LIFE in Tauranga is slow. For a city of 300,000 people, it moves at the pace of a country town. People are friendly and accommodating and the weather is kind.
Nestled on the coast of the Bay of Plenty in the North Island, Tauranga has become a magnet for New Zealand's fifty-somethings looking for a quiet retirement. Its suburbs of sprawling houses and manicured lawns stretch back from the long white beaches into the hinterland, and the orchards are heavy with kiwi fruit. Tourism sustains the town during summer, but the well-heeled retirees ensure an economic buffer during the winter.
It was to Tauranga six months ago that disgraced government lawyer Warwick Reid came to begin a new life with his family, after spending almost five years in prison for accepting bribes to pervert the course of justice in Hong Kong.
The Sunday Morning Post found him at his new residence, only a few streets away from the family's old home, which they were forced to quit at the end of April as part of a financial settlement with the Hong Kong Government.
Reid, 48, did not want to be interviewed. The last thing he wanted, he said, was more media coverage, but he consented to answer a few questions.
'I think I can finally say that now everything has been resolved in accordance with the wishes of the Hong Kong Government,' he said.
'All the properties [acquired with bribe money] have been sold or are being sold. We have moved out of the house, given the keys to the Hong Kong Government and acquired another with money held in trust for my wife and family,' he said.