Wayne Harman wanted to be a builder when he left school.

But the building industry was in a bit of a bad way when the time came. making it difficult to gain an apprenticeship.

This proved to be the catalyst for what has turned out to be a 51-year stint in the bakery business at Rangiora Bakery.

Wayne hung up his apron last week, retiring at age 65.

He is now looking forward to sleeping in, something he only did twice in his 51 years with the business. — rising at 3.30am and being hard at work by 4.30am.

" I finished just after 12 noon, and went home, had a bite to eat and an afternoon sleep,” he says.

In his younger days, however, an afternoon nap was not on the cards often. He had things to do, and places to go, he says.

He calculates he had about 11,000 early morning starts over the years he spent with Rangiora Bakery — first at its High Street shop, and then as it expanded at Aquilla Street.

Wayne’s baking career grew from an after school job at the bakery, greasing trays and loaf tins, and doing other odd jobs.

When the building industry seemed a distant dream, coincidently an advertisement appeared for an apprentice baker at the Rangiora Bakery and after chatting at home and with his boss — John Van Til  — he applied and his career in baking began.

Wayne worked mainly with pies and savouries, cooking meats, and piping the potato on pototo top pies.He had a stint at management, but preferred the “hands-on” work and returned to it.

When he first began there were only a few flavours of pies — steak and kidney, bacon and egg, mince, and potato top pies.

But the number of flavours grew,  and his knowledge of fillings grew with it. He was shown what to do by those who developed and tested them and carried on from there.

Rules and regulations grew with the industry, and the move to Aquilla Street to a larger premise which now exports a lot of products, particularly to Australia, meant a lot of changes for Wayne.

"I preferred the High Street site. You got to meet everybody, and you spent the whole day doing one thing, and got stuck in.

"But the business expanded, and moved forward. It is so much bigger, and now employs a lot more people.”

More people meant it was not quite as personal as in the smaller Rangiora premises.

Wayne says his farewell was “emotional”. and he would miss everyone.

His “boss” is now Ron van Til, John’s son, who Wayne says he did not see as often as his father, as he was more on the management side with a larger business to run, and exports to oversee.

Ron says Wayne, who began as the”tray boy’’ and carried on to become a senior baker, was the longest serving person on the team, and was a lovely bloke who will be missed.