Kees Meeuws was our guest speaker today. Following on from Craig Radford’s Sergeant Session which concentrated on the misuse of certain words in the English language, Kees broke the ice by advising us of the new accepted word of “askhole” which is the name of a person who asks too many questions!

Kees told us he was the youngest of six and had a Maori mother and Dutch father. He told of his father being a hard worker who was not keen on spending money and he quipped that half of his background was to spend money and the other half to save it. He talked of his life starting by arriving in Dunedin as a 21 year old with three young children, to try and advance his rugby career after he found there were too many top props in the Auckland team.

After life as an All Black with 42 test caps, Kees and family spent time in France where he played rugby for two different clubs before moving to play rugby in Wales. He told us that in France his daughters were fluent French speakers before moving to Wales and when the daughters developed strong Welsh accents he decided it was time to come home to NZ.

Back in Dunedin Kees decided he needed other skills and took employment as an apprentice builder with Amalgamated Builders. He was approached by Otago Rugby who needed six weeks cover for a propping position. The six weeks he agreed to lasted three seasons, and Kees represented Otago 71 times. His three Otago highlights were playing in the last official game on Carisbrook, the first game at Forsyth Barr Stadium and being in a winning side over Auckland with the ODT pointing out that only he and Tony Brown had been born when Otago last won.

Kees decided that he needed more than building and after completing a degree in Applied Management was invited to try real estate as a career where he now loves helping others achieve their goals.Despite offers of very good money to coach overseas, Kees is very happy where he is and loves helping professional players plan and reintegrate with normal society after their rugby career.

After taking part in the challenge of the recent eight week TV3 Match Fit programme, Kees is back in the gym and running again.  Originally an Aucklander, Kees is now a proud Otago man (and recent grandfather) and I was privileged to hear his inspirational story.