We are far from being bewildered, indignant village residents say

When Greerton Oaks resident Gwyneth Jones heard retirement villages described as "bewilderment villages" she was piqued.
Among others, she says TV1 Breakfast host Paul Henry is one of those who has made derogatory comments about the residents of retirement villages.
Her indignation was shared by fellow residents Norah Hobcroft and Bev Oliver.
"I've heard others make these comments too - and it isn't very nice - it's not like that at all," says Gwyneth.
All three live extremely full and active lives and could easily put younger people to shame with what they achieve.
Norah travelled extensively during her earlier life and has worked in Canada, England, Australia and China. She is now learning Maori.
Four years ago she decided she wanted to learn the language and has been going to classes at Te Wananga o Aotearoa twice a week ever since.
As a child her parents lived in the "back blocks" of the East Coast and she was correspondence schooled so had little contact with Maori children.
"I thought it was important to be able to speak one of New Zealand's official languages," she says. "I wanted to do it as it was something I wasn't able to do as a child."
Now she is able to greet people and hold brief conversations in Maori. "It's never too late to do these things," she says.
Her aim is to be able to converse freely.
"That would be an achievement I'd be happy with, but I'm not sure where else it might lead," says Norah who is 86 years old.
Norah is also a member of Tauranga Spinners and Weavers where she specialises in felting. She makes the felt she uses.
"You have to think about what you are going to do when you make the felt because felts all have different kinds of textures and fibres." she says.
Bev, 78, is also a resident at Greerton Oaks. Her nephew runs an orphanage in India's Orissa province and Bev has been a regular visitor for the past 10 years.
Many of the girls living at the orphanage have been saved from being killed as babies as they have been born after their mothers were raped. Spending an average of six weeks at the orphanage each visit, Bev teaches the girls knitting and other crafts.
"It helps keep them occupied. They do have chores, but they can get bored and naughty if they don't have enough to do. Some of them can sit and knit for hours," she says.
Bev has also taken it on herself to write to the orphanage once a week to keep in touch with the girls and also ensure her nephew is kept up to date with what is happening in New Zealand.
Despite health issues and the swollen legs she suffers each time she goes, Bev says she has no intention of giving up visiting the orphanage.
"My legs swell up and that's the hardest part. If they didn't do that it would be fine," she says.
"It can be quite dangerous and I've seen some ugly things, but it is wonderful to see what they are doing and I will keep going - it's been a great experience over the years and they love Auntie Bev."
Aside from her adventures on the sub continent, Bev is also involved in the much more sedate pastimes of quilting and tracing the ancestry of the Oliver-Davys families.
She has been working on the family tree, that she intends to publish shortly, for about 10 years.
"My great-great-grandmother was the first girl to land at Petone in 1840," she says. "The items that excite people are the little stories that have come out of it," she says. "I hope everyone finds it as exciting as I have."
Gwyneth, 74, already has two published social history books to her name, and is working on two more - all related to the coal industry in the Waikato.
Her second book - The End of an Era was given an official launch by the Waikato District Council back in April.
On the strength of her first book When Coal Was King the council gave her a grant to help with research for her second and also assisted her to find the money to have the book published.
While she can't put an accurate date on the completion of her third and fourth books, she is working on them concurrently. They will be called At The Coal Face and Rotowaro: Lake of Coal and will be about the Huntly and Rotowaro mines respectively.
"The next job is to head to Huntly to interview people - I am very mindful of the reducing number of people in the area who will remember the mines and the stories surrounding them."
Gwyneth's interest in the mines of the Waikato stems from a lack of recognition for the role the miners and the coal have made to the New Zealand economy.
Gwyneth's grandfather was a miner in the Waikato and she clearly remembers him sitting her on his knee and telling her about being in the Ralph's Mine, which ran under the Waikato River, and being able to hear the swishing of the barges above.
It was also the scene of one of the country's worst mining disasters when 43 were killed after an explosion in 1914. Although the research behind her books can be painstaking, there is always something to keep her going.
"You have got to follow up every little lead," she says. "Sometimes it turns up a lot of stuff, sometimes nothing - but it's a wonderful feeling when you discover something and it gives you the energy to go on and do something else."
It's the kind of attitude that ensures Gwyneth, Bev and Norah, and many like them, make retirement villages anything but the "bewilderment villages" some would have us believe.