About 100 family members, friends and colleagues from both sides of the Tasman and down the years, including Real Journeys chairman Bill Baylis, of Queenstown, and chief executive Dave Hawkey, of Te Anau, gathered in the Colonel's Homestead to farewell Lindsay and Dianne Westaway.
Mr Westaway said the couple would have "probably liked to have faded into the shadows", but colleagues would not have a bar of it.
"Underneath, we're quite excited," Mr Westaway said on Thursday.
He had all the responsibilities of a farmer, with the added tasks of a tourist operator.
He ensured there was a constant supply of woolly sheep from central Southland for his shearing demonstrations. Some 2500 sheep were needed every year.
He maintained family and staff's electricity, water and sewage utilities, which has called for No 8 wire resourcefulness on more than one occasion. He once jury-rigged the failed power generator to a Land Rover engine to tide them over when 100 visitors were minutes away on the steamship
"The show goes on, with guests with expectations that have to be met," he said.
Mrs Westaway (67) was responsible for making and presenting delicious morning and afternoon teas, involving "millions" of pikelets over the years. She was in charge of the presentation of the Colonel's Homestead and gardens, employing and rostering staff and managing the Woolshed gift shop.
She home-schooled their five children to secondary school level and was a surrogate mother to countless staff on site over the years, up to 15 each summer.
She taught their five children to count using the pikelets she made every day.
"But they missed out on some family outings, like going to the beaches," Mrs Westaway said.
Isolation had other drawbacks. The rhythm of their lives was dictated by the sailing times of tourist boats, although Mr Westaway fondly remembered hitching a ride on a hovercraft.
The couple's biggest worry was always a staff or guest medical emergency happening at night.
Mrs Westaway decided on retirement because she felt she wasn't putting in 100%, "and I only want to do 100%, or more. The body says I've had enough, it's time to relax."
It was also time she was a kept woman, she said, laughing.
Her last day was on Friday, but she will help out when required until April, when Mr Westaway also retires and they move back to Canterbury. The couple will live temporarily at their Queenstown property and Mr Westaway will catch Earnslaw to work.
Boxes of treasures and memories of family life were everywhere within the 99-year-old, five-bedroomed Ardmore House, which has been home to the Westaways for 37 years.
Beds have to be folded up, paintings taken down and the kitchen stripped of most appliances, in time for the arrival of two Westaway sons in a removal van driven the long way round from Queenstown, much of the 230km journey on unsealed roads.
The welcome by the Westaways on Thursday was as warm and genuine as the spring sunshine and this Otago Daily Times reporter was treated as if he was a long-lost relative. But the Westaways are masters of New Zealand hospitality and their ease with one another and with strangers speaks of a lifetime of raising a family and running a business together in an isolated place.
They share an acute knowledge of what works and does not work in tourism and a willingness to adapt to changing markets and cultural differences.
Mr Westaway can envisage a time when a prayer room will be needed on the property.
"Tourist expectations have changed from 'she'll be right, burned chops on the barbecue', to 'no, she won't be right, it's got to be much better'," he said.
"We've got to be two jumps ahead of expectations."
Mrs Westaway said tourist expectations had risen as visitors now had more destinations to experience and compare than 40 years ago.
Comment,good or bad word, was available worldwide at the touch of a button, "which keeps you on your toes. You can't afford to slip up".
A career in tourism and a life at Walter Peak came about when Mr Westaway pursued his enjoyment of agriculture and international relations in 1974.
Greeting overseas guests as part of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce's reception committee for the Commonwealth Games sparked his interest in tourism.
The couple answered an advertisement for farm experienced staff for a small tourism venture near Queenstown. Mrs Westaway gave up her teaching career and the family were thrown in the deep end, catering to 12,000 guests a year, a number which eventually rose to 130,000 a year.
They had power for only eight hours a day for the first decade.
"We had two small children and weren't too sure how it was going to work out," Mrs Westaway said.
Instead, they outlasted two operators and have been Real Journeys employees since 1991.
They survived fire and floods, and they still felt a buzz when Earnslaw cruised in, as "we don't known who is going to hop off the boat".
Their natural bonhomie has engaged visitors from all walks of life.
Mr Westaway was poured a drink at the homestead bar by the King of Malaysia, a rare honour. The prime minister of Singapore asked him what he thought of the New Zealand prime minister of the time, days before he met him.
The Duke of Westminster traded farming yarns with him and gave him his card, in case he was ever in London.
However, "everyone's a VIP to us", Mrs Westaway said.
It had been a joy to see Queenstown expand and tourism become more sophisticated, she said.
"We have been part of that wonderful growth. We knew all the operators and we had wonderful camaraderie."
Mr Westaway agreed and said he recommended a career in tourism for any young person.
"There's so much opportunity."
