Ninety-seven-year-old Alf Rendell can be found somewhere in Te Puna Quarry Park on Tuesdays and Thursdays - volunteering.
The Bay local has been giving back to the park for the past 12 years and will continue to do so.
Te Puna Quarry Park is 15 kilometres out of Tauranga and has been developed by 40-odd volunteers from a disused quarry into a world class park.
Mr Randell said he started volunteering after he lost his wife to cancer.
It was the best thing he could have done to help cope with the grief, he said.
"I drove over here one day and came up and had a look, I saw the donation box and I thought better come up and help here."
The Otumoetai resident was 84 when he started at the quarry and is one of the longest-serving volunteers.
Mr Rendell joked he did not do much work at the park and came for the morning tea but he has been responsible for gardening, water blasting, sanding, painting and making signage for the different areas around it.
Mr Rendell is helping build and paint a giant weta which will be placed in the park.
Mr Rendell, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, said the best part of spending his days at the quarry was the company. "And the fresh air, it's lovely up here."
The hardest work was done when he first started at the park, he said.
"It was rough. The far side was just bracken and gorse 10-feet high but we got that into shape pretty quick."
He still drives to the park a couple of times a week and lives by himself.
Mr Rendell trained as a photographer before the outbreak of WWII when he enlisted. After the war, he got back into the profession and opened a photographic store in Tauranga. Some of his images are featured in the Bay of Plenty Times Past Times pages.