A blooming great visit to MetLife

GOOD CHEER: Gaye Gough with her tray of flower sprays and a copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with resident Kenn Weir .

It's not every day a "saucy wench" arrives bearing gifts at a rest home.

University of the Third Age members Gaye Gough and Margaret Christensen visited residents at MetLife Care in Masterton on Thursday, handing out sprays of flowers while dressed as characters from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Mrs Gough said she had been to a U3A medieval dinner with about 30 others, which had featured ornamental flower sprays for people to wear.

They had a surplus of flower sprays, so Mrs Gough had a "spur of the moment" idea to visit MetLife Care and hand out flowers to residents - while still in costume.

After checking in with management, the pair "waltzed in, looking ludicrous".

Mrs Gough, dressed as the five-times-married Wife of Bath, said they brought a smile to the ladies and convinced some men to wear a flower.

"It seemed such a shame to get rid of them," she said.

"My mum had been in a rest home in her final years, and she just loved anything out of the ordinary.

"Their faces just lit up, and some of the men, we talked them around."

Mrs Gough said her character, the Wife of Bath, was a "saucy wench" with five husbands.

Mrs Christensen said she was representing Chaucer's five prosperous guildsmen, who want to be aldermen.

U3A groups in New Zealand promote the sharing of intellectual activities among retired and semi-retired persons.