Retired school teacher Roland Matley is showing it's never too late to have a go by making a bid to become Mayor of Wairoa in the Local Elections.
At 85, and also seeking election to the Wairoa District Council, he's thought to be the oldest person standing in the elections which are about to start throughout New Zealand, with postal voting closing on October 8.
In a three-way race, he is standing against incumbent first-term Mayor Craig Little, and councillor Benita Cairns, who is not seeking re-election after serving three terms.
Age doesn't come into it for Mr Matley, who has a single beef in the hardy elections triennial. Rates, or more specifically too much of them.
From England but having been in New Zealand since 1961 and resident of Wairoa for 43 years, and a "mathematician by trade", he says the rates in Wairoa are far too high, an example being the $2950 he says now applies to his own "quarter-acre" piece of Kiwi paradise in Lucknow St, across the road from the Wairoa Fire Station and where he believes the rates were over $2000 when he moved to the new property in 2010.