Awards honour skills as career shifts gear | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A local grease monkey has scooped a lower North Island award for his skill with a socket wrench.
Bob Mellor shook Greg Murphy's hand in front of 500 motor trade people at Te Papa on Saturday as he accepted the Regional MTA Supreme Apprentice Award.
Mr Mellor, an adult apprentice in his 50s, said it all happened so fast he barely had time to think.
''I was fairly surprised. I went down to Wellington on the night and I didn't think I was going to get anything.''
He won two awards for the night, announced as the Wairarapa regional winner and then the lower North Island winner, selected from Wellington, Horowhenua, and Wairarapa.
Mr Mellor was judged by his polytechnic results as well as a one-on-one interview at his workplace at Fagan Motors, in Masterton.
Service manager Neil McKay said Mr Mellor was a standout apprentice, and the prize was likely clinched when the judges met him in person.
''They can look in the joker's toolbox and see straight away if the tools are clean and see everything for themselves _ it's like meeting somebody, you tend to sum them up in the first five minutes.''
It was a powerful result for Fagan Motors, which only four years ago saw another of its employees, Wayne MacKenzie, take out the biennial award.
''I was rapt when Wayne got it but to get it a second time suggests we must be doing something right,'' Mr McKay said.
Mr Mellor said he had always been interested in vehicles but missed an opportunity to become an apprentice when he was growing up in Lower Hutt.
With encouragement from his wife he ended a 30-year career in the timber industry to pick up a socket wrench and head back to study.
''She's currently doing a BA in social work and she said don't just sit there moaning and groaning _ get out there and go for it,'' Mr Mellor said.
He hopes to complete his apprenticeship next month and then he will be bonded to Fagan's for five years.