My Account
The first impression of Reuben Zylstra is of a young man in a hurry. Although “officially” he finished his schooling at 16, he admits that he was probably spending more time working at 14 than he ever spent with his head in a textbook. By the time he was 16, he was borrowing money to buy a boat. By 18, he owned four and his business, Reuben’s Water Taxis, was a well-established 24-hour service operating between Kawau Island and Sandspit. Today, at the ripe old age of 25, he runs a fleet of nine water taxis servicing the Hauraki Gulf, the 145-seater Kawau Kat out of Sandspit and employs up to 40 staff in the peak season. Local Matters editor Jannette Thompson caught up with this self-confessed workaholic at Sandspit Wharf …
Where did you go to school?
I didn’t. I was born on Kawau and all my schooling was by correspondence. My parents, Miriam and George, have lived on the island for about 30 years where Dad was a builder, as well as a commercial fisherman. I was an only child and I didn’t have a lot of playmates but I don’t remember ever feeling lonely or bored. There was always lots to do. Somewhere between 13 and 16 I started landscaping – putting in retaining walls, tracks and planting trees. I liked the work but it was also easy to see that there was money to be made doing it.
Where did the idea for the water taxis come from?
My first intention was to go into dive charters. The only trouble was I was still not quite 17 and you couldn’t get a skipper’s ticket until you were 18. But, you didn’t need a ticket if your boat was under six metres so I bought a 5.6m high-speed catamaran with a 200 horsepower Mariner on the back. But then I changed my mind and decided to start the water taxi service instead. For the first year I was doing two or three crossings a day, as well as my landscaping work. Once I had my skipper’s ticket I sold the cat and bought my first Sinbad – an ex-Royal New Zealand Navy cutter with a cruising speed of 26 knots. They’re basically a high-speed fibreglass launch that can carry up to 11 passengers plus the skipper. By the time I was 19, I’d tracked down another three, had them refitted and refurbished, and we started working out of Auckland as well.
Do you have plans for further expansion?
I don’t make plans. I go by desire. I wasn’t planning on buying the Kawau Kat but I was offered her a week before Christmas last year. I thought about it for a minute and then rang my solicitor and said “I want you to find me $1.4million and you’ve got four days to do it.” If I wasn’t on Kawau I’m not sure where I’d be. I’m not very mainland-friendly – I don’t even have a driver’s licence. As far as stress goes, I don’t stop still long enough to worry about it. I’ve carried debt, large debts, since I was 16 so that sort of thing doesn’t get to me. Banks hate boats and finance companies aren’t much better so I’ve had to learn how to borrow money from wherever I could get it.
It doesn’t sound like the sort of job that leaves much time for a social life?
My day starts around 7am and I knock off around10pm, seven days a week. I’m pretty much hands on – I do all the maintenance and marketing, if someone doesn’t show up for work, I fill in. If a boat breaks down, then I work on it until it’s fixed. In the winter you get to hibernate a little, but you just get thrashed in summer. Most girlfriends I’ve had didn’t last long. You take them to an island where there’s nothing to do, no shops and you’re working 18 hour days, and next minute they’ve gone. But Marie’s different. She likes sanding boats and is good at sanding houses so it looks like she might stick around. We’re getting married in March. She’s a chef so we’re looking at opportunities in that direction, too.
What’s Marie’s last name?
Umm … pass. Hang on … it’s Pickett but don’t ask me how to spell it.
What do you credit your success to?
Hard work and I guess you’ve got to have a bit of a talent for what you do as well. I tend to pick peoples brains and learn what I can. This means I have to keep my big mouth shut and bite my tongue long enough to listen. I love the satisfaction of telling everybody what I think, but I think that I’ve learned that that’s not always appropriate.
Are you a difficult boss?
I was brought up by a Dutchmen who had the work ethics from Hell. It’s probably one of the reasons I demand such high standards from the staff. There’s a few that have ended up in the tide but others have been with me for quite awhile. I admit I’m not polite. I particularly don’t like bureaucrats because they waste my time and I usually end up telling them to get stuffed. Yeah, I do make enemies. One of my boats was sunk last year while it was tied to the wharf at Kawau. It had only just gone in the water and it’s still not clear who was responsible. I have very good friends and very bad enemies, and nothing in between.
How do you relax?
I go fishing. One of my favourite places is Bosanquet Bay, on Kawau, between South Cove and Challenger Island. It’s a nice sandy beach and the place just does something for me. Sometimes I think I might retire at 35 and go property developing, but then again, I can’t ever really see that happening. I get bored quickly so every six months I do a new project. Holidays are a waste of time and a waste of money, unless you’re looking at boats. I went with a mate to Australia once to pick-up up a 90 ton, 90ft ice breaker. It was built pre-war and made of one-inch thick, rolled steel – a serious piece of metal. We took 10 days to make the crossing from Brisbane and during the trip I pulled in a 300lb striped marlin. We had a bugger of a job getting it on board. That was a pretty good holiday.
How’s your health?
I smoke 60 cigarettes a day, drink a bottle of rum a night and eat fat, and anything else that they say’s bad for you. The last medical I had everything checked out so I’m not going to stand around worrying if I’m healthy or not. I had a burst appendix once. It happened during one of my all-night sessions working on a boat. I went to see a doctor who sent me home with a prescription. Anyway, I ended up with peritonitis which, of course, put me in hospital. It happens.
