Mr and Mrs Gaze, aged 98 and 96 respectively, will celebrate their anniversary at Totara Lodge Rest Home on Monday.
Mrs Gaze said the couple had always worked together, looked after each other and enjoyed their family.
"We've had a very good life. We've been very lucky. We've seen a lot of the world," she said.
The couple grew up in England, where Mrs Gaze (nee Guildford) was a childhood friend of her future husband's sister.
After a three-year engagement, they were married in the Holy Trinity Church, Wealdstone, Middlesex, on July 28, 1934.
The bride wore a white lace dress made by her future mother-in-law.
The couple bought an old car and drove to Devon for their honeymoon.
They spent their days there swimming and going for walks.
While serving in the army in World War 2, Mr Gaze was taken prisoner of war and his wife and young children did not see him for four years.
He became friends with a man from Gore who told him how good it was living in New Zealand.
The family moved to New Zealand in 1951, spending eight years in Gore before moving to North Otago, where they had a poultry farm at Hilderthorpe.
They moved into Totara Lodge two and a-half years ago, Mrs Gaze said.
While they had a "big do" for their 50th, 60th and 70th anniversaries, nothing major was planned for their 74th.
The couple have four children - Margaret, Barry (deceased), Jean and Bob - 11 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren, with another great-grandchild on the way.
The longest recorded marriage between two New Zealanders is 76 years, between the late Mr and Mrs D. S. Prince, of Palmerston North.
They were married in 1883, in Wanganui.
