And the day could not be better after a crisp start in the alpine setting. The railway village, normal population about 50, is today inundated with warm memories of visitors gathered to mark the centennial of the economic lifeline to the West Coast.
His father Jack worked in the local depot for the electric locomotives which once hauled steam trains through the tunnel.
Mr Yardley recalls life as good in Otira where he saw out his primary school days, helped the milkman deliver around the village on frosty mornings, and roamed the mountains with his mates.
"We used to spend quite a lot of time in the bush ... I can't remember rain. It was all good fun."
For Kay Slattery (nee Tredinnick), visiting from Waikato, her return was also a trip down memory lane.
She grew up in a typical railway family in the 1960s, moving around the countryside regularly, but her time in Otira brings back fond memories.
Her train examiner father Ted did two stints at the remote railway outpost, from 1942 for a few years, and then returning in the 1960s, while her mother Peg worked in the Otira Post Office.
"It was a cool place to grow up in - as long as you didn't want shops!"
For Jenny Barrer, the celebrations today continue her family's 107-year association with the Arthur's Pass and Otira area.
Her grandparents Guy and Grace Butler were connected to Jacks Hut, and there are family links to one of the early hotels at Otira as well.
"Our family association is 107 years, since when my grandparents went to Arthur's Pass," Ms Barrer notes.
She shared an anecdote of walking into the Otira Hotel as a child to get some honey for blisters on her feet and having the thrill of a jigger ride back through the tunnel to Arthur's Pass after the kind offer of a railway man to save her the long walk home.
"I've never forgotten that man on the jigger."
The family continues to own the very first tunneller's cottage built at Arthur's Pass in the 1900s, open to the public tomorrow afternoon.
"Our place has been a nurturing place for people. This is real New Zealand," Ms Barrer said.
Elizabeth Wilson, of Waikanae, recalls a happy time as a young family in Otira, with lifelong links established in the New Zealand-wide railway community 40 years ago.
She and railwayman husband Ian and their three young children lived in Otira and she recalls an active sense of community.
"We had a lovely little railway house, just on the other side of the playground. In fact, we ladies built the playground. We had a really good playcentre up here.
"We had lots of children here in those days - it was a great community. We had good times ... It was a good life and we don't regret it."
"It's fantastic. Look at it, so many people," Mrs Lash said.
"This is brilliant. This is beyond my expectations."
She paid tribute to the organisers, "the guardians of the history of Otira".
They had set the stage to mark a milestone in the history of the West Coast which had also been very significant for the South Island economy in the past 100 years.
"We're built on history. We're inclined to forget that at times. The Otira Tunnel gave so much for the Coast and vice versa," Mrs Lash said.
By Brendon McMahon
