example to draw on. Children need a father to grow with them to learn these things. When that time came for me, I made them up as I went along.

My letters to my father in England didn’t boast of great marks, unless a prize for ‘most improved boy in the class’ qualifies! I attended Scots College in Wellington, a private boys school. At the age of 16, a burst appendix, perforated bowel and further complications landed me in hospital for six months. I missed a year of school, which didn’t help my marks when I finally returned.

To obtain a leaving School Certificate we were examined in five subjects (English was compulsory). I chose geography, general science, maths and commercial practice. The total possible score was 400. The pass mark was 200. I scraped through with 206! My best subject was commercial practice – I loved it.

My academic achievements at school were always modest, to say the least. I was in the B class and always very conscious that the boys in the A class looked down on us. Looking back, I think there were benefits to being a B student because my classmates and I had to try that much harder. Throughout my business career I have met lots of extremely successful people, many of whom, like me, started life in the B and lower streams.

I didn’t shine on the sporting front either. I’m sure I was considered a ‘wet’ by the other boys as I always had a note from ‘mummy’ excusing me from anything too demanding because I was a mild asthmatic. Anything more than the 75-yard dash and I’d end up in a wheezing heap on the ground! Cross-country runs were out and I never mastered the ability to jump a hurdle without getting tangled up in it. I was a hopeless swimmer, managing only widths at a time. I did, however, enjoy gymnastics and since I had the advantage of being very light for my age, I did a little boxing. I also had a turn at rugby and later, hockey.

I know now that to succeed in life you don’t necessarily have to be a brain box or an outstanding sportsman at school. It’s all about attitude, setting objectives, and believing you can achieve them. Throughout my personal and business life I have proved this time and time and time again. More on that later …

Outside school I led an active social life, centred on church and school dances. I was a cub and became a patrol leader in the Scouts. I belonged to the local tennis club and sailed with a mate, a 12.5 foot Idle Along (A1) centreboard yacht on Wellington Harbour. I was a very dedicated and active member of the local Presbyterian church passing through bible class, youth fellowship and, on two occasions, giving the sermon to the Sunday morning congregation during the minister’s absence.

My wholesome and safe image definitely worked in my favour with the local girls’ mothers when the debutante balls rolled around at the end of the school year! I attended several as a ‘Deb’s Delight’ partner, occasions where the girls drank Pimms and the boys drank beer. The social groups I moved in were quite innocent and conservative with little alcohol and not even a whiff or sniff of drugs.

And then there was my love of growing plants. I planned to become a horticulturist when I left school. I had my own glasshouse in the backyard where I grew vegetable and flower plant seedlings which I sold to the local stores to help bolster my pocket money. This became an extremely lucrative business. I also had a flock of hens in the backyard and sold the eggs to the neighbours. The first signs of a budding entrepreneur perhaps?

My first job was with the City Council Parks and Reserves department. I worked in their plant nursery and planned to go to Massey College to obtain my horticultural degree. Then came winter and after several months working outside in the freezing temperatures I started to rethink pursuing this avenue as a career.

Uncle Arthur, my godfather, who was a successful businessman operating a wholesale hardware business, stepped in and suggested I consider a career in commerce. ‘Learn the basics of business,’ he said. ‘Then in later years you can use the knowledge to your own advantage.’ I really admired Uncle Arthur and I still value his wisdom to this day.

A few months later, after taking Uncle Arthur’s advice, I had changed my career path, left my council job and was working as an office junior, darting around collecting and posting mail, doing the banking and replenishing each of the director’s cigarette boxes every morning in the head office of the Wellington-based cigarette manufacturer WD & HO Wills.

A short while later, I was selected as a junior management trainee. Over the next couple of years, after spending time in departments such as sales and marketing, I took a role in accounts as the head office cashier. This was soon followed by a position that exposed me to the manufacturing side of the business. I loved it all and I learnt fast.

During lunch breaks, I’d stroll down to Wellington Harbour. Sometimes, a passenger liner would be departing, packed full of excited young people heading to the United Kingdom for a great overseas adventure. This was known in New Zealand as the ‘overseas experience’, or the OE. I started to meet the odd person who’d already been there and back, and I’d listen to their amazing tales. I began to realise there was a whole new world out there.

But sailing off was still pie-in-the-sky for me because I was still studying. When I joined Wills I had also enrolled, part-time, at the local technical college to obtain a Diploma of Commerce. I passed the required exams in just two years – a year ahead of schedule. An accounting degree at Victoria University was to follow. I used to sit in the back row with my friend, Malcolm Brown, a trainee stockbroker, both of us trying to understand what was being taught at the front. It was all too hard, although we did sit some exams at the end of the first year. To pass ‘Accounting 1’ two papers were required, with an average pass mark of 50 out of 100. I scored 53 in one paper and 47 in the other. No unnecessary effort had been expended there. I never completed the course, but what I learnt would help me down the line.

Around this time, Malcolm introduced me to another world – the local sharemarket. I found it riveting; studying and learning about the various companies, many of them household names. With my savings I started to make a few small investments. It was exciting making the decision to take a calculated risk to invest in a company and watch its progress. I checked the share prices virtually every day. It gave me such a buzz.

However, the images of the passenger liners continued to tug at me and I started to think seriously about going overseas to London. Like many young people, I was looking for adventure and excitement, yes, but there were also deeper reasons.

I wanted to see my father again and I wanted freedom from my smothering mother. I was still living at home as was the norm in those days. One didn't move out until you married. My mother prepared all my meals and watched over every mouthful I took. (To this day I still have an aversion to anyone watching me eat!) She would come to the church dances and secretly watch my activities through a side window.

Once again, Uncle Arthur prodded me in the right direction....