''Long sleep-ins and long weekends, all without loads of paperwork, marking and reports.''
The 65-year-old Otago Boys' High School graphics teacher is retiring at the end of this year after 32 years at the school and, once he has had time to relax, he plans to write a book about something close to his heart - a history of the school's rugby club.
Mr Panting came to teaching in 1981 when his former careers in architecture and carpentry were affected by the downturn in the building industry.
''I always had the thought of teaching as a career in the back of my mind, but I never had the opportunity to follow it through.
''The downturn was the catalyst,'' he said.
He started as a woodwork teacher and was later given the chance to put his skills as a draughtsman back into practice when he became a graphics teacher in the design department.
''I've stayed in the profession so long because I enjoyed seeing what students turn out like later in life, what careers they pursue ...''
Mr Panting said he had been at the school so long he was beginning to feel like part of the furniture.
''It's got to the stage where I'm teaching the sons of boys I taught when I first arrived - it's happening often enough to make me feel old,'' he said.
During the past three decades, he has taken great delight in coaching the 2nd XV for several years, running the Otago Boys' High School Rugby Club website and the school's main website.
Like most long-serving teachers, he said it would be difficult to cut himself completely free of the school.
So he planned to continue working on the school's websites for the foreseeable future.
He also hoped to write a detailed book about the history of the Otago Boys' High School Rugby Club, from research of school magazines, photos, newspaper reports and memories of those involved.
After that?
''I'm looking forward to relaxing and taking things as they come.''
• Otago Boys' High School English for Speakers of Other Languages teacher Denis Trainor will also retire at the end of this year after teaching at the school for 43 years. He did not wish to be interviewed.
