Obituary: Moari Bailey 'always remembered a name and a face'

Moari Bailey spent a lot of her younger years in Castlecliff, here she is pictured at one of her favourite spots. Photo / Supplied

She was a real people person.

Whether she met you in the sauna at the pools, or in the waiting room at the dentist, Moari Bailey always remembered a name and a face, a time and a place.

Moari's daughter, Zoe Cochran, said that Moari's partner Phillip Baertschi put it best.

"Phillip said it really nicely the other day, people collect stamps, people collect coins, but she collected people," Zoe says.

"She absolutely loved people."

Moari Maraea (Ari) Bailey was born on September 16, 1966, to parents George and Jennifer (Jane) Bailey in Whanganui.

She spent the first four years of her life growing up on Riri a te Hori at Marybank, which borders SH3.

"It's a Māori land block, her father was Māori, her mother was European and they lived on the farm in a sort of ramshackle, run-down house," Phillip says.

"It had no running water and a long drop toilet.

"George would milk cows during the day, then rush off to the meat works, but that became too tough and they moved to a house in Castlecliff on Aotea St."

Growing up in Castlecliff, Moari, or Ari as she was known, attended Castlecliff School, Rutherford Junior High and then Whanganui High School.

After finishing school, Ari had jobs at the toll exchange and then woollen mills before buying a home where she lived with her partner at the time, Rob.

While there she became pregnant, the couple decided to move to New Plymouth and in 1990, Zoe was born.

Zoe has happy memories of going away on overseas trips with her mum and says she was very fortunate to have had a great childhood.

"She worked hard to give me that, she was a computer analyst, she separated from my father when I was 3 and had a little bit of time finding herself.

"Then she decided that she wanted to get some future-proofing happening, did some studying and realised that IT was the way forward."

Ari got her Bachelor of Information Technology at Taranaki Polytechnic and with a booming oil and gas industry at the time, she started landing some big jobs.

For 10 years she was contracted for three to six months on jobs in Wellington, Palmerston North and New Plymouth.

"For those three to six months, she would work hard and make silly money and then she'd have probably three to six months off and we would do cool stuff like go travelling," Zoe says.

"She didn't want to work all the time, so she got silly money jobs and she worked to live."

During her time in New Plymouth, Ari met Phillip, who worked for Tegel at the time.

They hit it off straight away, he says.

"We were very different people, I was an introvert who would prefer watching a movie or reading a book rather than going out and socialising.

"She was at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, but somehow, we made it work."

The two met through a mutual friend and when Phillip was trying to track this friend down, he called Ari, who he hadn't had anything to do with for a couple of years.

"I gave her a ring and we started chatting and even though she'd only met me for like five or 10 minutes, two years ago, she knew exactly who I was and remembered the meeting.

"She just put me at ease and after about an hour of chatting I plucked up the courage to ask her out and much to my surprise this beautiful and intelligent woman said yes."

Within a few days, the two were inseparable, they moved in together a year later and spent the next 20 years living life together.

"It was about two years ago that she moved back to Whanganui, when she figured out I was old enough and ugly enough to look after myself," Zoe says.

"Her real passion in the last couple of years was healing the land which had been neglected for 16 years."

That land of course was Riri a te Hori, which had been leased under a Māori trustee, was covered in gorse and deemed non-productive.

Ari and her brother, Judd Bailey, successfully negotiated the return of the whenua and started putting in work - it is now a thriving aquatic wetland.

Community volunteers, friends and whānau all got involved to excavate ponds, plant harakeke and renovate the old cow shed.

Ari wanted to reestablish several threatened native species in the area, as well as native bush and with her team of volunteers, began an Earth Build for the community.

They got to about the halfway point of the build when Ari's health began to decline.

She became unsteady on her feet, her vision was distorted and one day she fell over while bending over to tie her laces.

In hospital, a doctor delivered the bad news that Ari had a cancerous tumour on her brain and her days were numbered.

"When the doctors broke the news, her response was you're not God, you don't know everything," Phillip says.

"She didn't believe or trust the medical professionals and sought alternative treatment."

The treatments didn't work, Ari's final battle was to get back home, which with her positivity and determination, she won.

Moari Maraea (Ari) Bailey passed away on Wednesday, September 12, surrounded by friends and family.

Zoe, Phillip, friends and whānau celebrated her 52nd birthday on Sundayat the whenua, where everyone brought a plate and a plant.

"It was an opportunity for a light remembrance of mum, not getting into the nitty-gritty of a funeral and the normal format," Zoe says.

"It was nice to open up the floor, allowing people to express how they knew Mum, some had known her for a couple of months and others had known her for 30, 40 or 50 years."

Ari's vision will continue, her dream will be carried out by them all and anyone who wants to help out with the Earth Build can do so by emailing creatingmamaswhare@gmail.com.

Moari Bailey was a people person, she loved them, she was loved by them and even in her passing, she continues to bring them together.