Margaret McLean understands freedom and adventure in a different way to most.
For 22 years her work took her in a circuit across New Zealand four times a year, calling a 26-foot caravan home. When pondering her retirement years, she contemplated being on the move again, but it was ultimately her connections in Auckland that decided it. “I’ve got a lovely network of friends on the Shore, and I want to keep seeing them regularly. We do all sorts of little things. We jump on the bus and the train and the ferry and go all sorts of places. I want to keep doing that as long as I’m able to,” she explains.
I knew I wanted to get settled into a village while I was still young and fit enough to enjoy the facilities on offer
Now, she has embarked on her next journey as the pioneer resident in the new Fitzroy apartments at Waterford Retirement Village. Margaret doesn’t even pause to think when asked what prompted her to move. “The garden, the lawn, the maintenance of my house, it was all just becoming a bit of a burden. I knew I wanted to get settled into a village while I was still young and fit enough to enjoy the facilities on offer,” tells Margaret.
She laughs as she describes her search for the perfect village. “I think I’ve seen every village in Auckland! On my first visit to Waterford, I knew immediately that I could live here.”
