Seven years ago, Hallberg moved to Geraldine to retire, but a week later he wandered in to the Freshchoice supermarket and applied for a job.
Hallberg said he did not know what to do with all the free time, as there was only so much he could walk the dog.
He said he was an "active relaxer".
That active relaxing had seen him place first in his age group in the 2025 World Rowing Virtual Series.
In the overall category of men he ranked 77th, outpacing men more than half of his age.
The competition was a global challenge which allowed contenders to test their skills on an easily accessible indoor rowing machine (the Concept2 machine).
Taking place from June 1 to September 30, the competition featured four unique monthly challenges.
Hallberg competed in the series from the comfort of Four Peak Fitness.
He had "absolutely smashed" the first two challenges.
However, the last two challenges had been "particularly difficult".
The third challenge required participants to increase their stroke rate by three strokes every three minutes, but — like all of the challenges — it had gruelling penalties if precision was missed.
Along with the titles, he had many New Zealand records under his belt, including being the first Kiwi to deadlift more than 1000lb (he lifted 470kg or 1041lb).
He has also competed in duathlons, coming first in a New Zealand Masters Games and 25th at the World Triathlon Duathlon Championships in Edinburgh in 2010.
He has been indoor rowing since 2005. He holds five New Zealand age group records for the sport. He came third in the 500m at the 2024 World Indoor Rowing Champs.
He had been a pilot on a tandem for a vision impaired female Olympic hopeful rider trying for 2012 Olympics.
And those were only some of his achievements.
"I could go on for a while."
He said people did not realise with indoor rowing they could lose more calories than running.
His advice for anyone wanting to start rowing was to get the breathing and cadence right.
"Don’t go hard out."
He said 70% of the exercise was the legs.
"Before your legs lock out, pull."
Those pulls should be at chest height.
He was thankful for his wife Sue’s support.
"Sue has always given total support — whether it’s sport or work — which I’m thankful for."
He said keeping strong as he headed into his eighth decade, he had learned to eat everything in moderation.
Working in the produce aisle, he said his favourite vegetable was chocolate.
