"Grumpy Norm" Donald has been one of Wanaka's more colourful business characters for nearly 10 years.
But the 63-year-old fish and chip shop proprietor, real estate agent and property developer is calling time on his dreams of living out his days in a southern paradise.
He is returning home to familiar haunts at Lake Tararua, in the North Island, where he intends to work as a real estate agent.
Mr Donald has sold his Reece Cres fish and chip shop to Wanaka pie-maker Bernie Sugrue, handing over the key recently.
He hasn't quite worked out his departure date.
"I will just gather up my bits and pieces and melt into the void," Mr Donald said over coffee at his favourite cafe, Gusto.
For the record, Grumpy Norm has never been grumpy with this reporter.
He has always been pleasant, even when a combination of what he calls naivete and a desire to make a contribution to community affairs transpired to embarrass him thoroughly - and cost him one or two customers for a while.
That little to-do was early in 2003 when Mr Donald suggested setting up a brothel in his submissions on Wanaka's liquor trading hours.
Mr Donald laughs when it's mentioned.
"I did wonder if you would bring that up," he said, adding a brothel was never intended seriously and the subject was blown out of proportion during a media "feeding frenzy".
He acknowledges he was a bit offended when his graphic designer and marketing consultant first suggested he put Grumpy Norm on the logo for his shop, which many tout as the most expensive but best fish and chip shop in Wanaka.
"He said `Grumpy Norm. Would that offend you?'; I thought - I did feel a bit startled about it - but I thought about it and thought about it and thought, well, if that is how the young people perceive me . . ."
Mr Donald mused.
Now, Mr Donald receives many unsolicited welcomes from people he doesn't know.
"It did make a difference. Central Fish Ltd was so sterile. We needed it. Everyone recognises my face," he said.
Formerly from Auckland, Mr Donald lived at Lake Tararua for many years, where he at one time owned a farm, obtained a commercial helicopter pilot licence, got involved in the deer recovery business around Lake Rotorua and worked as a real estate salesman.
For several years in the early 1990s, he and his ex-wife also ran a pie cart in Wellington.
He arrived in Wanaka in 2001, completed his real estate licence exams and then founded Central Fish in 2002.
His marketing attempts struck gold, with five-star reviews about his fish and chips on websites, and Wanaka businesses agreeing to display his menus in hotel rooms and on shop counters.
About 60% of customers are already carrying a menu when they come to his shop, he said.
In 2005, Mr Donald's Nissan S-Cargo car made headlines when vandals targeted the large plastic fish, worth about $1200, that was mounted on the top.
It was never recovered, and Mr Donald believes it must still grace a student flat somewhere.
Mr Donald also made headlines in 2004 in a battle with bureaucracy over his 11-lot residential development at Luggate.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council granted consent before discovering the reticulated water supply was not available.
The council error and resulting negotiations caused a considerable setback to Mr Donald's plans.
The water was finally turned on, just in time for the overheated real estate market to freeze over.
Mr Donald's many section sale advertisements remained upbeat and optimistic but it took ages before the first one sold and building commenced.
Six sections remain for sale, including the one on which Mr Donald dreamed of building his own home.
Meanwhile, there have been many raised eyebrows over the price of his fish and chips.
It costs $25 for two fish and a scoop of chips. There are cheaper takeaways in town.
"People have said to me lots of times, `You are expensive', but I say if you want good food, it costs."
The best blue cod come from deep waters while the best chip potatoes were of a creamy flesh, making a yellow, tasty chip.
A single scoop of Grumpy Norm's chips cost $5.
"You could probably go to Dunedin and get a scoop of $1.50 but it will taste awful," he said.
Mr Donald is not willing to discuss how much dough he has done in business in Wanaka but admits he was warned at the start it would be hard.
Looking back, he would not have taken on so much space at Central Fish (160sq m), where he says he pays a monthly rental of $2700, and he could have chosen another, more central location with more people passing by.
But he doesn't think Wanaka is too hard, if you do your homework and have money.
"Wanaka is a destination people want to come to and has weathered the storm better than most ... Interestingly enough, the properties that are selling are at the high end of the market. Everything that is for $1 million plus sells well ...
"The reason why the market keeps barrelling along here - I heard someone made 26 sales last month - is people want to be here.
"But if you are thinking of coming here, thinking you are going to get a job, you need to be careful," he said.
There is just one tie left to bond him to Wanaka. Mr Donald's daughter Hayley still lives and works in the town.
But his son Cameron is in his final year at high school in Christchurch and his former partner lives near Akaroa.
In departing, he will only criticise the things he cannot control - the winter inversion layer of cloud and New Zealand's hard economic climate.
"I will be sad to leave Wanaka. When you get to 63, you are making these moves out of necessity, I suppose," he said.
