Our People: Peggy Powell

You can, Peggy Powell asserts, do a lot in 90 years. She would say that, wouldn't she?

This remarkable woman's canoed down the Amazon, sailed to the Galapagos Islands, tramped through the Himalayan foothills, visited headhunters in Borneo, helped with silk weaving in Thailand, researched turtles off Australia's northern coast and sailed to the Antarctic on a Russian research vessel . . . all long after she turned fifty.

Well before that she'd built a yacht, tramped thousands of kilometres, taught swimming for 25 years, learned to abseil "in later life", been roped into a Waikato University Motu River whitebait study because of her own whitebaiting skills"Charlie [her late husband] and I once caught 57 pounds (25+kgs) in a day", been involved in gymnastics, rugby, hockey, sailing, philatterly and run Kiwi Weight Watchers at Lynmore School.

In her 70's she went kiwifruit picking, working double shifts. Birthdays are marked by doing something out of the norm, including canoeing down the Motu and kayaking the Whanganui River, the latter at 80.

Add in the 33 years she spent at Omaio as the isolated east coast's only "go to" medic and, yes, Peggy's right; one heck of a lot can be fitted into just on nine decades.

Omaio was where she and Charlie had "retired" (ha ha to that, we say) from his Rotorua plastering business and, with the nearest doctor many kilometres away, Peggy became his backstop. The appointment was logical. For years she'd been one of Rotorua Hospital's most senior nurses, based in the ICU and CCU units.

Qualified as she was in these specialist fields she lacked maternity qualifications, necessary for such a remote posting.

Unfazed by what some would see as a hierarchal demotion, Peggy signed on as a student at then Edward Guy wing.

We speak from personal experience here: when things went wrong, as they tend to do in maternity wards, it was "student" Peggy Powell who was whistled up to administer the, at times, lifesaving care needed.

The Powells didn't arrive in Omaio as strangers. Charlie grew up in the area and the family had holidayed there for years, before buying the sea-front section that became their home.

With the region's rocky cliff faces Peggy's abseiling abilities, learned as a member of the Whakatane Tramping Club, were as essential as a thermometer to her medical kit.

"When guys fell onto the rocks below I had to get the before the tide did, that was before rescue helicopters, they're marvellous things."

Saving lives, delivering new ones and Peggy's part time work at Opotiki Hospital apart, the Powell's became core members of the coast's far-flung community. "We played 500 [cards] five nights a week, going from marae to marae and there was all the wonderful fishing."

After a leg amputation confined Charlie to a wheelchair, naturally Peggy became his caregiver.

It was during her annual 30 days respite that she began her international adventuring. "I'd always wanted to see how others lived."

She's always been one for bold endeavours. Leaving school at 15 "I thought there was more to life than school", she headed for Wellington and the Great New Zealand Centennial Exhibition.

Not knowing a soul she spotted a railway station billboard for the YWCA hostel; she moved in and went waitressing at the wharf's Brown Owl Tearoooms. "I was told to fill the salt and pepper shakers but didn't put the screw tops on properly and there was a hell of an uproar from the Wharfies ... I went home without getting paid."

A central city silver service restaurant followed.

"When I was there I got really angry because my mother had Social Welfare check on me."

The early war years took her to the Eveready Battery factory but nursing was Peggy's aim. From the Pukeroa "San" for TB patients, she moved to hospitals in Waipukurau and Whangarei.

At 17, but still too young to officially begin her training "up north", Rotorua Hospital accepted her "because I had a lot of experience".

At 21 she became a theatre nurse at Hamilton's Braemar Hospital. Wasn't that very young? "Yeah, but they were short." . . . exactly the sort of response we'd come to expect from this straight shooter.

But her heart remained in Rotorua. While living in the nurses' home she'd met Charlie Powell, a plasterer working on its now-demolished replacement.

Three children followed their marriage, each inheriting her adventurous gene.

When they became teenagers Peggy returned to nursing. It's a career that's rewarded her with a Queen Service Medal. More precisely, it's a double whammy of an award, its citation applauding her services to nursing and swimming.

But back to Peggy Powell, the intrepid explorer. To do justice to her exploits in such untamed corners of the world we'd need a compendium of National Geographics so that story's for another day.

Ever the pragmatist Peggy accepts that her nearly nonagenarian status has rudely robbed her of two unfulfilled ambitions: "I never did get to see the animal migration across Africa or Alaska's inside passage but I accept I've had a very good life."

Peggy Powell

Born: New Plymouth, 1924

Education: Oakura Primary, Whangarei Girls' High, Rotorua Hospital (for nursing training)

Family: Daughter Lynne Harre, son-in-law Steve (Our People, September 22, 2012), sons Ross and Larry (all in Rotorua), six grandchildren, "a few" great grandchildren

Interests: Family, travel and other peoples' cultures, fishing, whitebaiting, gardening, craft work, reading "I'm inspired by the written word."

Royal recognition: Queen's Service Medal for contribution to nursing and swimming

On nursing today: "I think they've got far too much bookwork but they're a lot more highly skilled than we were."

Favourite place visited: Ayres Rock "It's far more spiritual than the Taj Mahal"

Personal philosophy: "Make the most of each day."