After 30 years of driving truck and trailer units, Terry Hobart has his fair share of dodgy-driving anecdotes – including the time a car overtook him while sliding along on its roof.

“It was on the flying mile at Pahoia, coming up the hill I was doing about 40km/h and a car overtaking me must have caught my back trailer tyre and it flipped him. I looked in my mirror and saw him coming past me upside down.”

He retired three years ago at the age of 68, but still misses the job that took him all over the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Auckland.

“I loved it,” said Hobart. “Seventy hours a week on the chipliner. If you enjoy it, it’s not work.”

Working life

He started his working life as an electrician, but got his truck licence early. After a stint in well drilling and dairy transport, he headed to Australia to work for a mining company. Five years later, Hobart was back in New Zealand and behind the wheel at Taylor Bros. He began with local work before shifting to line haul.

Terry Hobart on his property at Matahui. Photos / Debbie Griffiths

“I was doing two rounds a day from the Mount to Auckland. There were no logbooks back then. Full bore at 5am, loaded with paving for Firth, unloaded before smoko, then back with Gib board. Kevin and Garry Taylor were great bosses. If you worked hard, you made good money.”

But the long hours took a toll.

“My daughter was about 2 when she found me home at 2am and started coming in to talk to me then. My wife only knew I’d been home if the dinner she made was gone. I realised it didn’t feel fair that they never saw me.”

Life-changing crash

So, he bought his own truck and trailer to work closer to home. A crash in 2012, though, changed everything.

“I was doing 80km/h over the Mamaku Ranges when a car coming toward me missed a turn in the road. The driver had glanced at his phone and went straight under the front of my truck.”

The driver survived, but the incident left Hobart devastated.

Terry Hobart on his property at Matahui. Photos / Debbie Griffiths

“I don’t blame him, it was a moment of inattention,” he said. “But the accident spoiled the happy, relaxed feeling I had while I was driving. When you start watching, it’s amazing how many motorists you see drifting across the centre line.”

Orchard work

Now 71, Hobart’s time is spent on his kiwifruit orchard at Matahui and still lending a hand with one of his 13 tractors. But nothing quite compares to the view he had from a truck cab 4m up.

“It was a good life. I wouldn’t change a thing.”