My Account
Warkworth’s River View Plaza is a successful commercial proposition, but its popularity as a place for people to meet, shop or enjoy a coffee overlooking the Mahurangi River is what most pleases its landlord, Rona Glover. Originally from England, she is now one of Warkworth’s most ardent fans and is outspoken about Rodney District Council’s failure to build a community centre where groups like the Kowhai Singers, of which she is president, could perform. A woman of unstoppable passion for life, she created one of the United Kingdom’s most successful truck rental firms despite facing a major recession under Margaret Thatcher’s rule and a first-time pregnancy at 40. Rona describes a life in which she loves every minute …
I was born in the West Midlands in an industrial town. I was four-and-a-half when the war broke out. An aeroplane crashed not far from us, and our cousins a mile down the road had incendiaries dropped through their roof. But I think we were lucky compared to a lot of children today, with the freedom we had. Even when I was five I could run out of the house and down to the avenue to play with the other children, and mum didn’t have to worry. All you needed was a piece of chalk for hopscotch, a large rope for communal skipping and if you wanted to play war games – which we did frequently – your gun was a piece of wood dad had made.
I left school at 16 because that was what one did. Of the 90 girls in my year at grammar school, only two went to university. But I’m a great believer in education and I’ve always gone to night school. I took myself in hand to get proper qualifications when I was 30, and I became a member of the Institute of Works Managers in 1968. In 1970 I did a post-graduate course in advanced management, although I wasn’t a graduate. In 1978 I decided to get my degree, again part-time, and in three years I had a BA.
I’ve been married twice. When my first marriage disintegrated it was very, very sad for me because I’m the sort of person who likes to make a success of things. But then I met Michael and, boy, have I been happy since then. We were married in 1973 and six months before the wedding I was walking along the street and someone pushed a brochure into my hand promoting a dive centre in Sardinia. I had never dived but Michael had, and I went home and said “How do you feel about a diving honeymoon?” We later qualified with the British Sub Aqua Club and after that, every minute we had to spare and every pound we got to spare went on diving. My most memorable dive was in Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, where the Americans sunk the Japanese fleet in retaliation for Pearl Harbour.
I’ve known since I was a little kid that if I wanted anything I had to work for it. I started my own business in 1970, a joint motoring school and truck rental company. I used to work for a motor group and was in charge of the motoring school, and I knew the school and the truck rental parts of the business were profitable. Michael had just got a small inheritance and he gave it to me to pay for six vans. When we sold the business 18 years later we had six depots, 33 employees and 350 vehicles, mostly large tippers and big trucks. You don’t get this culture in New Zealand – we were surrounded by small councils and it was better and cheaper for them to rent their vehicles than to buy them. Councils and the construction industry were our core business.
I was 40 when I had Julia and had always thought I couldn’t have children. I was back at work within four weeks – I had no option because I was up to here in business debt. My business was in the Midlands and Michael worked in London so we lived in the middle and I drove 90 miles to and from work with Julia for the first three years of her life. Then Michael joined the business and we bought new business premises – an amazing prime-position 32-office block where we lived illegally for two years. Julia’s a lovely girl, our pride and joy. She completed school in the UK and after a gap year she came to New Zealand and went to Victoria University. She met a Kiwi and now she’s got a little 13-month-old baby.
My brother lived in New Zealand and in 1983 we made our first visit. We came again in 1986 and purchased a section in Sandspit. We sold the business and arrived in New Zealand in 1989 to a house that had been built by our local builder David Hook. We were going to do the ultimate thing and spend six months of the year diving around NZ, and the other six months in nice warm water in other parts. But Michael got bored and started Dolphin/Ocean Dry drysuits in Glenmore Drive. I’d already bought the riverside property in 1990 because I knew I should make my money work for me. There was just a furniture shop and a laundry here, with big bushes hiding the river. I had no big ideas for it until 1993 when I went to America and Europe and noticed that everywhere I went, every property that was a success was near water – it could be a river, the sea, a canal or even a big fountain. When I came back I went to see Grant Neil, a young architect just starting out, he came up with some designs that looked good and we had an informal meeting with the council official. I came out of that meeting stunned, because all my working life in the UK I’d had to fight to get anything through council and here was this man saying “Yes, this looks very nice, I’m sure this will go through all right”. What I didn’t know was that Council had decided to focus on Warkworth and turn the town around to face the river. My timing was absolutely perfect. David Hook moved in on the site in August and we opened the first shops in December.
While this was going on I was going back to the UK four times a year to see mum and dad. After they died I knew I’d got to have some interest other than sitting on a plane, so I joined the Kowhai Singers and the Warkworth embroidery group. I always loved singing but I’d always done it in private. I didn’t even know what I was – alto, soprano – so I had four lessons with a woman in Auckland, then went along with great confidence on my first night and told the musical director “I’m first soprano”.
At the end of 1996 Michael had a brain haemorrhage and everything changed. He couldn’t dive any more, and we don’t travel overseas, but he can still manage the flight to Wellington and we go there as often as we can. I enjoy life and it’s a shame about Michael, but there’s nothing we can do about it and he’s always cheerful. I enjoy life as much at 72 as I did at 52, and at 32. I love Warkworth – I love this (River View Plaza) and if anyone suggested anything that I thought would improve it, I’d do everything in my power to do it.
