'Noksee' reflects on a life of hard work, adventure, and mentorship - FCANZ

A long serving, and now retired, Board member for FCANZ, John Noakes (‘Noksee’) was the recipient of the inaugural FCANZ Legend Award at last year’s annual awards. The honour was a surprise that caught him off guard, but he was “stoked and very humbled”. He shares a yarn with Alice Scott …

They say variety is the spice of life and this could not be truer for John Noakes (or Noksee as he is known to most). An infectious laugh that lights up a room and a seemingly endless supply of positive energy, Noksee maintains people should do a job they enjoy. “When you’re doing something that gives you satisfaction, then you will be become very good at it,” he says.

Nearing the age of 70, the fencing contractor from Motueka reflects on a busy working life; up before the crack of dawn seven days a week, he thrives on getting stuck into a job – whatever that may be. “I was the eldest of six kids and I always seemed to have a strong work ethic. I was quite independent and very driven.”

He grew up on his family’s dairy farm at Pahiatua. He recalls always heading off on an adventure possuming and fishing. “As soon as I could walk, I was gone,” he laughs. He has memories driving tractors at around age eight and was tasked with building a permanent electric fence at the age of 11 or 12. In those days they made many of the fencing materials from scratch.

“We worked in a syndicate with our neighbours building fences and making hay.” He recalls helping pour concrete into moulds for posts and cutting and splitting totara trees with a black powder splitting gun, “they were very strong posts, some of them I am sure will still be standing today.”

As a teenager Noksee had a strong numbers mind. He can recall getting in trouble at school when there was a change to the way maths was taught, moving from arithmetic to algebra. “XYZ doesn’t add up to me, I would bypass all that fill-in-the-blank stuff and just come back with the answer, which didn’t impress the teachers much.”

He left school part way through his fifth form year (year 11) at the age of 15 and got a job working on a sheep and beef farm. “I did all sorts of work; fencing, crutching, woolpressing and rousying and I learnt to shear; I was always doing pranks in the shearing shed and would get chased out of the shed with a shearer hot on my tail!” he laughs.

He then worked in Eketahuna cutting tracks, fence lines and airstrips on a bulldozer as well as a wheel tractor doing ag work ploughing and discing. “The steeper it was the more interesting it got,” he says. Noksee worked big hours – usually around 110 machine hours in six days. “I didn’t need to operate on much sleep, back then I was usually running on
about four hours a night.”

He’s found he needs a bit more than that these days, but he still wakes for his day around 3.30am. “I try to go back to sleep but that’s it, once I am awake my brain starts turning and I need to get up.”

In his late teens and early 20s he worked in cartage, transporting stock around the lower North Island as well as bulk cartage from the rail head in Pahiatua.

A cheese factory was next. A six on, two off working week had him making cheese and also driving a milk tanker. On his days off he was never short of something to do; cheese deliveries, carting hay, working for farmers or helping a fencing contractor.

Dairy farming then beckoned and saw Noksee progress up the dairy ladder, starting on wages, moving into management roles and then sharemilking for a couple of years. “Then I did something really out of left field and bought a lunch bar at Warkworth.”

The lunch bar was early starts and early finishes so if he wasn’t preparing food in the afternoons, he was working for a small family abattoir. He was only a couple years into that business when he was approached to apply for a job working for former All Black Gary Knight on his dairy farm.

“What was just going to be nine months turned into three-and-a-half years”, recalls Noksee. He thoroughly enjoyed his time working for Gary and learnt a lot about business. “Gary had a very good business head and became quite a mentor to me in that respect.”

Dairying had him hooked this time and he spent more than a decade growing his holding with an equity partnership and then 50:50 sharemilking. It was also challenging times; he went through a marriage break up and “encountered a couple of ratbags” in his work, but he doesn’t dwell on these details for very long. “It is what it is, everything is a learning opportunity.”

Despite telling himself at the time of his breakup he “wouldn’t do that again”, fate had other plans. Two years later he met Carol on a blind date. “We’ve been married 29 years now; we are good friends; she is quite simply just a bloody great lady.”

Around the age of 50, when some are thinking about slowing down, Noksee decided he needed a change from dairying and made the move into fencing contracting. His work has seen him travel all over New Zealand and this writer needed to speed up when Noksee listed off what he has been kept busy with over the last two decades.

“Some stand out jobs have been down in Stewart Island, deer fencing to keep wild deer and other animals out; a dairy conversion over in Tasmania; and I have done a lot of work on the top of Takaka Hill and up the back of Nelson in the Grampians Reserve. I quite enjoy steep terrain; it gets a bit of adrenalin going and keeps you focussed on the job.”

He recalls putting in some house piles for a family that had lost their house to a fire.

“The family homeschooled their seven children and they were all involved in the job. They were very well-rounded kids that had an amazing ability to talk to adults.”

He also thrives in his involvement with the Best Practise Days and Field Days – helping out with the fencing competitions and networking with others.

“Those days stand out as I enjoy showcasing that side of the job. I am a people person, but I also find I need a

good week or so walking a fence line to recalibrate and find my rhythm again,” he laughs.

Noksee jokes he has a PHD in fencing. “It’s called Post Hole Digging. Which I have to say to council engineers from time to time when they’ve never worked on the coal face. It shuts them up and they’ll walk away shaking their head”.

Purchasing a Revolution Telescopic 180 post driver was a “game changer” for Noksee – requiring only one labour unit to operate both tractor and driver.

“And if I’m on a steep gradient, I can shift the weight very quickly.” Noksee laughs he probably does push the limits as to where he can get a post. “If someone starts questioning things, I tell them it must be time for them to go and have some lunch instead of worrying about what I am up to”.

He reckons it is a matter of gaining life experience and seeing a few mistakes to know the limits. “You can’t teach self-preservation, that comes with time on the job.”

Working on his own suits Noksee, he has a couple of other contractors he will call on if he needs a hand, and vice versa. Going solo allows him flexibility to see to his other roles he has within the fencing industry. He was a Board member of FCANZ for 12 years and has been heavily involved in training with other tertiary education providers.

“I will tell young men and women that are keen to give fencing a go the first thing they need to do is head to one of the major Field Days and watch the fencing competitions. They will get a very good understanding of the level of skill and workmanship required. They may not want to go that far themselves, but it sets a standard in their minds from the start.”

It is always very satisfying for him to see young fencers he has had a hand in training come through the ranks of the competitions and do well.

Noksee doesn’t see any reason to put the toolbelt down just yet, he continues to be involved in training and sometimes a client might need to wait the odd day or two if a hunting trip beckons.

The Whatever With Wiggy Charitable Trust runs the “Lean on a Gate and Talk to a Mate” mental health campaign, something FCANZ fully backs and promotes to its members. This awareness sparked a desire within Noksee to do his bit. He regularly takes groups to Stewart Island for an adventure trip, a trip which has been informally titled by some as ‘Noksee’s Scenic Safari Trips’.

“We go hunting, fishing, snorkelling and take photos – it’s just as much about health and wellbeing as it is about catching anything.” He will organise, host and cook for around 12 people. “They come from all walks of life: young, old, men and women. Some of them go home a different person – realising what they want from life.” It isn’t a money-making
exercise for Noksee. “I just love doing it”, he says.

Noksee’s advice for those entering the fencing industry is simple: “If you stuff up, fix it. It’s that simple. We are all human and we all make mistakes. No one likes going back to fix someone else’s job – it’s easier to just own it, go back and sort it out.”

Maintaining a positive perspective on life is also important. “You can’t control what life throws at you, but you can control how you handle it,” he says. “And if you don’t enjoy what you do, then go and do something else. You can do whatever you put your mind to.”

Written by Alice Scott