Home ground: Rolleston's Anthony Davies on family, community, and what's so special about Waikirikiri Selwyn

Anthony Davies, 41, has called Rolleston home for over a decade, and after all this time, says he and partner Kirstie couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Between two sports-mad kids, a busy family life, and a job that gets him up before five most mornings, he’s flat out most days—but he wouldn't have it any other way. Here's Anthony in his own words.

Where we started

I was born in Christchurch, but I moved to West Melton when I was three. Besides a couple of years in Brisbane, I've spent the majority of my life out this way, between West Melton and Rolleston.

My partner Kirstie was born and bred in Rolleston, so she's about as local as they come. We love it here. Everything's close, everything's local—we bought our first house here in 2013 and put down roots, and built our second in 2019. I always thought I'd move back to West Melton eventually, but the affordability of Rolleston, housing-wise, has kept us here.

Kirstie and I have been together for about sixteen years now, and we've got two kids. So that ease of getting around, the schooling, the sports clubs, the housing affordability—there's a number of things that's kept us here or attracted us here. 

I don’t think it's just us—the amount of housing going up around here at the moment is unreal. 

Family, sport, and the weekends

My daughter is nine and goes to Clearview Primary—she's mad on hockey, so Saturday mornings we're down at whichever ground she's playing at. My son is in year eleven at Rolleston College, in the under-16 rugby team. So a typical Saturday for us is sport from about nine in the morning through to four in the afternoon, depending on what time the rugby's on. Sunday's our family day—we try to do something together, whether that's heading into town or going for a walk. We really like the Castle Hill walk. We’ve done it a few times, and it seems to be a pretty popular spot on the days we go.

I used to play rugby—fifteen or twenty years for the West Melton Rugby Club—but it's hard to find time for yourself with a busy family life, especially over winter.

If Kirstie and I get an afternoon to ourselves, we'll probably go down to a cafe—Coffee Culture or Robert Harris usually—but honestly, our favourite place to go as a family is Foster Park. Most of the kids' sport is around there, so we spend a lot of time there anyway.

Summer is usually more relaxed, but we choose to be busy. We enjoy our time with the kids.

And we've got quite a tight family group close by—which has always been handy, especially when the kids were younger.

Learning the trade

I spent ten years with Foodstuffs South Island, travelling the South Island looking after the New Worlds, Pak'nSaves and Four Squares—great variety for a job and lots of meeting people. After that, I had a short stint at St Martins New World, then a conversation with Phil [Blackburn, owner-operator with Sarah Blackburnat Pak'nSave Rolleston]—and the rest is history.

I started as butchery manager at Pak'nSave Rolleston last August, ahead of the store opening in October, and it's been a real eye-opener working for Phil and Sarah. They're big on continuous improvement, on open and honest communication, on striving for excellence—and it shows. Five a.m. starts most days, and my role's varied—one day I might be out the front talking to customers, another I'm doing paperwork. No two days are really the same. 

What community looks like

There’s a real community spirit in Rolleston. My son is off to Japan in September on a college rugby trip. A few weeks earlier, the fundraising group had set up a sausage sizzle on a street in town—and could barely sell a sausage. No one was interested in supporting the boys. Then they set up out the front of Pak'nSave Rolleston, and it was a completely different story: people who didn't even want a sausage were just handing over money to help them along. It’s great. We're willing to help each other out here, and stuff like that just confirms it.

And if you need proof this place has got personality—the Rolleston Community Page on Facebook is basically world famous. Bad driving, supermarket dramas, anything in between—someone will have their whinge, and the comments will blow up and run on for days. It’s gold. 

Room to grow

If someone was thinking about moving out here, I'd say go for it—it's fantastic. The roading's getting better and it’s an easy commute into town. Just about everything you need is already here—and we've got a Mitre 10 coming, so you probably won't even need to leave Rolleston once that's in. Great restaurants, great cafés, great sports clubs if that's your thing, and really good community pools and gyms. 

We really can't imagine living anywhere else. For us, it's perfect.