Retiring to a vineyard
The Grange frees you up to do the things you want to do
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24 June 2022
Stories
| Retirement Living
The Grange frees you up to do the things you want to do
It took a restart on retirement plans for Ken and Peta Larkin to truly feel at home. “We initially retired in Hay, but we felt a little out of place in a small country town,” said Ken.
The couple had lived in Wagga Wagga for six years back in the 90s. “We had loved it then, and we finally made up our mind that it was the place we wanted to settle in and retire to.”
That was six years ago, and since then the active pair have immersed themselves in retirement community life at The Grange retirement village and the greater bustle of Wagga.
The Larkins, married for 46 years, had a few preferences to tick off their list when considering The Grange as their retirement home. They wanted a two-to-three bedroom, low maintenance house… somewhere they could enjoy the company of other people.
“We still wanted to be able to go off and do the things that we wanted to do without having the burden of maintaining the home and doing the lawns,” said Ken.
This was part of the appeal of The Grange with its vibrant community, easy living, and the added bonus of a vineyard.
“The Grange is an engaged community full of people from mixed backgrounds, experiences, employment and life. In that community you can do as much as you like or as little as you like. People make those choices according to what they want to do.”
“I’m a little bit more involved. I’m the treasurer of our winery - we make our own wine here - and I’m also deputy chair of the Residents’ Committee,” said Ken.
Ken and his fellow wine afficionados have been working alongside Charles Sturt University over the last two years to grow a better vintage and harvest better quality grapes.
“We’re making good progress with that. It’s very good wine. We have now moved into Rosé, and we had our first vintage last year. We had 300 bottles and we sold that within the one day of the wine launch,” said Ken.
Beyond the vineyard, Ken and Peta enjoy walking around The Grange. “It’s rather large so you can get a lot of walking in. I’m a cyclist so I get out and do that a couple times a week on the cycle tracks around Wagga.”
“We’ve got a beautiful community centre that is the centre piece of social activities for people who want to play cards, bridge, dominos, or snooker. We also have a bowling green which is well used by a lot of our men and women who run social competitions each week. The in-ground pool here is heated and very popular. We also have a gym right next to it which is extremely popular as well.”
With concerts in Wagga happening again, Ken and Peta are willing participants, closer to home they enjoy their community drinks on a Friday night as a get-together with other residents.
“Often my wife will trip off to Orange or Hay to do the expected babysitting, while we have a lot of friends who live in Wagga, our children live elsewhere.
We have one daughter in Hay, one daughter lives in Orange and our son lives in Canberra. They have their space, and we’ve got ours,” said Ken.
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