At the end of July, Tauranga plays host to a special event honouring Sir Colin Meads. All Black greats Sir Brian Lochore and Andrew Mehrtens are among those lined up to speak about the legendary "Pinetree" Meads - widely regarded as the greatest rugby player the country has ever produced.
Juliet Rowan talks to Sir Colin ahead of the tribute dinner and finds a humble bloke trying his best to get into retirement mode as he approaches his 79th birthday, but one who still lives for rugby, his wife and his charitable causes.
This week, Colin Meads heads overseas withformer All Blacks coach Graham Henry to speak at an event as a favour to an old friend.
Sir Colin turns 79 on Wednesday and says the friend is billing the event in Australia as "the last time Colin Meads will speak outside New Zealand".
Asked if this is true, the rugby legend admits he has told the friend it is probably the case, saying he has turned down an invitation to attend the Rugby World Cup in England later this year.
"I'm getting too old for all that travel," Sir Colin tells the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"With the World Cup, you see more of it at home when you watch it on telly."
For more than four decades since his illustrious 14-year All Blacks career ended in 1971, Sir Colin has balanced life as a farmer, husband and father of five with involvement in rugby coaching and administration, charity work and public speaking.
Charities, schools, rugby clubs and surf lifesaving in the Bay have been among the recipients of his time, and the organisers of a tribute dinner in Tauranga say the event offers the community a chance to honour Sir Colin's "serious support of New Zealand and New Zealanders".
The dinner is called "A Tribute to Sir Colin Meads: In Deserving Thanks to a Living Legend" and one of the speakers says it is typical of Sir Colin's selflessness that he is spending his June 3 birthday overseas at another charitable engagement.
But Sir Colin hardly seems to see himself deserving of accolades, saying, "It's a great honour that people think I can have a tribute dinner."
Those days are well gone... I'm in sort of retirement mode now, I suppose you'd call it.
He says he usually only comes to Tauranga to watch the horse races, and he also downplays the trip to Perth, saying he is not doing much charity work these days and is trying to spend more time at home.
"I'm in sort of retirement mode now, I suppose you'd call it," he says over the phone from his home in Te Kuiti.
His wife Verna has not been well and he says part of wanting to stay at home is to be there for the woman he married more than 57 years ago, when they were both 21.
"She was the stalwart when we had a young family. I'd be away all the time. It's my turn to do something," Sir Colin says gently.
Sir Colin Meads pictured at his Te Kuiti home on his 77th birthday with wife Lady Verna. Photo/Christine Cornege
The couple recently sold their bach at Papamoa and, although Sir Colin says he loves the beach and regrets not getting a bach earlier, he and Verna want to stay close to family in Te Kuiti, where they have always lived.
Three of their five children still live in the King Country town, and they have 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren in the family. None of the grandchildren play rugby - "They're nearly all girls," says Sir Colin - but they no doubt share the country's pride in their famous granddad.
Nicknamed Pinetree for his 1.92m, 102kg frame, Sir Colin played 133 matches for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1971, including 55 tests.
"He was the first to reach a half century of tests," says his biography on AllBlacks.com, "And while that figure has become commonplace with the growing number of tests, in Meads' career it was a colossal feat and considerably more than any of his playing contemporaries."
Fred Allen, the All Blacks coach from 1966 to 1968, said: "To me Colin Meads was the greatest rugby player ever. There's been no-one better. They threw away the mould when they made Pinetree."
Sir Colin played most games at lock and The International Rugby Hall of Fame rates him "the most famous forward in world rugby throughout the 1960s".
I'm getting too old for all that travel... With the World Cup, you see more of it at home when you watch it on telly.
Sir Colin was the archetypal hard man of the sport, once playing through a match against South Africa with a broken arm, reportedly saying nothing at the end except, "At least we won the bloody game."
Despite his brilliance, Sir Colin was no stranger to controversy, becoming only the second All Black ordered off in a test when playing against Scotland in 1967. The referee deemed his play dangerous, and Sir Colin was not above throwing the odd punch, says the AllBlacks.com biography.
Sir Colin Meads pictured at his Te Kuiti home on his 77th birthday. Photo/Christine Cornege
In 1986, he earned the ire of the New Zealand Rugby Union by going as coach on the unauthorised Cavaliers tour of apartheid South Africa.
He was axed as a national selector but Sir Colin says he stands by his action because New Zealand teams got little opportunity to play overseas in those days. "The young players were desperate to go to South Africa."
His decision to go on the Cavaliers tour appears to have done little to damage his reputation because, before long, he was reinstated to the NZRU council and went to the 1995 World Cup in South Africa as All Blacks manager.
In 1999, he was named New Zealand rugby's Player of the Century and, in 2001, a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rugby and the community.
In a Ministry of Social Development report in 2008, Sir Colin was found to be the third most trusted New Zealander after Victoria Cross holder Willie Apiata and triple Olympic gold medallist Peter Snell.
I watch it all on TV of course. The weekends I lack a lot of sleep because I'm up half the night watching rugby.
From the moment Sir Colin retired from rugby, he immersed himself in charity work and quickly became a staunch advocate of the IHC.
He donated money from speaking engagements to buy a farm in Te Kuiti for people with intellectual disabilities in the 1980s, and Pinetree Farm, as it is called, is still owned and operated by the IHC.
Sir Colin says he does not get there as often as he used to, but still attends the organisation's national annual general meeting and remains patron of its calf scheme. The scheme raises more than $1 million annually from the sale of donated calves, and Sir Colin's involvement stretches back to its inception more than 20 years ago.
"It's a marvellous thing," he says. "The farmers are so generous to rear a calf for us." While his passion for helping the community appears undiminished, so too does his love of rugby.
Asked if he ever kicks around a rugby ball now, he laughs and says, "Those days are well gone", but he admits keeping a keen eye on all the latest games.
"I watch it all on TV of course. The weekends I lack a lot of sleep because I'm up half the night watching rugby."
He knows most of today's All Blacks, having met them at test matches, and says, "They're good young men".
He always watches the World Cup with interest and is looking forward to this year's competition, beginning in September. "There's a lot of younger talent coming through in New Zealand at the moment. The selectors are going to have a very hard job sorting them all out."
He singles out lock Brodie Retallick as an "outstanding player", saying "he'll be one of our stars", and although he believes "tried and trusted" players will make the cut, he worries about whether they can perform. "Richie [McCaw] and Dan [Carter] and all those, they'll be there, but just how they can play is another matter."
When Sir Colin played for the All Blacks, tours to the United Kingdom and South Africa were "always the highlight". "They only came around once every 10 years. It was a big thing to get on those trips."
