Devonport Ryman Times Winter edition 2018
Devonport village moving on up
Our new eatery
Meet Margaret and Kenneth
Chat with Matt
Greetings from Devonport... Hello and welcome to our Devonport Ryman Times. We have enjoyed amazing weather in autumn, and now as we step into the wetter colder months, the idea of living in a modern, well insulated, double glazed home, is very appealing! There is nothing like a cold frosty morning to make me appreciate the value of not having to light the fire or close off part of the house to stay warm and keep the power bill down! Our apartment sales have moved up a gear with winter coming and now it is possible to see where they are situated as the first block rises out of the ground. What a fantastic job the construction team are doing and now they have their own café on site – “Smoko Eatery” – so the team don’t have to go off site for food. We also enjoy being able to pop in when we’re working at the site office.
We are organising some fabulous speakers and events for you to enjoy, we do hope you’ll come along – keep an eye out for your invitations in the post. It is another way to meet up and get to know who we are and who is moving into the village. If you are not sure if village life is for you, talking to those who have already made the decision may help. Kind regards,
Mark Cooper Sales Advisor Ph: 09 445 0909
Keeping it local We are always looking for opportunities and ways to support local groups and venues. Ryman sponsored a recent triples tournament at the Belmont Bowling Club, which was a big hit. We’ve also sponsored other bowling tournaments at local clubs and hosted events at local theatres. We’re always keen to get involved and can help with prizes and afternoon tea too. Mark and Janet
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J Janet Coutts Sales Advisor Ph: 09 445 0909
Devonport locals enjoy their ‘chat with Matt’ The challenges faced by crane operators were brought home for a group of children visiting our Devonport construction site when the question of what they do when they need the loo came up. Jaws dropped and eyes widened when they heard that given the alternative of a lengthy descent followed by an even lengthier climb back up again, ‘a special bottle’ might be kept up there! The tongue in cheek answer was delivered by project manager Matt Hutchinson. Along with other members of the team they held a Q&A session, dubbed a ‘Chat with Matt’ for neighbours of the site, particularly the kids. The idea was inspired by Ngataringa Road neighbour Janet Digby whose curious nephews and their fascination for construction sites had prompted Matt and the team to build a viewing platform for locals to get a good view of the works going on below. After receiving lots of positive feedback, they were keen to find another way to involve the locals.
The session was held in the courtyard of the Ngataringa Road sales office which overlooks the construction site, and amongst those that turned up were neighbours with their children and some future residents and their grandchildren. One visitor, Sally Burge, who brought grandsons Sam (12) and Finn (9) said she appreciated the opportunity. “It’s a great idea to do this. We were keen to get a closer look at the action.” “There was a lot of interest from the adults as well as the children,” said Matt. Matt was also armed with plenty of facts and figures about the site, the crane, the trucks and the diggers. “I’m pleased with how it went, it was a pretty successful event,” said Matt. Above: Isla Elliott at the controls of a digger next door to our construction site.
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Construction update The concrete is flowing at Ngataringa Road, and the first apartment block is starting to come out of the ground. “In April we poured the foundations for the basement of the first independent apartment block and in May we poured the basement floor,” says project manager Matt Hutchinson. Each pour is around 100m3 so the floor was done in three stages. Matt said there would be a few larger pours from then on as the team start adding more floors. “The next floor up is the most complicated but after that’s done we will progress quickly.” Next are the beams and framing work which will keep the guys in the workshop super-busy, he said. Around 40 of the precast walls were delivered to the site in April so they are ready to go when needed. “As they go in you really start to see the building take shape,” says Matt. Meanwhile, the diggers have been hard at work excavating the ground for the village centre. Matt said the team was trying to get as much of that done before the winter weather set in. Once that work is completed, then it is onto the piling and retaining work. Towards the end of June the site should be able to boast a second tower crane. Matt said the preparation work for the crane’s foundations began at the beginning of last month. “That will really step the pace up a notch or two!” he said. An aerial shot of our construction site with the basement of the first apartment block visible.
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Resident Profile
Meet Margaret & Kenneth
We’re looking forward to W meeting some nice people and socialising and making the most of our new life in the village.
Margaret and Kenneth Toon are the first to admit their move into Ryman’s new Devonport village was initially born out of necessity rather than desire. After a decade of struggling with a particularly debilitating form of osteoporosis, Margaret realised stairs were becoming a problem – which is no good when you live in a two-storey townhouse! “We’d thought about shifting to somewhere that hasn’t got stairs but then thought the chances are we’d have to move again in five years’ time so we decided we might as well move once,” says Ken.
The pair got married at the church, after meeting through an introduction by Ken’s mother Gwen. With Ken’s work in shipping, varying from cargo, passenger and construction ships, the couple ‘sailed the high seas together’, living in many countries including Brunei, India, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and Dubai. Their son Scott, who lives in Thailand with his wife and two children, has inherited his father’s nomadic gene, laughs Margaret.
The couple did their research and quickly decided Ryman ticked all the boxes for them.
Once Ken retired from the ships, the couple ran a lodge on the Tongariro River for several years, marvelling at the many fascinating people they hosted, before Margaret’s health issues got a bit much.
“We liked the fact they had three-bedroom apartments, because we didn’t want to downsize that much just yet,” says Ken.
Now, with a new medication finally giving her some much-longed-for relief, Margaret and Ken are excited about the future.
“And it’s on the ground floor which is ideal, and in a lovely area too,” adds Margaret, who was brought up in Takapuna where she still has strong ties with St Peter’s Church.
“We’re looking forward to meeting some nice people and socialising and making the most of our new life in the village.”
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It’s got to be
good enough for mum In May 2018 Kevin Hickman announced he was standing down from the board of Ryman, ending 34 years of service at the company. There is no doubt that Ryman Healthcare would not be the company it is today without Kevin, and everyone at Ryman wishes him all the best with his retirement. The Ryman story began back in 1983, when Kevin was a former policeman turned private detective. He was asked to investigate a resthome fire in Christchurch, and he did not like what he saw. “The fire was in an old villa and there were four people to a room all with shared toilets,’’ Kevin recalls. “To me it was crazy, the standards were so poor. But that’s how resthomes were in those days.’’ Kevin would never dream of putting his mother into a place like that if she needed to go into care. “I thought, what would I want for mum?” And so, Ryman’s philosophy that care has to be “good enough for mum” was born. Kevin teamed up with John Ryder, an accountant, and together they made a dynamic pair. Ryman – a combination of Ryder and Hickman – Healthcare was registered and they bought their first property to convert into a resthome in 1984.
“I thought, what would I want for mum?” As well as providing care that was better than anywhere else, the company had to be sustainable, with its systems constantly refined and improved upon. The size of the villages and the facilities offered may have changed over the past 30 years, but Ryman’s core philosophy remains the same. Care is still at the heart of what we do. And it’s got to be good enough for mum. Or dad!
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Devonport’s smoko eatery takes off! When there’s several hundred workers labouring on site all day, challenges can arise at smoko when everyone wants to grab a bite to eat at the same time, says project manager, Matt Hutchinson. Add to that the constant effort to keep traffic movements down to reduce the site’s impact on neighbours, then an on-site food source becomes a crucial factor to the success of the build. That’s where friends Jess Farrow and Charlotte Cvitanovich come in. Working from the basic idea used at Matt’s last Ryman build in Birkenhead, the girls came up with a business plan for the Smoko Eatery which included employing a professional chef, Brad Allen. The plan was fairly simple, says Jess: “We wanted to provide good food at reasonable prices to the
guys on site and the feedback we received from the last one was they wanted some lighter and easier options – and better pies!” The benefits for staff soon became evident especially as the café is open all day for snacks. “This way they don’t have to go up the road all the time and their breaks are more efficient too. “It ticks the health and safety box by stopping so much coming and going traffic-wise,” says Jess. “To me the impact on Ryman productivity alone is massive, if you calculate it as one hour saved per person on a site of 300 workers.” Meet the Smoko team (L–R) Jess Farrow, Brad Allen and Hebe Orman Brown.
7 Ngataringa Road, Devonport
09 445 0909 FFood is still food. I just want to make people happy with it.
www.rymanhealthcare.co.nz
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