"It was a lot harder than I thought, getting up every morning and just doing nothing."
So he moved home to Ongaonga, where he lives with his daughter Margaret.
Immediately he made himself busy building fences.
Staying fit is one-half of his recipe for a long and healthy life.
"I've always liked to be fit.
"If you're fit everything is just a breeze.
"But for whatever reason you become unfit, it's a bit of a struggle."
Touching his toes is a daily regime.
He does it sitting on the ground "so you don't get any help from gravity".
His high standard of fitness meant he enjoyed basic training when conscripted into the army in World War II.
Already handy with a gun, he was held back to train new recruits as an NCO.
But Les had other ideas, volunteering for a commando unit.
"I volunteered because they were going overseas, but it was only to Australia."
The commando unit was disbanded so he trained in tank warfare at Waiouru. But as the Japanese threat increased, the tank unit was also disbanded.
As a gunnery sergeant, he was posted to an uninhabited Pacific Island near the Solomons, where he refuelled and loaded bombs on to United States planes.
He never saw combat and says warfare is not conducive to his second ingredient to a long and healthy life.
"Peace and quiet, I suppose, is how I got as old as I am."
Born in Ōpōtiki in 1918 to farming parents still clearing bush, Les rode to school on horseback before leaving aged 14, to go shepherding.
It was the start of a long farming career and interest in dog trialling.
Farms he worked on included Turihaua, Huiarua, Tauwhareparae, Parapatu, before moving to Ruatoria to start an agricultural contracting business with brothers Dave and Stuart.
Les met his wife Kuini Poutu at Hicks Bay and together they managed farms including Tinui and Otoro Stations, while raising eight children.
Kuini died in 1995 and today there are 31 grandchildren, 46 great-grandchildren and just recently the first great-great-grandchild was born.
Les says his best memories are times spent with family, but he does have one regret - not learning to use a smartphone.
"I must have been getting a bit old then, because I said 'I won't be here, so what's the point'.
"And of course I made a mistake then, because I'm still here and quite illiterate on all that stuff.
"But I'm lucky I've had people around me that know how to.
"I can't even get money now, I can't even write out a cheque.
"I can't do anything.
"I'm lucky because my daughter has done all this for me.
"If it wasn't for her I couldn't get any money, I couldn't pay anything."
While changing times have sometimes been a struggle, he has finally picked up an elusive new skill.
"I can get up and do nothing," he says.
