Levin couple Barrie and Mary Buck are celebrating 60 years of marriage.
Two worlds (nearly) collided when a Levin couple - who are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary - first met.
Barrie Buck was an electrician new to town and nearly ran over his future wife. Mary Banfield was a trainee hairdresser, innocently biking along.
By the time Barrie had finished checking up on Mary to see if she was okay, they had agreed to go to the movies to see North to Alaska, starring John Wayne, just across the road at the Levin Regent Cinema.
They became friends and kept in contact when Mary moved to Masterton. After dating for two years, they agreed to be married and were wed at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Levin on May 23, 1964, in front of family and friends.
“Barrie said if he won a raffle we’d get married. The next week he took a raffle ticket and won fifty pounds,” she said.
Barrie said: “It was a lot of money in those days. I was earning six pounds a week.”
The local jeweller agreed to open their shop on a Saturday. The money Barrie won helped pay for the wedding ring, and they honeymooned at various North Island destinations in a caravan.
Six decades later, theirs is an achievement worth celebrating, and one that will be seen less often in New Zealand in the future.
Fewer people are marrying or entering into a civil union in New Zealand every year and statistics show those who do, now marry much later in life.
The median age for first marriage or civil union for men and women is now 30 years or more. In 1971, when marriage rates peaked in New Zealand, the median age at first marriage was 20.8 years for women and 23.0 years for men.
Of those first marriages, more than half end in divorce. The average marriage in New Zealand lasts 13.6 years.
Barrie, 83, and Mary, 75, said the key to a long and happy marriage was to communicate and do things together.
Marrying at a relatively young age meant they were able to enjoy their lives together, raise children and do things together as a family - like sitting together at the dinner table. And that helped.
They agreed that every marriage had its ups and downs, and that “you can’t agree on everything”.
“But you sort it out. It’s about patience and understanding ... and you’ve got to have a laugh,” Mary said.
Barrie and Mary celebrated the milestone with a lunch outing and received messages of congratulations from friends and family.
They have four children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
“We are deeply grateful for their service.”