Legendary All Black Sir Wayne (Buck) Shelford visited Montecillo Veterans Home and Hospital in his capacity as national president of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association.
During his trip, Sir Wayne accepted a donation of $1000 on behalf of the veterans home from the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club Deep South chapter.
Chapter president Phil (Boot) Herriott, of Brockville, said the funds were a third of the money raised during their annual Anzac Day Ride of Respect, the remaining funds being shared equally between the West Otago RSA and the Milton Bruce RSA.
The tour of cenotaphs and war memorials in the region also included a remembrance service at the Outram War Memorial, where Reveille and Last Post were sounded, and a wreath and poppies were laid.
Members of the motorcycle club are all ex-military, including army, navy and air force members.
For some of the chapter members, Sir Wayne’s presence was a trip down memory lane.
Steve Chester entered the navy at the same time as Sir Wayne in 1974.
He was 17 at the time and joined the navy at Devonport in Auckland.
"I was a seaman — at that stage I was a seaman boy."
Sir Wayne also began in the navy as an ordinary seaman, Mr Chester said.
"He went on to obviously bigger and greater things."
Mr Chester had another notable sea mate, actor Mark Hadlow.
"He was in the same intake. Mark had the bunk above me."
Mr Hadlow joined the Royal New Zealand Navy Band as a trumpet player and the skipper wanted him to begin each morning with a bugle call.
One morning, his sea mates stole the reed out of his instrument and hid it.
"All hell broke loose" while the young sailors were tasked with finding the reed from Mr Hadlow’s instrument, Mr Chester said.
Club president Mr Herriott also had a common link with Sir Wayne, as both were navy gunners.
"But that is where the similarity ends.
"Buck played some awesome rugby at the highest level. I didn’t."
Sir Wayne has been national president of the RSA for close to two years, and one of the issues he is highlighting is the differing levels of benefits and support a veteran might receive.
"You’ve got level one veterans and level two veterans, and that is one of the things that we are trying to change," Sir Wayne said.
"We know that we didn’t go to war. I didn’t go but my son did.
"He is a veteran and he is level one, and I’m at level two, so all I get is ACC like every other New Zealander," he said.
However, those who did not go to war also trained in exactly the same way and could have ongoing issues specific to their time in service.
"We beat up our knees on ships and things like that, especially sailors, walking around and running around steel ships all the time, it’s not great for the knees."
There had been lots of accidents on ships, as well as in the army and air force, he said.
Another key issue for the RSA was addressing mental health for veterans.
"So many people came back from the First World War broken, really broken."
That was still a reality today, with some returning "still broken" from missions in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia, he said.
"There’s a lot more campaigns than what people realise."
