He held passenger tickets for Air New Zealand Flight 901, the Antarctica sightseeing flight which crashed into Mt Erebus, narrowly escaping a tragedy that would have cut his time short.<\/p>\n
Now set to clock a century on February 7, Groves found himself asking: \u201cHow the hell did I have enough time to do what I\u2019ve done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Good genes and hard work<\/p>\n
Groves comes from a long-lived family, crediting \u201cgood genes\u201d as one of the secrets to his longevity.<\/p>\n
One of five siblings, his older sister lived to nearly 103, while his three brothers all reached their 90s. Their father lived to 95.<\/p>\n
\u201cHard work\u201d was another secret. <\/p>\n
The biggest difference among generations was \u201cyoung people[\u2019s]\u201d unwillingness to fix things. <\/p>\n
Groves found it frustrating that items were often thrown away and replaced, rather than repaired.<\/p>\n
When he was growing up, you \u201dmade do” if something broke.<\/p>\n
Raised in Whanganui, Groves went to Gonville School. With no family \u201cmotor car\u201d, his father ferried the children two at a time on his bicycle.<\/p>\n
Groves moved briefly to Whang\u0101rei to live with his aunt and uncle on a 40ha (100-acre) farm.<\/p>\n
A kerosene lamp lit the kitchen, candles were used in the bedrooms, cooking was done on a wood-burning range and bath water was heated in a copper boiler pot \u2013 there was no electricity. <\/p>\n
Rainwater was collected in a tank on the back veranda, the toilet was a long drop in the garden, and the telephone was a shared \u201cparty line\u201d used by 12 households, \u201cheard by each\u201d. <\/p>\n
Returning home, Groves attended Whanganui Intermediate School before attending Wanganui Technical College, where he took an engineering course. <\/p>\n
Bill Groves, a WWII Air Force veteran, served in the Pacific. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n
While at the college, World War II broke out in September 1939. <\/p>\n
At 14, Groves left school and began an apprenticeship as a wood turner at Beadle and Barron, the long-standing Whanganui business later known as Beadles Panel Products<\/a>, which closed in 2024. <\/p>\n By 17, Groves joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force.<\/p>\n With the war intensifying in 1943, Groves trained as an instrument repairer \u2013 now known as a technician \u2013 and was responsible for maintaining the dials and controls inside aircraft. <\/p>\n In September 1943, Groves was sent overseas. He was \u201cfitted out for the tropics\u201d in Auckland and waited at the Hobsonville airbase for a Hudson bomber aircraft.<\/p>\n Bad weather delayed their departure for two weeks, during which they completed a commando course at Swanson. One exercise involved entering a hut wearing a gas mask, then removing it as the space filled with gas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to see how long we could stay there.\u201d <\/p>\n They eventually made it to Torokina in eastern Papua New Guinea, where Groves was based in a four-man tent in the jungle. <\/p>\n The Corsair aircraft were the first planes Groves worked on.<\/p>\n He learned to drive. His \u201cbiggest worry\u201d was not hearing guards when told to stop, as they would \u201cshoot without warning\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n Groves got a brand-new Jeep, but deliberately \u201chammered lots of dents\u201d into it so it wouldn\u2019t stand out.<\/p>\n His 12 months in the Pacific ended just as the Soviet Union declared war on Japan between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, which soon brought World War II to an end.<\/p>\n He decided to do an apprenticeship as a watchmaker. He built a reputation in the trade, eventually running his own workshop and training apprentices.<\/p>\n Groves spent time hunting and gold prospecting with friends, once bringing along a gold-plated item from work and pretending he had found a nugget. One friend was so convinced he\u2019d found real gold that he refused to go home.<\/p>\n He and Sylvia spent years exploring the country by caravan, including one South Island trip covering about 10,000km.<\/p>\n Groves retired from watchmaking when the couple moved to Auckland\u2019s Red Beach in 1988. He continued repairs from home, working on many antique clocks owned by Whangapar\u0101oa locals.<\/p>\n In 2004, the couple bought their Rotorua property, where Groves has lived ever since, keeping \u201cbusy\u201d with projects around the house, volunteering at the aviation museum and fixing watches and clocks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Groves has remained active and independent, renewing his driver\u2019s licence this month.<\/p>\n His daughter, Judie Lewis, credited her father for why she rarely had to ask for help \u201cto fix or sort something at home\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say to my son about the hours he works, he\u2019ll look at me with that funny look and say, \u2018I got it from you, Mum \u2013 and you got it from Pop.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cGood, hard-working genes.\u201d<\/p>\nBill Groves (left) and Rotorua District Council property maintenance officer Phil Hunt check the workings of the chimes in Rotorua’s Seddon Memorial Town Clock in 2020.<\/p>\n