Life is fun for couple married 60 years

Adelai and Bill Skelton with their 1929 Austin Seven Ruby. Photo / Stephen Parker

For a Rotorua couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today, life together is all about fun.

Adelai and Bill Skelton, who both come from farming backgrounds, met around 1954 when Mrs Skelton's family moved to Rotorua from the Waikato.

Their fathers had worked together in the 1930s as teamsters, looking after working horses.

Mrs Skelton said she first met her husband in a cow shed when their families reunited - he was milking with his father on their Ngakuru farm.

They were married at St Luke's Anglican Church on April 14, 1956, when the church was on Haupapa St.

They went on to have three daughters, one granddaughter and two grandsons.

The couple shared a love of tramping and vintage cars, Mrs Skelton said.

"We do most things together. We've got the same interests and it works out quite well."

They have been members of the Rotorua Vintage and Veteran Car Club since 1971, and own a 1929 Austin Seven Chummy and 1934 Austin Seven Ruby. Mrs Skelton said they had been to the South Island twice in the 1929 Chummy and had toured part of the island during car rallies.

"We get along really well together. Most of the time life's quite hilarious.

"We have fun," Mr Skelton added.

To celebrate the diamond anniversary, one of their daughters shouted them a trip to Auckland to see the Mrs Brown's Boys show last month.

Their other daughters are visiting this weekend when there would be another surprise, Mrs Skelton said. The couple have received cards from Prime Minister John Key, the Queen, the governor-general and a letter from Labour leader Andrew Little to congratulate them.