FEATURE CAREERS AND TRAINING
Hard work pays off after switch to fencing Kia ora, I’m Harrison Waara, a foreman for CPC Fencing. I grew up in the city of Auckland where at the start of my high school years I moved to Whangarei. I completed high school at Tikipunga High School with all my qualifications, having the world at my feet. The next step was University where I would go to study a Bachelor in Health Science to pursue Radiography.
FEATURE
After a year it didn’t feel right – partying, late nights and women – so I took a year off to get some work experience constructing rock walls at the Whangarei Quarry Gardens. I got to learn how to cut rocks, stack rocks and learn every rock had a special place, with every rock having its own unique size and shape. I had the privilege of meeting a lot of elderly volunteers and learnt a lot of life lessons from which I carry to this day. Their life stories and journeys consisted of a lot of changes and surprises and became the reason why they help the community, to hopefully one day inspire others to do the same. Ending up back in Auckland after what had been a good life lesson, I found myself being a Dad just after my 21st birthday. This meant my journey in life would take another change, I found my passion as a Dad and began working in Aquaculture.
Working at Future Cuisine in West Auckland, you had a day to learn to shuck a mussel in under 5 seconds, or else you were sent down the road to find another place to work. There were a lot of different people from all over the world, who just enjoyed shucking, but I needed more. Within a month I was running dispatch and international orders to China and Singapore, working big, long days, but I lost sight of what I had at home. This made me have to grow up fast, as a solo Dad to my son who was 1 at the time. My son and I headed back up to Whangarei, where I had support from family and friends. I furthered my knowledge in Aquaculture working with farming Paua. It was an experience which helped shape my perspective on my love for the ocean. I also found myself taking on the challenge on helping unionise the company, where workers who would work long days were being under paid and had no voice to stand up for themselves. I became their voice and within a year had a skills matrix set up, where pay rises were more rewarding. For employees who hadn’t seen a pay rise in 5+ years, they could finally be happy and feel appreciated. During my time there, I found myself at a concert (Six60) where I met my now partner who was a solo mother of two kids. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was getting back into playing rugby and having a 4 year old son who never really got a chance of having a mother figure around, it was a perfect fit. I was in a place in life where I was happy, my son was happy and we were happy to try blend our families together.
I found myself during the Christmas holidays in 2018 talking to friends and family about a new venture, something close to where I was living. I got asked to jump in the truck, I was driven down to the CPC Fencing yard where the boss asked “Do you know how to fence?” I replied “No”. Then, “Do you want a job?” I replied “Yes”. Then was asked “Do you want a beer?“ From there we got talking just about life, and the following day I handed in my notice to the Paua farm and have never looked back. Not knowing what I just signed up for, I knew I had to do it for my kids, my partner and my family.
We lived in different towns and I worked 40 minutes from where I was living, so to get to spend time together was a strain and about a 3 hour round trip. The next step was to get a place together. I would commute from where we lived to get to the Paua farm. This was still taxing so I started looking for another job and another challenge.
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ISSUE 64 / MARCH 2022
WIRED MAGAZINE
