Making New Year's resolutions? Three Bay of Plenty centenarians share what they've learned about living well

107-year-old Ella Wilson moved to a Rotorua retirement village seven years ago. Photo / Andrew Warner

Less stress? Be healthier? Better relationships? As Kiwis set their resolutions for 2022, three Bay of Plenty centenarians share what they have learned about how to live well in their collective 311 years on Earth. Emma Houpt reports.

She's lived through pandemics, war and has outlived two of her children but 107-year-old Ella Wilson still believes in the importance of a positive outlook in life.

Wilson, born in 1914, was separated from her father and four brothers at age 4 after her mother died from Spanish Flu.

She still remembers a truck filled with bodies coming to pick up her mother's remains.

"Dad went off to work and when he came home his wife had gone."

Wilson was briefly taken to a care home with one of her brothers before being sent to live with relatives.

"I remember being in a hospital home in a cot with my brother. I don't remember going there and I don't remember coming out.

"But I remember standing there and being so thrilled with the nightie I had on. It had all fancy work on it. We just stood in that cot and watched what was going on."

Her grandmother felt it wasn't appropriate for her father to raise them alone with a housekeeper in the house so much of her childhood was spent with other relatives.

"We were distributed around."

Despite the struggles she remembers most of her childhood fondly – having "free fun" racing hand-built cars, playing sport and digging caves.

Her positivity has continued over the decades and her message for people this year is to "count your blessings and get on with it".

Wilson would start the New Year feeling "jolly lucky" to be one of the oldest people in the country.

Ella Wilson spent much of her childhood separated from her father and four brothers. Photo / Andrew Warner

She is grateful she grew up in a time when televisions didn't exist.

"Thank goodness we did grow up in my era. We had such great pleasures.

"I did enjoy our life. And now the children come and sit in front of the television and that is it. We used to get out and dig caves and all kinds of good things. We had a lot of free fun and enjoyed it very much," she said.

"I always believed there was a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. I wondered when we would see it. But now I realise we had that pot of gold at our feet all the time."

At age 21 she married John Wilson and the couple went on to have three children.

John, who died at age 72, was absent for long periods of time as he went to war. Wilson stayed at their Cambridge home and cared for the children.

It was a time in her life where she learned to "just get on with it".

"I was at home with a lovely big house and these two children. It was a very depressing depression time. It lasted for years," she said.

"Everything was rationed. The Courts in Hamilton would ring around and say 'we have got some material in today'. We would all go in to get what they would give us.

"It might have been gingham that day. And we would go home, and that is when most of us learned to sew and make do. You achieved things then.

"Everything was work and it was hard work but we just accepted it."

Ella Wilson, 107, believes you enjoy life more when you are self-reliant. Photo / Andrew Warner

Wilson moved into The Gardens Retirement Village in Rotorua about seven years ago.

Asked her advice for younger generations, Wilson said it was pointless to share.

"They wouldn't listen to me for a start. I don't think they would listen. They are so positive with what they are doing, aren't they?

"But if you want anything – get up and do it. They don't do it now.

"If you are lucky enough to be well, get on with it."

She practices gratefulness daily despite the struggles of living in a retirement village during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her youngest child, John, has been unable to visit until recently due to Auckland's lockdown.

"At the moment we are closed in and I feel a bit tired and bored. I go down to the lounge for a walk – and I come back and I count my blessings. What am I grizzling about?

"I can hear and I can see but not very well. I can't read or write but I can manage. I am very, very lucky."

She hoped to remain as self-reliant as possible.

Wilson "can't fathom" how women had "taken over" since her days, working as bricklayers, doctors and electricians.

"They are jolly good at it. The never moved out of the kitchen in my day. And a lot of men have moved into the kitchen."

104-year-old Edna Ralston lived alone until about a year ago. Photo / Supplied

In Tauranga, 104-year-old Edna Ralston feels it is important to live simply and "just keep going".

The Tauranga woman lived alone until a year ago when she decided it was time for care and moved to the Cedar Manor.

"I don't get down. I just keep going."

Never able to drive, she spent much of her life getting around on foot.

"I used to walk everywhere. I couldn't drive so I walked everywhere to get my groceries," she said.

She considered herself lucky to have never been impacted by any major health issues.

Ralston, who was born and raised in Dunedin, is set to celebrate her 105th birthday on January 9.

Asked what advice she would give her teenage self, she responded "just be happy".

"Just live a normal life. Get up in the morning, get your meals, go to bed and live another day."

100-year-old Doug Bullick. Photo / NZME

Compromise and helping others are two tools used by Tauranga man Doug Bullick since childhood. And he reckons they have helped him live a "very stressless" 100 years.

Bullick has lived in his own home at retirement village Greenwood Park in Welcome Bay with his wife May since 1998. The couple have five children together.

The family spent much of their lives on a farm in Rukuhia where Bullick worked as an engineer for the Waikato Power Board.

Bullick, who grew up in Dannevirke, said he was raised to know the importance of meeting others halfway.

"You can't always win.

"We were bought up trying to help people when we can and being prepared to compromise. Don't get into a big argument if you can avoid it."

He believed keeping stress levels low may have helped him live a long life, but said it would be "tough" to be a young person living in today's world.

"Today so many people are under stress, they have mental problems, which we have been free of.

"We have had a very stressless life."

Asked his advice for younger generations, Bullick said it would be to "think of other people and look after your neighbour".