As he enjoys his retirement, he is going to have to break a long-time one — starting early.
"Hopefully, I can break the habit of waking up at five o’clock in the morning."
Mr Hayes left his Central Chambers office in Eden St for the last time yesterday after a 49-year career — 44 of those at his own firm — crunching numbers for clients around North Otago and beyond.
Originally from Ranfurly, the 67-year-old moved to Oamaru from Hawea with his parents in 1959.
He attended Waitaki Boys’ High School, where his interest in the profession was sparked.
"I had done accounting in all of my secondary school years. I had a teacher that sort of lit the candle on that. I enjoyed it."
He worked at an Oamaru-based firm for five years from 1970 before he started his own accountancy, tax and business advisory firm, Andrew P. Hayes Ltd, which opened its doors on December 3, 1975.
"I have always been a numbers man," he said.
"In this game that tends to help. I’ve also wanted to basically do a good job and again, in the accountancy aspect you need to do a good job because people rely on you and I think I’ve achieved that."
While technology had changed over the years, the final outcome had not.
"Looking after tax returns, knowing what clients are entitled to claim and what income they should return really hasn’t changed. How you get there and how you process it has."
As he headed into retirement, Mr Hayes planned to "go home and do the jobs that haven’t been done for 40 years" before thinking of anything else.
Overseas travel was on the cards, as was more time to focus on his role as conductor of the Oamaru Garrison Band, which he had been involved with for more than 50 years.
