When you’ve been in the spotlight as much as former Aussie Rules footballer Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt, you’d think that rubbing shoulders with people would be low on your list of priorities.
But the Sanctuary Cove resident and his partner Sheree Everitt says ‘people’ are one of the main reasons they love living in the Gold Coast community.
“Ever since we’ve been here, we’ve made great friends and had made many great memories” says Spida. “Sanctuary Cove is full of thoughtful, great people.”
Their experience is made even more fortuitous by the fact that they really stumbled on the community, in 2010, by accident.
Spida had just taken a radio job – he currently co-hosts the Breakfast Radio Show at Triple M on the Gold Coast and jointly they do a national Triple M Travel Radio Show every weekend – and the couple were looking for a place to rent.
“We were driving around, came in here, loved it, rented for a little while, ended up buying and have been here just over 13 years,” says Spida.
While Sheree says: “I have to be in Melbourne quite a lot because our son, Boston, is in Year 11 and is also on the AFL career path, she adds: “Sanctuary Cove is always home.
“For me, one of the big attractions is the security of a fully-gated estate where you can lock up and leave and you don’t have any worries and the kids can play safely in the street like we used to!”
“For Spida the gym and the country club are right there too, so there’s no excuses!”
Since moving to Sanctuary Cove, the footballer who played 300 games in the AFL has kept up his workout schedule, as well as MC-ing numerous charity events.
And, if that’s not enough, during Covid the couple started the first Community Library in their driveway, to allow residents to swap and go with books and magazines! This library is still in full swing some 3 years later”
All that said, Spida is certainly not the only star in the family. He and Sheree also head up Australia’s longest running privately owned travel tv show – The Great Australian Doorstep – and Australia’s only national travel radio show.
If you’d like to tune in and catch them with millions of other viewers, the tv show airs in Australia 52 weeks a year on Channel 7Two and is available on iTunes Worldwide and online at 7Plus. It’s also on screen in 11 countries around the world including China.
“Our radio show airs on 68 stations Australia-wide every Saturday morning from 6am to 7am across the TripleM Network and Sundays from 10am to 11am on the FlowFM network,” says Sheree, who also takes guided motorhome tours across Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Alaska.
“Next year we are planning a 35-day tour of Scandinavia, Iceland and Ireland,” she says. “I can’t wait to do some more travelling.”
While life’s pretty perfect at Sanctuary Cove, Spida says there is one thing that might improve it.
“I train at the gym and I do a little bit of swimming and boating. But I think I need to get in on the pickleball action. Yeah, I think pickleball might be my thing.”
