History buff Peter Johns recommends the experience of volunteering at Mōkau Museum.
Peter Johns, who takes care of a farm at Awakino, gets a lot of satisfaction from volunteering at the Mōkau Museum every Thursday, primarily because he enjoys the contact with the public.
In recent years, he and his wife lived in Western Australia where he held down a variety of jobs dealing with people face to face, including managing bars and providing security for Channel 7 in Perth.
But as a Taranaki boy, Peter chose to return to his home province following the death of his wife, to be closer to his two adult daughters who lived there.
“Australia is great, but I prefer green grass and windy roads because that is the environment I grew up in. I like to live in the country because there is too much noise for me in town.”
Peter, who made the All Blacks in 1968 and played alongside Colin Meads, also has a passion for history.
Having had a successful sporting career behind him, he said it was gratifying to find his name in sports articles within the museum’s collection of past King Country editions of the Taranaki Daily News.
“For me going through the files is just one of the perks of volunteering at the museum but the best part is meeting people who are so interested in what we have here.”
