He loved his potions and his lotions.

And he loved talking with people about whatever ailed them.

Retired chemist Peter Meredith with his boat, his new project.

But now he loves playing golf on Tuesday, shooting the breeze with old mates over a coffee, and scaling the Mount two or three times a week.

Peter Meredith, a 56-year-long chemist, is now retired. But really, he's still a chemist. It lurks within, you don't just shake it off. It's certainly in his blood.

'My grandfather was a chemist. He worked at Manning's in Hamilton. I started my apprenticeship in the very same shop in 1959.”

And his Dad was a doctor – started the Dee Street Medical Centre – so Peter was never far away from sickness and healing, from cough elixir and Elastoplast.

The Central Parade Pharmacy was Peter's first shop in 1971. Then he founded the Girven Road Pharmacy and ran both for a time.

'I will miss the people, talking and sharing problems. I always enjoyed a joke and the banter. It relaxed people.”

And people responded, according to daughter Kim. 'Dad went above and beyond and it drew people from as far afield as Omokoroa and Katikati. They knew they'd get the personal touch.”

Now Kim gets stopped by people wanting to know what her Dad is doing. Well, Peter Meredith is doing just fine. So fine The Weekend Sun couldn't take his photograph on Tuesday because it clashed with a tee time.

But it's the supermarket rather than the pharmacy that's become a bit of a trap. That's where he regularly runs into former clients. 'I try hard not to dispense advice, I try hard not to be a chemist with them. I talk generalities.”

And in 56 years as a chemist he never got sick of it. 'But I was quite glad to get out when I did because the industry is becoming more and more regulated. And as you get older these things are harder to keep abreast of.”

One thing Peter does miss is preparing the medications and lotions for which he'd been trained.

'Then we started getting in a lot more proprietary products. There wasn't the same personal input when you simply take a product off the shelf.”

Did he feel more like a shopkeeper than a chemist? 'Maybe.”

'You would still have to look at the ingredients and dispense advice on safe effective use. But there wouldn't be the same connection.”

Although it did provide for a much quicker turnaround of customers.

Another indication of how things have changed in the industry is his chemist grandfather used to visit farms and provide medication for sick animals. 'At the time there were no rules to say he couldn't. Vets wouldn't let him near the place now.”

Peter Meredith also misses the families. 'Grandparents used to come into the pharmacy, then their children, and then their children's children.”

And there was always sadness when a client didn't come back. 'Of course there were some really sick customers, people with cancer for example. You would build up a relationship and then it would be taken away.”

It's ironic that just days before he retired it was the chemist himself who was on the receiving end. He fell down some stairs and ended up in hospital.

'Doesn't matter if you are a chemist or not – still an end result.”

Peter Meredith's mind is probably on a difficult chip shot right this minute. In other words the chemist has other things to worry about.