By 1984 I was back in Christchurch and working as a furniture designer/maker making one-off, high quality furniture. I was a member of a group of furniture makers like myself, who set up the Alternative Furniture Show which ran annually for a several years in the mid 1980s.

The late 80s became very tough for furniture makers and I ended up working in a joinery firm, making joinery for the interior of super yachts. By 1990 a partner and I had set up Timberships Ltd. which was a specialist boatbuilding firm making the interior joinery for yachts and launches, and restoring old wooden boats.

In 1997 we faced a downturn that we could not survive and I reluctantly had to close the doors on Timberships. I then retrained as a high school teacher and taught workshop technology and design until the end of 2015. In 2016 I returned to woodworking from a new workshop I had built at home, although I have still done some part time teaching, due to a shortage of technology teachers. I have also continued teaching a woodworking night class.