Twelve years ago Elder Robati was given an ultimatum by his fiancée Heidi Phillips: “Come home or we’re done”.
Robati and Phillips are now married. But in 2014 he was working with an international security firm in Libya and was previously deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Robati had been working in security for eight years and served in the New Zealand Defence Force for 15 years before that.
He knew his return home was long overdue, but the challenge of going back to civilised life seemed like a mountain too high to climb.
"Where would I go? What would I transition into? That was the hardest thing,” he said.
His tough conversation with Phillips was the wake up call he needed. He returned home in 2014. Since then, the rush of being in a war zone has been replaced with the reward from helping people.
As well as being master of ceremonies, Robati, 54, is chair of Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels which provides an alternative to court for low level offenders, a marriage celebrant, and founder of the oxygen therapy business Health Reimagined.
He took over as MC of the Anzac service five years ago from former Christchurch Memorial RSA president Jim Lilley who died in July last year.
Robati was on the RSA executive board when Lilley asked him to take the Lyttelton service off his hands. Robati jumped at the opportunity.
“Being up there in that role it can get quite emotional thinking about people from the past, the ones you’ve served with, but more importantly, the ones that didn’t make it back,” Robati said.
"When I see the old veterans turn up, it’s about honouring and respecting what they stood for, the freedoms we’ve inherited today because of the sacrifices they’ve made.
"With my involvement, it’s a real honour and privilege to be able to do that.”
"Ever since I was a little boy, he was always saying: ‘Son, I want you to join the army’.
"That was always in the back of my mind so when it was time to leave school I just went straight into the military."
He was first based at Papakura Military Camp, before going to Linton, then Burnham, and finishing at Trentham where he helped train part-time soldiers.
Robati was deployed overseas on two peacekeeping missions to Bosnia in 1998 and East Timor in 2000. He was an infantry section commander during his East Timor tour and in charge of a 10-man squad.
"The biggest thing (was seeing) what wars can do, especially civilians and the impact it has on them,” he said.
"The way they’re living in those poverty-type environments, that’s when it really hits home, especially when you sit down and talk to them about the family members they have lost.
“I’ve been to most of those hostile environments and you think how lucky we are in New Zealand.”
He left the army and moved into international security in 2005. He was posted in Iraq until 2011 during the Iraq War.
He was part of a security team which received, protected and transported clients.
"Honestly you didn’t know if you were going to come back that evening. That’s how bad it was on the roads, you just rolled the dice,” he said.
Robati recalls a mission where they were transporting a client through a tunnel in 2006 when a planted improvised explosive device hit the security vehicle leading the convoy.
Three men were killed and one had severe shrapnel in his neck but survived. The convoy was made up of four vehicles – two security vehicles at the front and rear, flanking an armoured limousine with the client inside and an evacuation limousine directly behind it.
He and the client had to quickly move to the evacuation vehicle and push past the security vehicle which had been hit. They drove out of the tunnel with the other security vehicle at the rear to a safe haven not far away.
"Honestly, I shouldn’t be here,” he said.
"My mother (Kimiora) died when I was in Bosnia and I’ve always felt there’s someone looking over my shoulder, especially when I’m in those hostile environments. It’s got to be her.”
The highlight of his time in Iraq was when he got the opportunity to meet one of his idols, American actor, businessman, politician, and former professional bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the California governor at the time.
"It was just unbelievable. The amount of people that swarmed him was absolutely crazy, he’s got that aura about him.”
Robati only had time to say hello, get an autograph and shake Schwarzeneggers hand before another soldier pushed in to meet the iconic action movie star. Later on Robati worked in Afghanistan for a year and Libya for two years before coming home. He said those years were nothing compared to his stint in Iraq.
"Most guys like me either went back to the military or went back to similar-type roles with the police or with Fire and Emergency or at the Department of Corrections but I didn't want to do that,” he said.
"I thought I’d come back normal but you don’t come back normal from those sort of things. There is a lot of anxiety a little bit of depression,” he said.
"It sound strange but when you’re in those types of environments, that’s when you’re most alive, coming back to a nine to five job is not quite the same.
"But what helped me was serving others.”
He became a justice of the peace, joined the Te Pae Oranga, which he is now chair of, and became a Noble Friends mentor for military veterans returning from duty.
He founded his business Health Reimagined in 2022, which offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy to increase oxygen levels to stimulate cell growth.
It is a form of physical therapy recommended to him by a friend after he ruptured his Achilles at the gym in 2019.
"The benefits that I got from that, not only physically but mentally, was just unbelievable.”
He purchased a hyperbaric chamber from Wellington, became certified in hyperbaric oxygen medicine and opened his own practice.
Robati feels privileged to be able to help fellow former soldiers, as well as people with a range of neurological disorders.
He operates out of the bottom story of his Kennedy Bush home where he lives with his wife and 10-year-old daughter Sade.
He is proud of the way he has adapted to life after the military and said it would not have been possible without Phillips.
He also has a 31-year-old Wellington-based daughter called Evie, whose childhood he missed due to his military commitments.
“I didn't realise all the things that I missed out on the first time so I'm quite blessed that I get a second chance,” he said.
Services on Saturday
- Heathcote: War Memorial (Martindale-Bridal Path-Flavell), 6.15am
- Harewood: Harewood War Memorial, 721 Harewood Rd, 7.00am
- Cashmere: 19th Battalion and Armoured Regiment Memorial Victoria Park, 8.00am
- Riccarton: 20th Battalion Association, Jane Deans Close, 9.00am
- Hornby: Hornby War Memorial, Hornby Primary School Ground, 190 Waterloo Rd, 9.00am
- Halswell: War Memorial/Domain, 9.00am
- Little River: Community Hall, 9.30am
- Waltham: Waltham Park Memorial Gates, 9.30am
- Ilam: University of Canterbury, Matariki Quad, 20 Kirkwood Ave, 10.00am
- New Brighton: Cenotaph, Marine Parade, 10.00am
- Lyttelton: War Memorial, Albion Square, 10.00am
- Diamond Harbour: War Memorial Hall, 10.30am
- Templeton: Templeton RSA, Banks Street, 11.00am
- Aranui: St Ambrose Church, 11.00am
- Sumner: RSA Memorial Gates, 11.00am
- Akaroa: War Memorial, 11.30am
- Wigram: Airforce Museum, 45 Harvard Avenue, 12.00pm
- Belfast: War Memorial, Sheldon Park, 8.30am
- Papanui: Papanui Club, 310 Sawyers Arms Road, 10am
