15-05-2025
Katikati gym trio, all 88, stay active with farm life connection
Morrissey is the elder of the clan, having celebrated his birthday first, in January.
He's been a regular at Katifit for eight years and works out at least three times a week. His daughter bought him a membership. Biking and rowing machines are his go-to machines.
'If I don't keep moving, I'll stop altogether,' he said. 'There's a few of us who come here at the same time, it's a social thing.'
Morrissey's background is in dairy farming and share milking. He's always enjoyed an active lifestyle, including years of basketball playing in various grades.
Morrissey pestered his mate Watson to join the gym as well.
Watson has diabetes and says regular cardio three times a week has helped to make a real difference to his test results.
He has been in the area since 1965, farming beef and sheep. He joined the gym about six years ago after some elbowing from Morrissey. Watson turned 88 over Easter.
Veteran number three is Alan McCaughan. He's just a few weeks younger than Morrissey.
He joined the gym soon after moving to Katikati nine years ago and goes three to five times per week.
McCaughan has a competitive streak, 'so anything I do, I want to do it right'.
'I'd never walked through the doors of a gym before. I thought I was starting to lose my upper body strength, so I asked them if they thought it would do me any good ... and I joined.'
Life on the farm was also McCaughan's prelude to an active senior life.
He and his late wife, Joy, worked on several different sheep and cattle farms before owning a 700-acre (283ha) Mangakino farm.
In his past, he's been involved in dog trials and equestrian endurance riding, winning gold in an endurance riding championship in Dubai.
'Endurance riding kept me fit as I trained and rode horses. All my jobs have been on the back of a horse since I was 15.'
McCaughan even wrote a book, Tonka the Red, about his farm hack horse, which went on to compete at world champion level.
Katifit has been operating for more than 20 years. Jenna and her husband, Andrew, purchased the gym in 2019.
