Much had changed when the couple moved out more than six decades later, although their love for each other has remained the same.
The couple celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary today, although their friendship spans even longer.
They first met when Mr Cockroft was 16, and Mrs Cockroft just 14.
Mrs Cockroft said what had drawn her to her husband was the fact he was very nice, gentle and kind "and he still is".
She said the pair had been best friends for 70 years.
The couple’s first home was on Morgans Rd, where they lived until the start of this year.
She said when her friends found out where their new house was they asked, "why on earth would you want to move all the way out there?".
She woke up after her first night in the house and she could hear "a whole lot of old men coughing".
She soon discovered those old men were a flock of sheep.
Mr Cockroft said in those days, Morgans Rd was a single lane shingle road that all the sheep trucks would use.
It was rural delivery, and all of the letterboxes were on a corner.
With farm land all around them, people would cycle in from further afield and leave their bicycles in a pile there before catching the bus into town.
They would pick their bikes up after the bus ride back and ride them home.
He said the bicycles never got stolen.
While they had lived there, the area had slowly changed.
The government had bought the land around Tekapo and Hawea Sts and bulldozed it to put in state housing.
Then Morgans Rd was turned into a two-lane highway in preparation for a royal visit.
Mr Cockroft said, "Jean’s mother was an exceptional mother-in-law".
The couple had five children: Suzanne, Nigel, Mark, Simon and Stefan.
When Mrs Cockroft went back to work in the ’80s and ’90s after her children had finished school, she could remember the younger women asking her how long she had been married.
They were not shocked at the number of years she had been married, but they were shocked that it was all to the same person.
"It was a lifetime commitment."
She said while it was more common now not to be with the same person, back then with no domestic purposes benefit (DPB) women could be stuck in bad, violent relationships.
She could understand how some women would have to escape.
"I feel I’ve been lucky."
She also felt lucky that — as a newly-married young couple — they had been in a position to own a freshly-built home.
She said it was easier than it is now "getting a house at such a young age".
Mr Cockroft had worked as an automotive engineer like his father, but after discovering that he did not like working under cars, he had quickly transferred to being an electrical engineer.
She said the couple were "complete opposites, really".
Mr Cockroft felt they had worked well together, as they both came from good parents and good homes.
He said the pair were quite fortunate and lucky.
