At his desk, his inbox would blink with 90-something emails.
His electronic address book counted about 5000 contacts, 270 of those phone numbers associated with school.
Now, he says he's lucky to get half a dozen messages to his personal email and his address book is much more manageable.
"I actually felt a little depressed because all of a sudden you're not getting at work by just after 7am, and an 11-hour day is a typical day - it's a good day," he said.
"I found it hard at the beginning. Your life was just cut."
Randell says it probably took him the first six months to get into the swing of retirement.
"I was so tired initially, I would sleep a lot. I think it was the mental strain," he said.
But he read up on retirement and learned to make daily goals. "I've actually never been busier, funnily enough," he says.
The new Dave Randell gets to the gym at a reasonable hour, sleeps in until past 7am, has time to eat breakfast and do a quiz with his wife, Jude, before she goes to work at the local health shop.
He walks with Jude every morning before breakfast and now has the time to read a newspaper. "It is little things like that that just make a quality of life," he says.
The 70-year-old has even built a retaining wall for his garden, where he now spends most days pruning the roses and trimming the trees.
He also started a coffee group with former Otumoetai College staff. The principal informs me the group's name is spelt Koffee - because they don't have to worry too much about grammar any more.
"We don't talk about school at all," he says. "We may reminisce - you talk about achievements over the years but more as a person rather than as a staff member."
Apart from weekly coffee catch-ups, the majority of Randell's new-found time is dedicated to family.
Twice a week he goes to Rotorua to visit his 91-year-old mother, who is ill, and, for the first time this year, his grandchildren came to stay during the school holidays.
Granddad Dave also now attends sports awards and got to see his granddaughter graduate from primary school to intermediate.
"For the first time this year I went to Granddad's Day," he says, with a tear in his eye.
That is already one item ticked off the bucket list.
"We wanted to see all our grandchildren every year and we have done that this year already."
Next on the list was travel - and just this year he and Jude have travelled to Fiji and taken a train ride across Australia on the Indian Pacific.
His browser history already has links to his next adventure.
But now that time was starting to suit him, Randall says he will never forget the school or its students.
"I miss the people. I miss the kids, I miss the ratbags, I miss the commitment."
Dave Randell's education career:
- Completed teacher training at the then College of Education in Auckland in 1970
- Gained his first teaching position at Rotorua Lakes High School, where he spent 17 years
- Held principal roles at Taihape College and Melville High School throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s
- Became principal at Otumoetai College in October 2000
- Retired 2017
