‘‘It certainly doesn't feel like I've been around for 100 years. Sometimes I think I'm still only about 69 or 70,'' she said.
Mrs Waldron celebrated the occasion with her family, who gathered from around New Zealand and Australia, with four generations at her birthday party last weekend.
When the Otago Daily Times visited Mrs Waldron at Elmslie House yesterday, she was reading a gardening book given to her by her daughter Jane, and was surrounded by the many cards from friends and well-wishers.
She was sure that growing up in the country and working farms in her youth had ensured her a long life, she said.
‘‘I was lucky to be bought up in the country and was often used to having to do a lot of the men's work on the farm.''
Mrs Waldron (nee Giller) was born in Invercargill and grew up on her parents' farm near Tiwai Point. She was educated at Southland Girls High School and later trained as a plunket nurse.
Her parents moved to Mossburn and while working and living at Mt Linton Station she met her husband-to-be, Gerald Waldron, an English shepherd, who had recently moved to New Zealand after spending his youth farming in Argentina.
The pair married in Mossburn in 1941 and lived in Gore, Winton, and Otautau, with the family moving due to Mr Waldron's employment as a stock agent and auctioneer. They retired to Wanaka in 1976. Mr Waldron died in 1990.
Mrs Waldron said she had many happy memories of life in the country and the ‘‘marvellous outdoors' lifestyle''. She played golf off a 17 handicap and was a keen gardener before she moved into Elmslie House six years ago.
Mrs Waldron has two daughters, Jane and Sue, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
