Be happy and keep your family close - those are the tips for living a long life from Northland's newest centenarian.
Doris Nora Robertson (nee Stone) celebrated her 100th birthday at Kerikeri Retirement Village on Friday with friends, family members and a stack of cards from the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. She was also planning a family party on Saturday at her favourite eatery, Marsden Estate.
Doris reached the milestone in good health - she takes just one pill a day, for her thyroid - and with her cheeky sense of humour fully intact.
Good genes also appear to be part of her longevity. Her older sister, Clarice McLean, lived to just a few weeks shy of her 102nd birthday. Her younger sister, Jean McMurtrie, 93, popped up from Rotorua for the party; while the baby of the family, Phyllis Stone, 88, also lives at the Kerikeri village.
Doris grew up as one of seven siblings in St Heliers, Auckland, when the area was still farmland. Her earliest memories, which go back to the 1920s, are of Jackson, a single-minded horse that pulled the family milk cart around Remuera.