Later the family moved to Hawke’s Bay where he attended Hato Paora (St Paul’s) College in Feilding, finishing up in 2009.
From the school, he won a scholarship to learn to become a commercial fisherman and hence began his journey on the sea in 2010.
Wayne worked for Talley’s Fisheries, one of the “three goliaths in the industry”, alongside Sanfords and Sealords.
He said he would spend a lot of days catching orange roughy, a fish he described as uncommon and bland, a white flesh fish that the company would export internationally.
“You could inject it with whatever you want and call it a chicken nugget if you wanted to.”
His father moved to Kerikeri and the home became like a half-way-house for Wayne while he was living on the sea for a lot of the year.
Asked what commercial fishing life looked like he said, “a lot of ocean,” with a laugh.
“Also, going to sleep covered in scales.”
He said the boat would drop nets about seven times a day.
“It would take an hour for the net to get to the floor of the sea, an hour sitting on the floor, and an hour pulling it up.
“Then two and a half hours setting the net up to send it back down again.”
After having his first child with now wife, Rixx Thompson-Karauria, in 2012, Wayne thought nine months at sea commercial fishing was too long.
“I was walking down the dock one day and I saw the bosun (boat equipment officer) Sam Meldrun alongside the R. Tucker Thompson."
He asked Wayne what he was doing and if he wanted to go sailing.
“Three days later I had a new job.”
Other friends from Hato Paora who also received scholarships now say he’s “a pirate” on the R. Tucker Thompson.
Work with Talley’s Fisheries taught Wayne useful knots that have proved handy in his transition to the new vessel.
“It’s pretty straight forward — you’re just applying it to a bigger rig,” he said.
The R. Tucker Thompson has eight sails and apart from sailing into Gisborne on Tuesday, he said travelling the coast at speeds averaging 8 knots had been one of his highlights on the ship.
Having worked his way up to becoming one of the captains on the ship, Wayne now runs youth sailing training from Easter through to Labour Weekend. Young people go on week-long voyages where they learn self-motivating techniques and team-building exercises.
He wants to reach a decade of commitment to the programme before he can happily retire to a job on land.
“I’ve got a couple more years left in me. I’m trying to go for the ol’ decade thing with youth, and do my part for society and youth development.”
During the youth voyaging on the R. Tucker Thompson he spends two weeks at sea and one week off.
In the summer time, Wayne appreciates having four days on and three days off.
“I prefer day sails because I get to go home every night, see the kids (now Bentley, Tohu, and Ava), and have dinner with my wife.
“When I do the week-long voyages I miss home.”
Over his time teaching young people, he has had two ex-Hato Paora students come through the training.
He said the most rewarding thing about teaching youth was showing them “there’s more to life than a PS4, or their phones, or being stuck to the TV”.
He said it was good teaching students to learn to be comfortable “living life on the edge . . . seeing that there’s more to life and getting them out of their comfort zones and seeing the world from a different perspective.”
He said the coolest place he’s taken the R. Tucker Thompson is to Gisborne.
The Poor Knights Islands is another favourite stop of his, as one of the top ten diving destinations in the world.
He has dived there many times.
“The islands are only 12 miles from our coastline . . . nothing’s allowed to be touched there, you can only go for a look.”
He said inside the marine reserve there were a chain of islands that he also enjoyed visiting.
“There’s Aorangi and Tawhitirahi and on Aorangi there’s a cave called Rikoriko.”
He said Rikoriko was the biggest sea cave in the Southern Hemisphere.
“It’s massive. Apparently the Sydney Opera House has 13 echoes — you get 17 inside Rikoriko. The acoustics inside the cave are just nuts.”
Asked whether it was emotional sailing into Gisborne with the flotilla he said, “there was quite a bit of sand getting in the eyes eh. . .” with a laugh.
The ship was first launched on October 12 in 1985 and sleeps 16 people. During day transits it can take 47 passengers aboard.
