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Home / Kapiti News

Waikanae man Alf Marsden's 100th birthday looms

By David Haxton
Kapiti News·
28 Apr, 2016 08:34 PM2 mins to read

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LONGEVITY: Alf Marsden is about to turn 100.

LONGEVITY: Alf Marsden is about to turn 100.

Alf Marsden, from Waikanae, turns 100 on Monday.

He's having a special birthday celebration on Saturday at the Waikanae Beach Bowling Club which will be well attended by family and friends.

Sitting at the dinner table in his two storey house in Te Moana Road, with sun beaming in through the window, and a cuppa and some toast within reach, Alf says he's had a happy life.

He still cooks his own meals, does his own washing, drives a car when he feels up to it, is nimble, has a wicked sense of humour, is sharp as a tack, and is active in the community.

He is a member of the Waikanae Combined Garden Group and Millennium Waikanae Club.

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"I do enough to survive, that's what it boils down to," he grinned.

Alf has many highlights from throughout the years especially his 74-year marriage to wife Ruth [who passed away aged 96] as well as their four children Patricia, Valerie, Neil and Ian.

Travelling was a passion for the couple who would go somewhere in the world every year.

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"One trip we were away for four months.

"We hired a van and we travelled around Europe for two months, then flew to Canada and down American into Mexico and then back up to San Francisco and then Hawaii for 12 days."

Asked if he had any goals left, Alf was quick to respond.

"To hang on until the 30th.

"You don't want to miss that," his daughter-in-law Marie Marsden said.

"It's cost me enough," he replied.

"When you get to 100 there are no goals."

Asked about his longevity, Alf dryly quipped, "I haven't bothered to die."

Longevity though runs in his family as both his sisters, Winifred and May lived well into their 90s.

Alf grew up in Kaiapoi, South Island, and went to Waikari School and then Rangiora High School before taking on various jobs, especially when the economy was struggling, including one where he earned "Six pence a tonne for shovelling lime".

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His main career was as a mechanic.

Alf, who has lived in Waikanae for 37 years, has 11 grand children and 16 great grand children.

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