When do I stop the all-night partying?

Age wearies us when it comes to partying, but we still do it. Photo / Getty Images

Take inspiration from the past and those big-night-out memories.

All-night benders are easy to pull off in your late teens, early 20s, even pre-child 30s. They just happen. One minute you're heading round to a friend's place to watch the rugby, next thing the birds are singing, you don't know where you are and you've no way to get home. It's the greatest thing in the world.

As you get older responsibilities mount up. Work, family and self-respect creep into the mix. Before too long the all-night bender becomes impossible. A dream from a past life.

As a 19-year-old I could go hard any night I wanted and still turn up to work fresh as a daisy. Now a Saturday night doesn't completely clear till Monday or even Tuesday morning.

At what point in our lives do we have to admit that the all-night partying is over?

I say never.

It's no secret that time is working against us. The evidence is everywhere. One day Richie McCaw is on debut, seconds later he's retiring. Dan Vettori already has. The pace is relentless. Eventually all we have left are our memories. Then time takes those too. Before too long no one cares that we ever existed. You have to fight back while you can.

But how? Well you can start by honouring your misty water-coloured big-night-out memories. Take inspiration from the past.

There's a local midwinter tradition in Dunedin where students plug in multiple heaters from nearby flats. Soon the indoor temperature gets up to 40. Then it's dancing, grass skirts, kava-kava and half nudity till dawn.

After one of these tropical shindigs my mate Spooge and I were happily walking back to our flat across town. The sun was shining and people were going about their business. But something wasn't right. Strangers started staring at us. Mothers huddled their kids away. Pensioners ducked into shops as we passed. It was getting confusing, scary and a little bit embarrassing. Until finally I worked out what was going on.

My buddy Spooge was still completely nude from the party. A sensible option in the heat of the indoor tropics. A controversial move in the middle of a working day.

Suddenly a police car pulls over. There's nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Over the loudspeaker we hear, "Put some bloody pants on Spooge, you skinny-arsed fruit." Luckily the officer was a mate from school. He gave us a lift home. The perfect end to a truly great 24 hours out.

Sitting on the couch that afternoon Spooge and I made a pact. We would party every Friday and Saturday night forever. It wasn't to be.

Life's been really good to both of us. Nowadays we have great jobs and young families we love. Over the years our all-nighters happened less and less. Eventually not at all.

A story that will be familiar to a lot of you.

It's not good enough. Something has to change. I, for one, will not sit idly by and let classic Kiwi nights like mine and Spooge's become things of the past. They deserve to be honoured.

That's why we invented "The Legendary No Sleep Till Breakfast." It's a 24-hour on-air bender. Once a year the whole of my work goes hard from one Hauraki Breakfast show right through to the next.

We do it to raise awareness for benders. To show that even with jobs and commitments it's still possible to have the odd massive one. Most of all, we do it to give something back to a community that has given us so much. Just because Richie is retiring doesn't mean we have to.

Viva La Bender. No Sleep Till Breakfast!

You can listen to Matt Heath on the legendary No Sleep Till Breakfast on Thursday, August 20, on Radio Hauraki.