Wakatipu's diamond wedding couples

Otago Daily Times

17-05-2025

Four well-known Wakatipu couples married 60 years ago. Philip Chandler finds out how they came to meet and asks about their secrets to a long marriage.
HEATHER and TREVOR GAMBLE
Married March 27, 1965
Heather and Trevor Gamble ironically married the same year Queenstown's Shotover Jet started — a business they'd buy five years later and make world-famous.
Then based in Invercargill — Heather was a kindy teacher and Trevor a bricklayer — they met at a party.
Heather: "There weren't enough seats for everyone to sit on, so if anyone got up and went to the toilet, a male could go and sit in their seat, but you had to sit on their knee.
"When I got up, Trevor sat inmy seat, and I sat on his knee."
Afterwards, Trevor, being the perfect gentleman, took her home.
Not long after they married in St Paul's Presbyterian Church — when they recently celebrated their diamond wedding at Lake Hayes' Ayrburn, guests included their best man and bridesmaid.
When they took over Shotover Jet, which they owned for 16 years, Trevor hadn't driven any boat, let alone a jetboat.
Just over seven years ago they were the fourth residents to move into the Queenstown Country Club.
As for the secret to their long marriage, Heather says it's "talking to each other and understanding".
Trevor: "And we had a company that had two directors and we never invited the accountant."
Heather: "We had our directors' meetings in bed."
The couple have two children, two grandchildren and a great-grandson.
JENNY and JULES TAPPER
Married April 24, 1965
Prominent future tourism identity/aviator Jules Tapper and mates were returning from skiing when they stopped as usual at the former Parawa Pub south of Garston.
"We went for a drink after the meal and there were a couple of girls sitting by the fire looking a bit lonesome so I offered to buy them a drink."
Jenny was "pretty good-looking", he thought.
"It turned out she lived only about 500 yards from our family home, but I'd spent most of my secondary school and university years in Dunedin so I didn't know many of the girls of eligible age."
Jenny at the time had a hairdressing salon and Jules worked for his dad's agricultural equipment firm.
She says her mum thought Jules was "wild", she recalls.
Jules: "I decided to move in quickly 'cos she was pretty keen on another young fellow at that stage — I cut him out from the selection process."
Seven months after meeting, they married at St John's Anglican Church in Invercargill.
For their honeymoon, Jules hired a light aircraft in which he experienced about the worst landing of his life on their way to Mt Cook.
Jenny, who'd later say "Jules had a great honeymoon", ended up being a very competent pilot herself.
The couple, who've been full-time Queenstowners since 1988, have two children and four grandchildren.
As to the secret behind a long marriage, Jules says "variety is the spice of life, and we've had plenty of variety".
FAE and BOB ROBERTSON
Married May 1, 1965
Fae and Bob met at Margaret Galbraith's 21st birthday party on a pig farm where Queenstown's FreshChoice is today — Fae had brought along the town's only mobile record player.
A true local, Bob's great-grandfather was the first mayor in the 1860s, while Fae had moved here from Invercargill in 1957.
When they met, Bob — best known later as the fire brigade's chief fire officer for 27 years — had just taken over a building firm and she was already a travel consultant, only retiring last year.
After the party, Bob offered to take Fae home.
"The joke was we had to walk into town, to Amber Lodge, for him to drop me the other way, in Sawmill Rd."
Fae says they came from very different families — his were publicans and hers were good Irish Catholics.
"He courted me very well because he wanted a good cook and someone to keep him company — I still tell him he was an incredible actor."
Fae says her mum wouldn't let her marry until she'd turned 21 in April 1965.
She and her girlfriends drew numbers to choose a wedding date — they duly married at St Joseph's Church.
The couple have three children and five grandchildren.
Fae believes the secret to a long marriage is "not being home together too much".
JANE and MICK BURDON
Married May 7, 1965
Only 17 at the time, Jane was on holiday from Christchurch with a male chaperone.
After a day's skiing she was at Queenstown's former Arthurs Point Pub where Mick, then an apprentice farmer at Wānaka's Mt Burke, spotted her.
"He was looking for a wife — he'd had enough of living with his father, I think."
Mick: "She reckons it was lust, but I said it was love."
He then visited her at a motel she was staying at near the Gardens.
While Jane spent about six months at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, "he had become good friends with my parents — he was driving up to Christchurch every other weekend to see them, so when I got back, mother said, 'he's most suitable, dear"'.
They were married at Christchurch's St Barnabas Church by the legendary Canon Bob Lowe.
They'd booked a six-week honeymoon in England, but while they were in Queenstown, on a ski holiday, Mick saw Royalburn Station on the Crown Terrace was for sale, and bought it the next day, so they didn't go — they then spent about 40 years farming it.
As to the secret of a long marriage, Jane says: "Keep your individuality. Mick likes doing things, I like doing other things."
She likes the Oscar Wilde saying: "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."
The couple have three sons and nine grandchildren.