The 61-year-old Kaikorai Valley College deputy principal tried to retire two years ago, and even had a major leaving function with gifts and speeches of praise for his work.
But unexpected changes in personnel at the time prompted him to stay on and support the school.
Now that everything was running like clockwork, it was the right time to retire, he said - for good this time.
And the best part was he would receive the benefits of another leaving function.
It was starting to feel like deja vu, he said.
Mr Downes is a former pupil of Kaikorai Valley High School, and apart from one year at teachers college and one year teaching at St Hilda's Collegiate, his 39-year career has been entirely focused on Kaikorai Valley College.
"My wife says it is my second home.
"I'm part of the furniture.
"In the early years when I was fully involved in sport at the school as well, at one stage it got to the ridiculous stage where I was spending up to 20 hours a week just on cricket, on top of teaching."
He started as an English, social studies and history teacher at Kaikorai Valley College.
But his passion lay in teaching social sciences, so when a job as head of the social sciences department at St Hilda's Collegiate came up in 2004, he took it.
A year later, the deputy principal's job came up at Kaikorai Valley College and he remembers thinking it was an opportunity that was too good to turn down.
Mr Downes said his retirement would "stick" this time, but he was not discounting the idea of doing part-time work somewhere in the education sector.
"Whether I will be out of education, I don't know. At this stage, I have no plans.
"I'll continue to take an interest in what's going on in education."
In the meantime, he was looking forward to doing "a lot of weeding" in his garden, returning to his favourite sporting activities and spending time with his new grandson.
