Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Sir Bob Jones, listen to this.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
My experience of life is this that we get ourselves
into all sorts of messes for good reasons.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Usually the common sense ultimately provails.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Should be allowed to drive?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Should what women be allowed to drive?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, it's actually a serious question.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Oh my gosh, I leave that. I'm trying to work
out who actually asked that question. I couldn't work out
Jeremy Wells, And Jeremy Wells asked him that. So it
wouldn't have been later there had been later in his
life that he said that. I mean, I would have
thought that was all right, not all right, never a
right to say that. But maybe when he was thirty
joining us now is somebody that had a lot to
do with Sir Bob Jones. Another successful Wellington property developer,
(00:56):
Ian Castle's.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Good morning in, good morning, Look how you're going?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good? Thank you?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Now you would have known this news was coming because
he's been unwell for a while.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I know for a fact that you were very close.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
To him, pretty close. Yeah, well, I've known him for
thirty years. I first met him, and he appeared to
me that first meeting is of ninety five percent tsunami
of thoughts and fantastic ideas and humor. But the amazing
thing is the five percent that I managed to get in.
(01:28):
And I think that's probably an exaggeration that he remembered
every bit of that, because you had a mind of
vice like mind, an incredible brain really and obviously quite
a unique individual.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
So yeah, everyone that I've spoken to has said, to
be a friend of Bob Jones, you have to have
a period of time where you've had a fight with him.
Did you ever have any fights for them?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I did it for the first twenty five years, probably,
but he got a bit and I sort of quite
respected that because I didn't really want to have one
and we didn't really get the one, but we sort
of got got post from time to time. But no,
I don't think that would necessarily be true.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Was he tough to do a deal with. I mean,
you've done deals with him?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Was he tough?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
No? No, I think we went out of our way
not to do a deal never, and I never did
a deal with I didn't want to get into that
level of complication. It was the one thing I didn't
want to do.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
But was he tough to do a deal with?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
You would nine You would have known people that have
tried to do a deal with, and people knew that
you were a mate, so they would have run you
and said, come on, he had helped me with us.
I'm trying to get this deal past, sir Bob, and
I just can't get anywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think if he thought the deal was going wrong,
he'd be pretty tough. But to start with, he could
be reasonably generous in this buying and the buying part
of the deal.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
What about the selling part of the deal? He didn't
sell anything? Did he sell anyth I know?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, he didn't believe in selling. I think selling was
the last thing in the world. I think it was
always a mark of idiocy if you saw out of
a change of a property because you bet all the
transaction fees and you missed out on the invitable upside.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Well, tell us a bit about his sense of humor.
I mean, he would have been a lot of fun.
I mean, I know that you used to meet in
the afternoon swe have a drink, like a little bit
of a.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Glass of wine.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I'd seen you a couple of times so I know
you knew that you'd had a bit of time with it.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, he could drink. I think he was a world
champion drinker. I think he would have got every single
record going like how he did it. I don't know,
I must have something to there was this constitution, like
you said, to start with. I thought he was on
his way out, but I suspect that he just might
get up and bounce out at Beting the old time,
because he's so tough, I mean fundamentally tough. Yeah, we
(03:50):
used to have long, long, long lunches and things that
went on par too long, and the other people recounting
stories are all pretty similar to that. But he was
he maintained a pretty strong ability to think and talk
and run those conversations for a very long period of time.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
When you first met him, you would have been starting
out in your ventures. Was he a helpful mate? Was
he trying to get you the deals? Was he trying
to look after you? Was he that sort of guy?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, totally, totally. If there was something that he was
he could help you with, he would. He had a
hidden bloody vane of goodness and boody and yes, camaraderie
and helpfulness and all those things. He was actually quite
He was quite a neck bloak. In many ways.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
He courted controversy. Did he ever discuss that with you?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I mean he did everything he could. I mean, I
spent earlier that he won an election for David LONGI.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Well courted controversy. He loved taking a view that he
knew would be offensive to some people, just for the
just to see how it worked out. And then he
would often come to a point where he would change
that view. Sometimes not often, but he would. He wasn't
like a biggot. He didn't just say stupid things for
(05:08):
the sake of it. He said it, I don't know,
for the amusement, the intellect of the sort of trying
things out, always prepared to think about something different.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
What what have he done if Carmen had become ver
or well?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I did.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
In those days, remember those days?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I do? I do? I do? I do? I do?
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I mean, everything he did we could almost laugh about,
can't we punching a reporter? I mean, you know, it's
like he's got this humorous vein that he can't get
rid of.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean sort of
sacrilegious was a sort of one of his personality traits.
Really was very good upsetting people. And then he'd say
things that you knew he didn't mean. He said I
could walk away from Wantington at any time.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
He said that quite often, didn't.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
He Yeah, he didn't really mean it. I mean he
said it that it was it was shocked value.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Really two quick questions to finish off with, what will
you most miss not having Sir Bob Jones in your life?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I don't know, a bit of a rock and a
way like, I think one of them will miss his
style and his presence enormously. I mean, he's he was
one of one of them's most entertaining and enjoyable and
challenging characters. And yeah, I think.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I tried several times to interview him, and obviously I wasn't.
If he wanted to be interviewed by me, he would
have been interviewed. But I obviously wasn't a person that
he wanted to be interviewed. But did he actually have
you spoken to him about the situation Wellington is in
at the moment with him lately? I mean I would
have That's what I wanted to know. I wanted to
know what did Bob Jones think of Wellington write out,
(07:10):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I think we're all confused about where Worlington's got to.
I don't know that he was need less confused than
the rest of us. It was. I mean, he was
quite a patriot in many ways, the way he wanted
to improve the streets and the way he ran his
own buildings. Sort of quite a proud property owner. I
(07:31):
think he was, as he was as disappointed and worried
as all of us in many ways.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
I in Castle thinks, I know you've popped out of
a meeting to have a chance to us this morning.
Really appreciate you taking the time, and I feel for
your loss. I know that you're probably making a little
bit light of it, but I know you had a
very good relationship with sub Bab and I know that
you'll be hurting right now, so I appreciate you taking
the time.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
To talk about it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yep, thanks mac Chea.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Let's see in Castle's the property another very successful character
property owner in Wellington.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
For more from Welling in Mornings with Nick Mills, listen
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