Brian "Porky" Green has many hats in Hunterville, including that of Father Christmas. PHOTO/LIN FERGUSON
Brian "Porky" Green is an energetic, get-it-done Kiwi chap with a broad smile and twinkling blue eyes.
His rural home and small farm in Hunterville, named Greens Haven, is surrounded with arbors of roses, native bush, fruit trees and lilies. It is a lush, green haven.
Bleating constantly from a fence by the house is Lambikin who, though she's a big girl now, still cries for her bottle of milk.
Porky laughs and says she's an old goer and makes them laugh everyday. And sloping alongside Porky is old farm collie Max, who is still eager to work the minute Porky throws his jacket on even though they've left the big farm.
Though Porky has retired, his community of Hunterville and the local rugby club still mean the world to him and always will.
He's rugby mad and always has been, he says.
Wife Linda agrees. "That's right - it's rugby, rugby, rugby, wife, rugby ... has never changed."
Porky was one of 23 winners in the "local heroes" category during the 2017 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
He was born, raised and educated in Hunterville.
To him, Hunterville is the absolute "centre of the universe".
He is a life member of the Hunterville Rugby Club where he had started as a young lad, helping his father prepare the grounds and build the grandstand.
He headed off to Hunterville Primary School, which he reckons is the very best primary school in New Zealand.
"It really is. It has great community support and a fantastic principal in Stephen Lewis. My school days were some of the best days of my life."
He remembers having to head home from school, have a quick snack then off down to the cow shed to clean up the yard after milking. "You'd never think of missing or you'd get a size-10 boot up your bum."
All through his life Porky has played rugby, refereed, coached and has been president of the club.
And he never misses keeping the field in shape. He still takes his ride-on mower to the grounds from his home and licks the field into shape and marks out the lines.
Five years ago he was determined to get a shower block built at the grounds and decided it was high time Hunterville had a black-tie dinner as a fundraiser.
To that end he organised former All Blacks captains Colin Mead, Brian Lahore and Ian Kirkpatrick to speak at the dinner.
A huge marquee was set up at the Station Hotel and everyone came in their best bib and tucker. The 100-ticket dinner sold out instantly. It was good old "country cooking", he said, supplied by the hotel.
"It was a roaring success and we made $45,000 and up went the shower block. It was fantastic."
Local residents say Hunterville could have easily become a "ghost town" but it still stands proudly in Rangitikei. Porky Green is given a good deal of credit.
December is a busy month for Porky as he turns up at about five community Christmas events - one is even in Bulls, where he is Father Christmas.
"I've been Father Christmas for years. It's one of my favourite community jobs. I love it when the kids jump on your knee, stare hard into your eyes and tell you what they need for Christmas.
"Some of these latest computer things have me a bit confused but they know what they're talking about. So it's just up to me to tell them I'll do my very best for them and they're happy with that."
Porky has Father Christmas outfits laid out on a bed in a spare bedroom.
This Saturday he's the man in red for the local fire brigade.
He laughs that he decided to trick some of the school kids at Hunterville last year.
"A lot of them knew that I was Father Christmas, you see, so I decided to fool them.
"I got a friend of mine from Ohakea to stand in for me and it really did confuse them. It was great fun."
Porky is one of the organisers and a marshal at the annual Shepherds Schemozzle, and he never misses marching in the town's Anzac dawn parade.
"You can't really beat a small rural community. Helping is second nature. It's what we all do."