Mount Maunganui's Jimmy Wells had been the oldest surviving lifeguard from the 1950 Ranui tragedy. Photo / File
Mount Maunganui's Jimmy Wells had been the oldest surviving lifeguard from the 1950 Ranui tragedy. Photo / File
Tauranga's oldest surviving lifeguard from the 1950 Ranui tragedy has died.
Jim Wells was a 24-year-old butcher and volunteer lifeguard at the time of Tauranga's worst maritime disaster - one of the worst in New Zealand in the last century.
The 13m kauri launch was returning to Tauranga with aparty of campers and fishermen from Mayor Island when a freak wave smashed into the boat, overturning it near North Rock on December 28, 71 years ago.
Nineteen holidaymakers and three crew drowned; only one person on board survived.
The memory of that day was one that always "upset" Wells, or "Jimmy" as he was known, his widow Mavis told the Bay of Plenty Times this week.
The 95-year-old died suddenly on January 5. He had lived in Mount Maunganui for 88 years of his life.
Mavis said she hoped his memory would live on with those who he chatted to on his daily scooter rides around Mount Maunganui and those he snuck free luncheon or saveloys to as children back in the 1960s at the local butcher.
Wells was born in Whitianga on January 1, 1926, one of five children.
His father, Archie, was a commercial fisherman and the family moved to Mount Maunganui in 1933 for the children's schooling.
Mount Maunganui's Jimmy Wells had been the oldest surviving lifeguard from the 1950 Ranui tragedy. Photo / File
They travelled to the Mount on Archie's fishing boat, arriving in Pilot Bay and making the short walk to their new home in Grace Ave.
The siblings joined the surf club as nippers, with Wells taking patrols as a junior when the seniors went off to war in 1939.
Back then there were no IRBs - just paddleboards - and the clubhouse was a prefab hut.
Wells' brother Stuart, a bomber pilot, was killed in north Germany in 1942, aged 21. Wells Ave in Mount Maunganui was named after him.
Wells stayed as a club member at the surf club until 1955, when he bought his own butchery business.
Mount lifeguards in the mid-40s. Left to right are Jim Raymond, Graham Clarke, Reg Wells, Jock Carson, Les Malpas, Tom Magee, Joe Raymond, and Jim Wells. Photo / Supplied
His love for butchery also landed him the love of his life, Mavis.
The pair would have been married for 70 years this year after meeting as teenagers at a butchery owned by her uncle.
She had asked to learn how to make sausages and was led to the back of the shop where Wells was rolling the meat.
Asked if it was love at first sight, she laughed and said: "I suppose so."
The couple went on to build a home together, own a butchery on the Mount's main street for 30 years and have two daughters.
Wells became an icon for his top-quality sausages, with customers going out their way to stop by.
Mavis joked he was "born with a fishing line in his hand" as when he wasn't rolling sausage meat, he was out on the water.
Jimmy and Mavis Wells back in 2019. Photo / File
Wells did not slow down in retirement. He and Mavis took annual months-long campervan trips that included tramping, fishing and hunting in secret spots around the South Island.
The pair would walk up Mauao every day for 20 years. Once his legs tired, he invested in a mobility scooter that he would take around the base track and up the 4WD track.
His daughter Lynda described him as a "patient" man with a brilliant sense of humour who always had a smile on his face.
Mavis said Mount Maunganui, the place he had almost always lived in and loved, was "his playground".
His daily routine, even through lockdown, would always include a scooter ride on the Main Beach boardwalk down to the cenotaph where his brother's memorial lay.
On his rides, he would chat to people serving coffee, picking up rubbish or even just walking alongside him. He "loved people" and was always good at chatting.
People would recognise him on their daily walks with his camo hat and fluorescent flag.
Jim Wells rode his scooter down the Mount Main Beach boardwalk every day. Photo / Supplied
When he got home, Mavis would make him his lunch and he would sit down with his glass of beer, which he would say was "medicinal".
The day before he died, he was able to do all of those things he loved in good health.
Mavis said the only joy she had from her beloved husband's death was that he had gone the way he had wanted to: suddenly.
His ashes sit in the pair's home with a view of Mauao and Pilot Bay, in a chair where he would watch the weather, boats and tides.
