Pleased to be "celebrating her 21st birthday", Mrs Pickering (Ngai Tahu, Te Atiawa) said "I have had a good life, I have travelled the world and met all sorts of people".
Born in Otakou on April 6, 1909, Mrs Pickering (nee Ellison) said the secret to her longevity was "eating the right food, and keeping busy".
And the right food? "Vegetables," she said.
The third of nine children, Mrs Pickering attended school in Otakou, before attending Te Wai Pounamu College, in Christchurch.
After five years she returned home, and in 1929 joined the Methodist Waiata Maori Choir, which took the 20-year-old contralto all over New Zealand and the world.
One of nine specially selected for the choir, including bass-baritone opera singer Inia Te Wiata, Mrs Pickering performed the "the length and breadth" of the country with proceeds from performances going to the Methodist Mission.
Mrs Pickering said she was "lucky enough" to go overseas with the choir, and travelled by ship to Australia and Europe where the choir performed for such dignitaries as King George VI and his daughter Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) at Buckingham Palace.
After several years' working as a deaconess in the central North Island and training as a nurse, she returned to the family farm, worked at Otakou Fisheries and at Briscoes in Dunedin before marrying her husband, George, in 1964.
He died in 2003.
Being involved in the Methodist church and the Maori community were an important part of her life, she said.
Known as "Auntie Mori" to the hundreds of friends and whanau who celebrated her birthday yesterday, Mrs Pickering marked the occasion by singing a waiata.
A resident of St Andrews home in Dunedin, she enjoyed keeping her mind active by completing crosswords and playing patience.
