At the time, back in late 1984, Mr Morrison was a busy, globetrotting marine engineer, Scottish-born, who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1979.
Based in Auckland, he had travelled extensively throughout New Zealand as well as abroad and, after years at sea, was spending many hours sitting on planes, far from home.
After his chance visit to Waitati and a view over the attractive bay, he knew he’d found his new home.
"It was just, ‘this will do’.
"I’ve always loved the country. I grew up in the country."
By May the next year he had bought a house and moved in, having reorganised his job so he could work from the greater Dunedin area, and he’s been living in Waitati ever since.
"I’ve been here for 33 years now."
Professional people with strong Dunedin links, including some University of Otago staff, have also lived there over the years, and many people have enjoyed living in the country and finding sustainable ways of doing things.
"There’s a good sense of community," Mr Morrison says.
And you can still go to the movies on a Tuesday night, a tradition that has lasted for decades.
"The whole place is positive. It’s a positive place.
"It’s a special place. It’s peaceful, the peace and quiet, the scenery, just where I live.
"When houses come on the market, they don’t stay on the market."
One of the attractions about Waitati is that you are "in the country but you’re only 20 to 25 minutes away from the city if you need to be there".
"The fact is you’re far enough away from the city, but you’re also near enough."
Waitati has a primary school and its many facilities include a playcentre, a community hall, a fire station and a library. Its businesses include a shop, a garden centre and nursery, holiday accommodation and an art gallery.
At the Blueskin Nurseries and Cafe, the use of solar power is part of an environmentally friendly approach by the family-owned business.
One of the family owners, Clare Brown, also enjoys life in "a rural community close to a city" that is a "great place to bring up a family" and where people "respect the diversity" of others living there.
Since he’s been in Waitati, Mr Morrison has done a great deal more than just stand in his garden admiring the views.
He is chairman of the Waikouaiti Coast Community Board and over the years has been closely involved in several committees engaged in various community activities.
He also appreciates the strengthening of community assets and service infrastructure that has happened over the years, including the opening of a high-quality, modern library in 2013, which also has meeting facilities.
Through the community board, he is also keen to help make further improvements, including in relation to highway safety.
One concern is that when drivers try to turn right into Waitati from State Highway 1 they sometimes face fast-moving traffic, including large trucks, heading south on the highway.
He enjoys the way Waitati is now but still has a few more things to work on, such as trying to reduce the highway speed limit at that intersection.
Waitati
• Waitati is a small, vibrant community 20km north of Dunedin on Blueskin Bay, just over the hill from Port Chalmers.
• One local internet site describes Waitati as "a small community with a lot of oomph" and with a long history of "trying out alternatives and starting initiatives for sustainability and environmental awareness".
• It has a rich Maori and Pakeha history. Blueskin Bay was prized for centuries as a vital source of kai moana (food from the sea). Oven sites and isolated middens have been found at the "eroding edges of the Waitati floodplain", Blueskin Days (2007), a history of the area, points out.
• An amulet depicting a dancing figure was also found at Waitati and is now at the Otago Museum. Made from Nelson serpentine, it is thought to be "of Waitaha origin going back to about AD1150, the time when the Otago Coast was first settled" (Blueskin Days).
• Waitati’s population was 513, up from about 500, at the 2013 census and the Waikouaiti Coast Community Board Community Plan (2016-17) describes it as "the closest settlement to urban Dunedin", stretching round the south side of Blueskin Bay to Doctors Point.
• It includes Orokonui Ecosanctuary, which has the tallest tree in New Zealand (an Australian gum tree).
