It might be called leisure marching, but there will be no rest for the Nelson Silveraires after attending the annual national display in Dunedin at the weekend.
Aged from 58 to 82, the Silveraires would be back practising in Nelson on Wednesday, preparing for next year's national event in Auckland, team leader Diana Clark (72) said on Saturday.
Brimming with enthusiasm, Mrs Clark and assistant instructor Jan McIlwraith (77) spoke to the Otago Daily Times immediately after the 23-member team's display at the 20th National Leisure Marching Event.
The team had practised their routine for a year, while fundraising with sausage sizzles and the like to pay for the trip.
The Silveraires were among 78 teams to perform at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
Members would be on "tenterhooks" for details of next year's routine, to which their attention turned upon leaving the performance turf on Saturday, Mrs Clark said at the weekend.
"This is our life," Mrs McIlwraith added.
The pair were active marchers in their youth, experience drawn upon to train the others in deportment, posture, and timing.
"We're not leaving [marching] until they carry us out in the coffin," Mrs Clark said.
Many members had lost their husbands, and marching kept them fit, socialising, and having fun, Mrs McIlwraith said.
While most marchers were women, some men had joined their ranks, including Colin Inkster and Brian Wendt in Darfield's Malvern Pacemakers.
Mr Inkster, who earlier supported the team by organising, said he took the place of someone who was ill, and fitted in well, having been in a brass band. It was his first national event.
