Northland's oldest man still gardening at 105

Rawene's Bill Tuckey turned 105 on Tuesday. PHOTO/PETER DE GRAAF

Northland's oldest man has celebrated his 105th birthday with a get-together for friends, townsfolk and five generations of family.

Bill Tuckey reached the milestone yesterday but the official celebration was held at Rawene Town Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Eldest son Bruce Tuckey, of Kaeo, said about 100 people from as far away as Bluff attended the afternoon tea.

"He's fit as a fiddle. He's looking a lot better than he has for ages," Bruce Tuckey said.

The get-together was also an opportunity to thank the people of Rawene for looking after him so well, he said.

Bill had more visitors yesterday, his actual birthday, but said he otherwise planned to take it easy and "straighten things out" after a busy few days.

"There were five generations of us there [at the celebration]. That's a lot of people."

The former dairy factory inspector lives in his own home at Rawene and is still a keen gardener. He is known for his dahlias and tomatoes but this year diversified into kumara.

He suspected his gardening days were drawing to a close, however.

"I'm getting old, and my eyesight is slipping. But you can expect that. They must be worn out."

Bill's family moved to Rawene in 1928 and, apart from a break in 1937-50, the South Hokianga town has been his home ever since.

He gets lunch delivered and regular visits from the staff at nearby Hokianga Hospital but otherwise lives independently.

He only gave up his driver's licence at the age of 99 and he almost certainly holds the record for the longest subscription to the Northern Advocate.

He has no particular secret to longevity but Bruce said his father had never smoked or drunk alcohol, always worked in the garden, cooked for himself every day and ate plenty of vegetables.

Bill was born in Thames on April 4, 1912, and was a toddler when his father was sent to World War I. After the war his parents took over the Masonic Hotel in Tauranga, but his father, who never recovered from being gassed in the trenches, died a few years later.

His mother remarried and the family eventually ended up running the Masonic Hotel in Rawene. He married Nora Cochrane in 1934 and they had six children.

Bill worked in dairy factories around Northland until his mother-in-law's death in 1950 brought the family back to Rawene and the Parnell St home where he has lived ever since.

He was offered a job as a dairy farm inspector and spent the next nine years travelling around Hokianga. Later he worked as a storeman for the Hokianga County Council and finally for Rawene's general stores, driving to the railhead at Kaikohe to collect goods and deliver them around South Hokianga.

He was a close friend of Hokianga ferry captain Bob Edwards, who later moved to Ngataki and had the distinction of being Northland's oldest man, and New Zealand's oldest driver, for many years. Bob died last year aged 109.