Eddie is one of the Hibiscus Coast’s most successful businessmen, renowned for his generosity and more recently, a hole-in-one on the 15th green at the Gulf Harbour course. Here he reflects on an interesting life …
A feature article on New Zealand in a Mercedes Benz company magazine in the late 1970s was to have a profound affect on the life of a young Dutch mechanic working in his home town of Eindhoven. Eddie Grooten read the article and was immediately captured by the scenic beauty of NZ with its space and relatively small population. Aged 27 and ready for an adventure, he applied for an emigration visa in January and landed in Auckland in May. Twenty-seven years later, Eddie is one of the Hibiscus Coast’s most successful businessmen, renowned for his generosity and more recently, a hole-in-one on the 15th green at the Gulf Harbour course. Here he reflects on an interesting life …
My family and friends thought I’d gone round the bend when they heard I was emigrating. I had a good life and they wondered why I would leave it. But I was looking for the right balance between what you need materially and what makes you happy. Besides, I was a free man. I knew I could always go back if things didn’t work out. As it is, it was the best decision I ever made. Erika followed six months later and we were married under a pohutukawa tree. NZ has been magnificent for both of us. It was five or six years before we made our first trip home and it only confirmed we had made the right decision.
Times were tough in post-war Holland but I had a very happy childhood. Eindhoven is the birthplace of Philips, one of the world’s largest electronics companies, and a lot of people moved there for work. My father managed the truck agency for Volvo and I was one of seven children. Interestingly, we are all married and none of us is divorced - I think it is a reflection of our upbringing and the effort our parents made.
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