Family key, says 100-year-old

MILESTONE: Doris Robertson celebrated her 100th birthday at Kerikeri Retirement Village on Friday. PHOTO/PETER DE GRAAF

Be happy and keep your family close - those are the tips for living a long life from Northland's newest centenarian.

Doris Nora Robertson (nee Stone) celebrated her 100th birthday at Kerikeri Retirement Village on Friday with friends, family members and a stack of cards from the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. She was also planning a family party on Saturday at her favourite eatery, Marsden Estate.

Doris reached the milestone in good health - she takes just one pill a day, for her thyroid - and with her cheeky sense of humour fully intact.

Good genes also appear to be part of her longevity. Her older sister, Clarice McLean, lived to just a few weeks shy of her 102nd birthday. Her younger sister, Jean McMurtrie, 93, popped up from Rotorua for the party; while the baby of the family, Phyllis Stone, 88, also lives at the Kerikeri village.

Doris grew up as one of seven siblings in St Heliers, Auckland, when the area was still farmland. Her earliest memories, which go back to the 1920s, are of Jackson, a single-minded horse that pulled the family milk cart around Remuera.

"He was a bit of a devil. He'd make up his own mind. We'd have to climb up his tail to ride him."

Doris married Kenneth Robertson and moved to Penrose, where they raised four children and she became a family legend for her gardening, bottling and cooking skills. The recipe for her lemon meringue pie, and the skills to make it, have been passed down through the generations.

After Ken died more than 50 years ago she stuck even closer to her sisters. Four of the five lived within a few streets of one another in Papakura for 20 years, then all moved to Kerikeri in 2002. Doris lived independently until she was 97.

She has eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren in New Zealand and Canada. A large number travelled to Kerikeri to celebrate her birthday.

"It's a real family," Doris said.