Wayne shares his experience
Retired cook Wayne Mellor moved into his one bedroom apartment in Arvida’s Village at the Park retirement village in Berhampore, Wellington, in November last year - and says it has made a big difference to his life.
What I like about living here is the sun on my apartment, the very good bus routes, all the opportunities to meet people and the activities and facilities - which helps you to meet people you have things in common with.
Before I moved here, I was in an apartment in Wellington but I was lonely and didn’t know anyone. I would go home, lock the door and be alone.
Mr brother suggested I move into a retirement village. I looked at one other village but this is the one I really liked. I haven’t owned a car since 1990 and I used to pass this place on the Island Bay bus and realised what fantastic bus route connections there are from here. I can get anywhere I want to around Wellington pretty easily by bus and, with my Gold Card, it’s usually free.
I signed up to the waiting list for this village on my 70th birthday in 2020. The sales manager said it would probably be 18 months before anything was available for me but it only took 11 months for my one bedroom apartment to come up.
It’s north facing so I could see how good the sun would be. Also, there’s a huge wardrobe. I don’t drink or smoke but I do love clothes, so that was a big attraction.
By the time I moved in and it was all refurbished, it looked brand new. My brother helped me work through the legal requirements around signing the Occupation Rights Agreement (ORA) I’m not worried about the percentage that will eventually get taken off what I paid for that because Arvida has to pay for all those refurbishments and there are all the other benefits of being in a retirement village.
My village has already adopted the recent reforms announced by the retirement villages sector, but I can see how these changes would benefit residents in other villages.
My apartment is very well designed and light and bright. I have a dishwasher, microwave, oven and fridge and they are all stainless steel, and a white washing machine and dryer. They are all very good quality - Fisher and Paykel. I saw the same models in Harvey Norman and they are expensive ones.
If something goes wrong with any of the appliances, then Arvida gets it fixed and I don’t pay for that. If I want to change my carpet, I pay for that, which I think is fair enough. I pay a weekly service fee of $199 and it covers all my rates, insurance, power and maintenance. I think that’s very reasonable and I don’t have anything to worry about. I’d be paying at least $300 in rent, plus bills, for a private apartment.
There’s a lot to do here. I’m in a different place socially - I don’t have to hide out in my apartment. I like the swimming pool - there’s a lot of good conversations around the spa pool. A lot of the ladies here are very well organised and they do aqua jogging in the pool and chat away while they are doing it. So that gave me the idea of aqua jogging for fitness too. I noticed how fit people are - chaps with muscles on their arms, so now I use weights and do 20 repetitions three times a day.
There are morning teas at weekends and that’s how I have got to meet quite a few people. There’s a village newsletter to let us know what’s happening. We have village meetings and Arvida provides sandwiches and sausage rolls and hot drinks and fruit juice - that’s all free. We are starting to have pot luck suppers again too. I like to cook and make up recipes, I’ve got an induction stovetop - I do a lot of stir fries.
Before I came here, I’d never see the sun indoors but it just streams into my apartment. I was so happy last summer. I got myself a wooden table and some plastic chairs from Bunnings for my patio too so I can sit out there with a drink or a meal. I’m really happy here. I’m so glad I made the move.