\u201cI loved it,\u201d said Hobart.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeventy hours a week on the chipliner. If you enjoy it, it\u2019s not work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working life<\/p>\n
Terry Hobart on his property at Matahui. Photo \/ Debbie Griffiths<\/p>\n
Hobart started working life as an electrician, but got his truck licence early.<\/p>\n
After a stint in well drilling and dairy transport, he headed to Australia to work for a mining company.<\/p>\n
Five years later, Hobart was back in New Zealand and behind the wheel at Tauranga-based Taylor Bros Transport.<\/p>\n
He began with local work before shifting to line haul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing two rounds a day from the Mount to Auckland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no logbooks back then.<\/p>\n
\u201cFull bore at 5am, loaded with paving for Firth, unloaded before smoko, then back with Gib board.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin and Garry Taylor were great bosses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you worked hard, you made good money.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the long hours took a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was about 2 when she found me home at 2am and started coming in to talk to me then.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife only knew I\u2019d been home if the dinner she made was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realised it didn\u2019t feel fair that they never saw me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life-changing crash<\/p>\n
Terry Hobart started working life as an electrician, but got his truck licence early. Photo \/ Debbie Griffiths<\/p>\n
So, he bought his own truck and trailer to work closer to home.<\/p>\n
A crash in 2012, though, changed everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing 80km\/h over the Mamaku Ranges when a car coming toward me missed a turn in the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driver had glanced at his phone and went straight under the front of my truck.\u201d<\/p>\n
The driver survived, but the incident left Hobart devastated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t blame him, it was a moment of inattention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the accident spoiled the happy, relaxed feeling I had while I was driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start watching, it\u2019s amazing how many motorists you see drifting across the centre line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orchard work<\/p>\n
Now 71, Hobart\u2019s time is spent on his kiwifruit orchard at Matahui and still lending a hand with one of his 13 tractors.<\/p>\n
But nothing quite compares to the view he had from a truck cab 4m up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good life. I wouldn\u2019t change a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI looked in my mirror and saw him coming past me upside down.\u201d He retired three years ago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128706,2840,1863,1561,3390,6326,138,2046,2841,19552,3685,31178,6637,16655,27055,78,8454,296,121522,6187,663,3234,111,43,139,69,1118,90,4517,1562,6289,6653,762,3175,544,6182,71549,1361,7563,23857,9347,121521,379],"class_list":["post-211969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-30year","tag-across","tag-back","tag-bay","tag-best","tag-biggest","tag-business","tag-career","tag-country","tag-driver","tag-events","tag-favourites","tag-gave","tag-glimpse","tag-hobart","tag-in","tag-including","tag-into","tag-livelihoods","tag-lives","tag-looks","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-past","tag-plenty","tag-readers","tag-reflects","tag-review","tag-rural","tag-some","tag-stories","tag-terry","tag-that","tag-those","tag-truck","tag-veteran","tag-yarns","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}