Valerie Rae: Grey Power president and Motueka Marina resident

May 2nd, 2011
By David Armstrong

Community groups normally have to twist arms to enlist committee members and officials, but Grey Power struck gold when Valerie Rae offered her services and administrative skills to organise and promote their work through various executive roles.

A firm believer in advocating for people who are often treated disrespectfully, Valerie (or Val, as she prefers) says her decision to help Grey Power stemmed from seeing people "trying to pull the wool over" her mother's eyes.

Val is also unusual in that she lives on a boat at the Marina, helping her to keep options open for taking on any other interesting opportunities that may arise, such as more travel.

Her father being a publican, Val grew up living in several North Island hotels. Although she managed well at school, she was an adventurous person more interested in earning (and spending) money than classrooms, so aged 16 she left home to try city life in Auckland.

A stint of work as "Girl Friday" at Reid Rubber taught her basic skills in office administration, reception, accounts, payroll and book-keeping which she has since used to good effect.

At 18 years she decided to try Australia to check out the bright lights and earn a bit of money. On her second trip there she decided, on a coin flip, to go to Cairns where she got a job as cook on prawn trawlers. Her experience there, where she travelled all around the northern parts of Australia for about four years, gave her proficiency on boats.

A keen learner and worker, she got her skipper's ticket - "the seventh female in Australia at the time to get one", she says. She was challenged to pursue this by the belief at the time in the "male dominated" fishing industry that "girls shouldn't even be on boats, let alone have aspirations to be a skipper".

In her late 20s she moved back to Sydney, where she found an interest in punk culture which dominated the music and fashion scene then. When she was 32 Val ventured further afield and spent four years in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she worked in bars and reception jobs. It was there that she met her partner and they had a son, Liam, in 1988.

This prompted shortly after their return to New Zealand, initially to Wellington. Settling down also led to some more challenging work, this time at The Warehouse when it was in its early days.

She worked there for nearly 11 years and worked her way through various responsibilities until she was appointed to the impressive role of Wellington regional manager. "I set up a lot of systems which are still being used - the refund system, the checkout systems, the stockroom systems."

Initially wanting to suss out a Nelson school for Liam, Val and her partner came to the South Island about 10 years ago for a holiday. "We hired a campervan, and at one stage we passed through Motueka on the way to Golden Bay. We saw a house for sale, a villa on King Edward Street, and then later as we continued our travels we couldn't get the house out of our heads. I had in mind opening a bed and breakfast, and it would be ideal."

So the family moved to Motueka and set up the Time Out B&B. They ran it for three years before unfortunately the two split up and sold the business to Christine Rowntree.

With the house sold, property divided and Liam deciding to move to Wellington, Val bought a leasehold property for herself in Trewavas Street. At this point she was just on 50, and looking to develop plans for her future. Talking with Matt Beech at Work & Income, the idea came to her to getting involved with Grey Power, offering her help on the committee with her administrative skills.

"They couldn't answer my questions quickly enough, to get someone walking in saying they wanted to be on the committee," she laughs now. She was a little out of her comfort zone, not having ever worked in a community group before.

"It (wanting to get involved) sort of stemmed from seeing my mum, who was by herself in the end, and seeing people trying to pull the wool over her eyes. It made me quite angry, going in to battle for her. And then hearing cases of elder abuse. I didn't know who was around to help these people."

Pretty soon Val became treasurer, a position she still holds, and last year she became president - and the youngest Grey Power president in New Zealand. This has meant quite a bit more work - meeting people, working on promotions and advertising, setting up meetings, helping with submissions and lobbying, overseeing the office operations in the Community House, and running the monthly stall outside Westpac.

Grey Power Motueka has nearly 1500 members, and apart from the member discounts it offers it is primarily a lobby group for people over 50 years. The national body has the ear of parliament, and Val and her local colleagues spend some time advocating on local issues - often footpaths, road safety, parking and ratepayer issues. The Community Board and Tasman District Council officially acknowledge Grey Power as spokespeople for the elderly and accept submissions from them.

Four years ago, Val's property came up for lease renewal at a new rate which she couldn't afford. She weighed the options, which included a caravan, but got to know someone who lived on a boat at the Marina so decided to take that tack. It took some time but finally she found the ideal vessel, took on an overdraft while she sold Trewavas Street, and now is well settled on her floating home.

She is now secretary of the Motueka Yacht and Cruising Club, which involves monthly meetings and occasional on-site help for boaties and visitors.

Settling in Motueka also gave Val the opportunity to develop her current small business, Admin.Plus, doing book-keeping and annual tax returns for about a dozen clients - enough, she says, to allow her time to maintain her other interests and to enjoy living at the Marina. She says she enjoys this way of life ("it's nice and cruisey") but at times thinks of doing more serious travelling, perhaps to be with her grandkids in Australia.

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