GOOD SORTS: Anne and Bill Perry are the winners of the 2016 Hawke's Bay Today Person of the Year. PHOTO PAUL TAYLOR
Bill and Anne Perry, the saviours of the Waipatiki Beach Holiday Park, have been named as the 2016 Hawke's Bay Today Person of the Year.
While the title is singular, the importance of what they had done in ensuring the prime slice of beachfront land remained available for the public to enjoy, was summed up by one of the nominees.
Mandy Pentecost wrote "I nominate Bill Perry and his wife Anne (if I can get two for the price of one)."
She went on to say the award would be well earned "for foregoing several million dollars to ensure the Waipatiki Beach campground forever remains a place families can enjoy the beach and bush of Waipatiki.
"Bill is an unassuming and humble man who has put the interests of the community ahead of his own pockets."
That view was echoed by several texts to Hawkes' Bay Today since the news the Perrys had sealed a deal with the Napier, Hastings and Hawke's Bay Regional councils to see it stay in public hands.
"Yes, the Perry family can't be thanked enough for their selfless securing of the Waipatiki camp by selling it to the councils and not being lured by big money. Good human values!" one wrote.
The couple made the final eight nominees for the award and Hawke's Bay Today editor Andrew Austin said it was important for the newspaper to recognise people doing great things in and for the community.
"We have some incredible people doing some incredible things in our midst," he said.
"It was a total surprise," Mrs Perry said of hearing they had been declared the winner.
"We're not the sort of people who go for awards and recognition - we just do our own thing."
Being recognised however was "nice" she added.
Mr Perry said after getting the call to say they had won he was "just blown away".
He echoed his wife's sentiments that they were not recognition seekers but was honoured and humbled by it.
He was more comfortable with it being recognition for the camp he and his wife had toiled for years to develop and then run for about 20 years.
They have long held the philosophy that such seafront places should be accessible and available for the public and took that stance after being approached on several occasion by developers to sell the holiday park.
The offers were in the multiple millions.
But Mr Perry said Waipatiki would always be their home, as it had been since he was a teenager growing up there and working on his grandfather's farm, and he was not
prepared to see a good slice of it carved up for private ownership.
He said it had been a long journey setting up the holiday park to begin with, and the eventual deal with the councils to have it retained was a reversal of how things were in the beginning.
"I didn't realise how many hurdles there would be to finally get initial planning permission from the councils then - it took about 12 years."
He said in 1976 he dealt with the Hawke's Bay County Council and said all the councillors were farmers and their opinion was that all that was needed at Waipatiki was sheep and cattle farming.
"They didn't want to know."
Eventually they got the go-ahead to create the park.
Mr Perry believed the surge in the tourism industry and its importance to the regional and national economy had since turned the view of councils around, although it became another long and drawn-out process to strike the right deal with them to purchase it - with each eventually putting forward $300,000.
"But hey, we achieved our objective," he said, adding he received good support from people like former Napier MP Chris Tremain and Hastings District Councillor Tania Kerr in getting all the ends tied up.
Napier Mayor Bill Dalton and Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule both paid tribute to Bill and Anne.
"They could have done anything with it but they chose to ensure it stayed in public hands," Mr Dalton said.
"It is such a great asset for Hawke's Bay."
Mr Dalton said Napier effectively had no part of it in terms of collecting rates as it came under the Hastings District and regional councils but so many Napier people had been there and would continue to go there it needed to be retained.
"They left the value side of it on the table," Mr Yule said.
"They did this for the community and that is fantastic - it will be kept in public ownership.
Mr Perry said Waipatiki was a very special place for him and his wife, and they continue to live there.
"I think it was my destiny," he said of getting the public holiday park established, and now safe.
Now 72 he said he was used to things taking time, and had another "long term idea" he was going to pursue.
"A cycleway link between Waipatiki and Tutira," he said.
"I don't know how I'm going to get there but I like to set an objective and then get up and get on with it."