After 32 years operating a garage in the small Waitaki Valley village of Duntroon, Mr Pickles and his wife Sonya this week handed over the keys to their mechanic, Jac Buckland, who has bought the business.
Yesterday, they held a barbecue at the garage for their much-loved community, which had continued to support them while they overcame their own road-blocks to keep the doors open.
A mechanic by trade, Mr Pickles was left a tetraplegic after a motorcycle accident in 2004 when he slipped a gear and flipped over the handlebars during an off-road trail bike ride.
Friends stepped in and completed the work that needed doing and the business then closed for seven years until 2011, when the couple were approached by a mechanic who asked if he could work there.
The doors reopened, much to the delight of the community. The garage has been a key part of the village for more than a century; part of the garage is believed to date back to the 1880s, when it was horse stables.
Yesterday, she quipped that she got signed off as a level 3 mechanic "just in time to leave".
Mr Pickles said it was a "major decision" to sell the garage and while he had not given too much thought to what he would do now, he was keen to visit the couple’s children.
His computer was staying in the garage office and he reckoned he would still be welcome to visit and help out "with the odd word of advice".
Meanwhile, Mrs Pickles was looking forward to having clean fingernails again and possibly getting back on her bicycle and getting fit.
Mr Buckland started working part-time at the garage in about 2011 and, about a year later, became an apprentice mechanic. After serving his time, he left but returned in June last year.
After going through the process of asking his own children if they wanted the garage — but they had their own lives — Mr Buckland was the obvious choice to take over, Mr Pickles said.
