You can't help but like John Sato when you meet him.
He's quick witted, full to the brim with stories and he's also incredibly humble.
95 year old John inspired many when he was photographed arm in arm with a police officer
and actor Bruce Hopkins, taking part in an anti-racism rally after the Christchurch mosque attacks.
He'd taken four buses to make the 20 kilometre journey from his east Auckland home to Aotea square.
Two months on, as we walked together from his home to the bus stop, John explained to
me that travelling on buses was a normal part of his life.
It was the only way he could see his daughter Anne, who was blind and couldn't speak,
and lived in a residential facility almost thirty kilometres away in Weymouth.
I had to take one bus to Botany and one to Manukau and one from Manukau to Weymouth,
and then the return trip the same.
But you don't counter the distance, you focus on the person.
Maybe I've got a peculiar way of looking at things, but that's the way I found it.
Anne was more important, and the only way to see her was to do this.
So, when you took those four buses to the march, that was just something that you do?
Yes, that's right.
So were you surprised that people were so taken by it?
Well I was, because I thought, well I couldn't understand it really.
On reflection I thought they probably thought,
they saw this bent old body and thought he looks a bit weird, I'll take a photo of him.
But people loved it, did you expect it at all?
I didn't expect like that, I wasn't interested in publicity, that's not my game.
But publicity he got - Mr Sato's image was shared around the world
and it led him to a meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
It wasn't the Prime Minister I met, I met a particularly fine young lady.
That's the way it was to me. I'm not interested in the title.
and she was showing great care and compassion and she was genuine.
Mr Sato says he gets recognised from time to time now.
People have thanked me, or shaken my hands or something.
Someone the other day, I was waiting for the bus in the village, she said
'Oh, I saw you in the paper.'
I said 'I didn't know I fit in there.'
She said 'I must have..', yes, she wasn't too sure, walked on.
I'm silly like that.
But going viral wasn't something Mr Sato ever anticipated happening.
In fact, he's a man who's spent much of his life caring for others.
Over a cup of hot chocolate, he told me about his life.
Born to a Japanese father and a Scottish mother in New Zealand
John spent most of his childhood in Perth, Australia.
He moved back here at 12 and that's when he first met his father.
John says he was a quiet child, interested in learning.
I was a bad asthmatic, I was extremely delicate.
I went to school when I was young, I loved it.
At 18 he was called up to join the army - serving in World War II.
There, he made some friends for life
That's Wally, we were like brothers in the same unit.
Flicking through his photo album, a young John is seen with many young women.
They weren't my girlfriends either.
No, just friends that were girls?
I wasn't exactly a mug, but I wasn't sort of, I was too shy.
I never felt too, I had girlfriends, it was always very nice, very polite and some of
them obviously thought it would end in the usual way of marriage or whatever,
but I always thought I had nothing to give.
He met his wife Margaret in his late 30's
We had a lot in common and we liked the same sort of music and all that.
And she said one time that she suggested we get married.
Oh, she suggested.
That's what Margaret said.
No proposal from you.
I wasn't the proposing type.
Oh, ok.
I had nothing to give.
The couple had one daughter Anne
Anne, she was a real sweetie and I mean that too.
She had so much to put up with.
So she was born blind and she had epilepsy.
She was totally blind, couldn't see light.
Epilepsy and she got this virus, they couldn't say what it was
and it got the area of the brain that controls speech.
One of the greatest battles John's ever fought was for his daughter.
In the 80's the government began changing the care offered to adults to intellectual disabilities
moving from hospital environments into the community.
Mr Sato and some other families didn't believe this was the right option for their loved ones
and they worked to provide a different service.
After 12 years battling we built a village in Weymouth.
During that time he met with many politicians.
You learn the worst and the best of humanity with some of them.
And in the end they were successful, creating the Rescare Homes Trust.
The one at Weymouth now has seventeen houses, six bedroom, specially designed.
Not just nurses, always the nurses on site, one or two anyway, because it's 24 hour care,
and also there was a therapist, and every house had a vehicle to take them out.
He and his wife remained involved with the facility for many years.
Margaret used to make some of the clothes for them, or mend them.
I made a little garden there for Anne.
We all worked in together, as a group.
And the staff, so called, they were family more or less.
They were doing what we couldn't do, caring from our family members.
It's the only set up like it in New Zealand.
Other psychopaedic hospitals in New Zealand tried to do it, and they weren't able to.
Margaret died 15 years ago, and John continued travelling to see Ann until her death in October last year.
He still keeps himself busy, every other week he spends time with people who've had strokes,
and he's got himself a fan.
The stroke club, I go there and we give them a hug and one lady, she's bent over doubled,
she's elderly, she's got a stick, she's brought there, and really badly disabled, physically,
and when she sits down I give her a kiss on the check, but that's not enough for her!
Mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Does it mean a lot to you to go and do these things?
I'm no goody goody, I just gravitate to these things, I've said in recent times,
the way I've found it, if you can't be useful, why are you here?
For John, we all learn from each other. He says he's always had an inquisitive mind
I've always had this thing about why?
In the latter part of my life I had the answer to why and I saw my lawyer a while back and
I was telling her and she said 'did you find the answer', and I said 'yes'.
So what is it?
She said 'what is it?'I said 'I can't tell you, each person’s got to find their own answer.'
I'm not a teacher.
So has life changed for you, now you're a little bit famous?
See, I don't see myself as famous this is the whole thing.
I find it a bit strange really, but if it makes,
if people find something in it for them, that's fair enough.
I'm not different to anyone else really, I'm not out to wave a flag and say here I am,
I can't be bothered with that rubbish.
People are people.