Father's Day: 'I couldn't have asked for better dad'

040914bf1 Fathers Day feature. 4 September 2014 Rotorua Daily Post Photograph by Ben Fraser

It's Father's Day tomorrow and a day to celebrate what people love about their dads. Reporter Adriana Weber speaks to locals who will be celebrating.

For Rotorua's Tracey Flay, Father's Day is about celebrating the man who raised her as his own.

Shortly before Miss Flay and her twin sister Katrina were born, their biological father died at the age of 19. His death left their mother a solo parent, like the more than 4970 solo parents living in the Rotorua district.

But life changed when stepfather Gavin Bird came into their lives and took her and her sister in, at 10 months old. He helped raise the two of them, along with his biological daughter Jo-Anne Bird, as one close family.

She's been thankful for it ever since.

"I couldn't have asked for a better dad to raise me. He's a wonderful dad and we're had a very privileged life, and that's all thanks to him."

Miss Flay said her father took her and her siblings on family holidays overseas, including a trip to Hawaii and the United States on her 18th birthday, and paid for them to get into good schools.

Her childhood was filled with fond memories, laughter and happiness, she said.
Raising her and her twin, along with his own daughter, couldn't have been an easy task for him to do, Miss Flay said.

"I think it's a huge ask for someone to raise a child who is not their own. Men who do that, I think, have such big hearts. Hearts that are twice as big as some of the biological fathers out there."

Miss Flay said Father's Day was an important day in the calendar for her family, and was a time where they recognised the positive contribution her father had had on their lives.

"For us Father's Day is about thanking him, and all the other stepfathers out there who have raised other people's children. It takes a special man to do that, so thank you."

Rotorua Parents Centre president Jo McQueen-Watton said Father's Day was not just about celebrating fathers but all male role models in people's lives.

"We always encourage any male role model, whether that's a stepfather, biological father, grandfather or uncle or whoever, to come [to the parents centre]." Having a male role model was hugely important and was something to be celebrated, she said.