On the 23rd April 1867, William and Frances Rees attended a farewell celebration, where they were presented with a purse of sovereigns and an illuminated address, signed by 91 of Queenstown’s male residents.
The Rees family spent the next seven years in the Waitaki Valley, five years on Otekaieke Station where two more children were born – Mildred Gertrude Rees 26th February 1869, and Charles Gilbert Rees 17th February 1870, and two years on Station Peak Station. Rees’s days of being a sheep manager ended in 1883 after having managed Galloway Station at Alexandra for eight years.
Rees, now 56 years old, was still a very fit man. Time for other pursuits such as painting, singing (whenever asked), attendance and participation at athletic events, and lots of cricket matches. Over the years until his death, he held a number of positions; Rabbit and Sheep Inspector at Clyde and South Canterbury, Sheep and Cattle Inspector for the Westland, Buller and Nelson Districts and in 1892 he took up the position of Inspector of Stock and Register of Breeds for the Wellington, Hutt Valley, and Wairarapa areas in the newly formed Department of Agriculture.
An unsuccessful operation for gall stones at Wairau Hospital, Blenheim resulted in William Gilbert Rees passing away on the 31st October 1898. He was buried at Omaka Cemetery, Blenheim. His wife Frances was buried alongside him after she died on the 24th March 1926.
