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Where craft meets community
When Charlie Rogerson first picked up a post hole borer, fencing wasn’t part of some long-term plan. It was, if anything, an escape from the desk.
“I hated my job.” A former professional rower with a decade of competing under his belt, Charlie had followed the familiar path that is university, desk work, routine. But sitting still didn’t suit him. Through a friend, and then a fellow rower already working in the trade, he found his way into fencing.
Within a few months, Waipa Fencing was making its debut. Outside of work, life moved quickly as well. Charlie and his partner, Kelsi, now have two young kids, Banks, 19 months, and Ziggy, just eight weeks old, adding another layer to the pace of running a growing business. Just a couple of years on from leaving the desk, that decision has taken him from residential boundaries to something more meaningful.
Waipa Fencing designed and built a 130-metre dressed batten fence for Nga Hau E Wha (the Cambridge Community Marae) – nestled on the edge of Leamington, in Waipa, Waikato. The job came through rugby, like a lot of things in small-town New Zealand. Charlie plays for the local club, and through those connections, the opportunity came up: a new fence to help redefine and modernise the marae’s entrance.
The design needed to work alongside a waharoa, the traditional gateway marking entry, while bringing a more contemporary feel to the wider space. Moving through the space, particularly past a waharoa, carries cultural meaning. It signals a shift from the outside world into a place of community, history, and shared identity. Even something as practical as a fence takes on added importance. It’s not just about defining a boundary or keeping stock out; it helps frame the space. The line of the fence, the openness between battens, and the way it guides people toward an entrance all contribute to how the marae is experienced.
A dressed batten fence is structurally similar to a paling fence, 100x50 rails running the length, but with evenly spaced 45x45 dressed battens that create a rhythm, each one set a batten-width apart and lifted slightly above the top rail. It’s a subtle shift in design, but one that changes the feel completely.
“They were looking for something to update the marae… trying to tie it into the building, modernising the marae atea.”
Before a single batten was fixed, time was spent establishing the lines that would define the entire build. String lines were run for alignment, height, and most importantly screw placement. Charlie ensured he had multiple guides to ensure consistency across the full 130 metres. “We probably spent half a day running string lines, making it perfect.”
Over that distance, even the smallest deviation becomes visible. Precision isn’t a bonus, it’s the standard Waipa Fencing holds itself to.
Charlie and his subcontractor, Matt, worked steadily. Matt has been with him for about two years, and Charlie is quick to credit him as a big part of getting the business off the ground. “He’s been invaluable… he’s a legend.”
At a glance, the fence is simple. But up close, the detail reveals itself. The battens are fixed with stainless screws rather than nails. It’s slower, more deliberate, but cleaner and more consistent. The timber is H3.2 treated, No.1 grade, selected to reduce knots and maintain a uniform finish.
And then there’s the gates. Double swinging, steel-framed gates, built by someone in the marae community, sit proudly within the fence line. But they don’t interrupt it. The battens continue seamlessly across the face of the gate, matching spacing so precisely that, from certain angles, it disappears entirely. “If you get it at the right angle, you can’t see the gate, it all just lines up.” It’s the kind of detail most people won’t consciously notice. But it’s also what separates a great job from a good one.
Most of Charlie’s work sits in residential spaces with tight boundaries, close neighbours. This job felt different from the start. “We actually had a ripper time doing it.” Part of that was practical. The ground, a sandy, rocky layer of fill made digging straightforward. And the access helped too.
“We’re usually on residential properties, so it was nice to be able to drive the truck right up to the side of the fence and get going.” But beyond logistics, there was something else. “What was interesting was the cultural side of it, what the fence was for and how that all connects.” Even if the construction itself followed familiar methods, the purpose behind it gave the project a different kind of weight.
The entire build took nine days. Two people with the same clear expectation: get it right. There were no major setbacks, no dramatic challenges, just the steady pressure of maintaining accuracy from start to finish. That meant checking lines, rechecking heights, and making sure every batten matched the next.
“We took our time, especially with such long runs, to make sure everything was as straight as we could make it.” In fencing, speed is often the goal. But here, precision mattered more.
For Charlie, the physical side of fencing came quickly. The harder part has been everything else. “The business side of it, how to price, how to run it, thinking ahead. Time management.” It’s a shift many tradespeople face, moving from doing the work to managing it. But for Charlie, it’s part of the process of building something of his own. And it beats the alternative. “Otherwise, you’ll be sitting at a desk all day.”
For Waipa Fencing, the next step is growth, particularly into the rural space. It’s a slower path, built on local connections and persistence. The same kind of path that led to this project.
At the end of the job, there’s a moment every fencer knows, the step back. The tools are down. The lines are finished. And for the first time, you see the whole thing at once. For Charlie, that moment is simple. “To sum it up in one word, I’d say satisfying… sitting back and looking at it, being perfectly square and straight, it helps my OCD.”
It’s not a grand statement, just a quiet measure of a job done properly.
Written by Brooke O’Connell
Published in WIRED issue 81/June 2026 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
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