Supplied
Garth Barfoot and wife Judy have swapped the large family home they built in the ’50s for a two-bedroom unit in a retirement village, but real estate king is as active as ever.
Super athlete Garth Barfoot turns 87 this month and has only ever owned one house – a clifftop Beach Haven property he and wife Judy built back in the ‘70s.
So it was serendipitous the couple had just moved into an apartment in a retirement village when the big storm hit Auckland on Anniversary Weekend, causing a slip to take out part of the driveway.
Garth, patriarch of Barfoot & Thompson, the family real estate firm founded by his father 100 years ago, says a plumber was fixing a leak at the house on the Friday the storm hit. “It had already started to rain hard when he left at half-past four, just before a slip came down and completely blocked the driveway.
Garth and Judy Barfoot built their clifftop family home in Beach Haven in the 1970s (the only one they ever owned), paying $12,000 for the 3035sqm site, and $30,000 for the build. A slip took out the driveway during the Anniversary Weekend storm.
“I then suffered the indignity of having a council inspector come through the house. He couldn’t find anything wrong, so it was white-stickered. But we haven’t sold as we are still waiting for a retaining wall to be built. Being in real estate, I see the positive – we lost some trees down the cliff and there’s now a much better view.”
In the meantime veteran triathlete Garth and Judy have settled into their sixth-floor unit at Ryman Healthcare’s Bert Sutcliffe Retirement Village in Birkenhead – so they haven’t moved far. And Garth says they are thriving: “It’s like living in Buckingham Palace. I get up in the morning and pull back the blinds, and there’s the gardener sweeping leaves off the path.”
Bert Sutcliffe sales advisor Leanne O’Meara holds the unique position of being the first person to sell a property to the man synonymous with real estate – Garth Barfoot.
The couple has moved from a four-bedroom family home on a huge 3035m² section to a two-bedroom apartment, and is gradually dealing with everything that comes with downsizing.
They say they seldom have people to stay, so their spare room is not being used as a guest room – it’s for bike storage, and the balcony is a great place for cleaning Garth’s running shoes.
But they have kept the large family dining table they have used for decades. And Garth says they appreciate the fact that the cost of their unit was half the RV of their house, although the market slump will have affected the house value.
“In business, we found old people, when they sold, would invariably spend the same amount on a smaller, but more luxurious and modern [retirement] home, but you don’t need to.”
The couple have routines that determine the shape of the day – a first for Garth: “When I was working, nobody could sack me for being late for work, or not turning up, or taking too many holidays. But now, I’ve got this New York marathon in November to train for.
‘Time trial up to the Birkenhead shops’
“I do a time trial every day up to the Birkenhead shops where I have coffee, so I’m always trying to get faster, to get my BSA – Best Since Accident.”
The accident Garth is referring to was a broken hip – he had his fourth hip replacement, following a fall, just four months ago.
Long-distance events are nothing new for the octogenarian, however. Despite the accident, Garth completed the Auckland Half Marathon in early April, and the Round the Bays race in March, using a crutch.
Both Garth and Judy first entered triathlons 30 years ago. Garth even completed the London Marathon last year at the age of 85, and in December, at 86, he entered what he thought was a sprint triathlon in Abu Dhabi, but it turned out to be an Olympic triathlon. “I started the swim and thought it was taking me ages. I thought they must have made a mistake. I eventually crawled out of the water and got on the bike and again thought ‘Gee they’ve made the course long’.”
Having trained for a sprint triathlon Garth did not finish the Olympic-length triathlon and was disqualified.
But he has many other wins to his credit, including a silver medal in the sprint. And Garth has completed the Kona World Championship Ironman in Hawaii. When he was 77 he was the ITU Long Distance World Champion for his age group.
Garth says he felt ‘a bit self-conscious’ in the village at first as all his clothes “had running numbers on them’” The crutches were not an issue though.
“I was walking around with two crutches which is not unusual because there are a few people with walkers and sticks. What was unusual was when I was trying to run with them!”
Now he manages with a single stick, but you get the feeling even that is likely to go before long.
Because he is so busy with his own training for New York, Garth says he doesn’t do any activities at the village. “But I do enjoy the general socialising. People talk to you in the car park and the lift – or I talk to them. But activities? They’re for the future.”
