"So much, but it's all gone now. It was a busy district in those days, with a population of about 1000. The community was active with high teas, balls, dancing, tennis and swimming. We had five grocers there. Now I think there is one. We had our own butcher and baker, post shop, but again all gone now."
Mrs Tankard's grandmother established the first tea rooms in Tolaga Bay where she would make soup for travellers coming home.
"They would turn up at all hours of the night and the soup would be ready."
When the family travelled from Tolaga Bay to Gisborne, it took a whole day by horse and carriage, she said.
"We used to go along the beach, smashing along in the coach. I was terrified.
"We would leave about eight in the morning and get in about six at night. Now it's a 20-minute drive down the road."
Mrs Tankard said she loved to sing when she was growing up as her mother was a pianist.
Educated at home in Tolaga Bay, Mrs Tankard said she then moved away to study maternity nursing but was never able to complete her training because of the war.
Mrs Tankard met the love of her life at 16 - Vincent Spencer Tankard, who at the time lived in Tokomaru Bay. Known as Tom to his close friends and family, he would cycle the 35km down to Tolaga to see his sweetheart.
"He used to say years later, how did I do it? Those bikes we had had no gears. We weren't girlfriend and boyfriend so much. More companions. We would climb the hills and went swimming, all the things kids do. He was two years older than me.
"You had to make your own fun of course. He was a nice boy. I wouldn't have married him otherwise."
However, the outbreak of World War II meant the couple could not marry.
"He didn't get to say goodbye. He went before the first echelon, with the advanced guard as a signaller."
Mrs Tankard said her beau had been based in Cairo, Egypt, and was stationed there for four years. They only had love letters from each other to keep their romance going but, when he did arrive home, they were married within two weeks.
In a borrowed wedding dress, Mrs Tankard said it was the best day of her life.
"He was just a nice chap, a nice-looking boy and we got along so well."
Sadly, the war intervened again and Mr Tankard was then posted to Italy for the first year of their marriage.
Home for good, the couple moved to their first home together just outside of Opotiki where Mr Tankard completed a farming cadetship. The couple then bought their own dairy farm in Reporoa and moved on to Tauranga about 40 years ago.
The couple had three children, Spencer, Warwick and David.
"They were much the same ages, three in three years. I was 30 years by then. All my friends had had babies in their 20s. But the war came you see."
Mr Tankard died just over 40 years ago, one of the biggest tragedies in Mrs Tankard's life.
They had been married 30 years.
"It's been a long time without my mate, yes. He died of a heart attack. We had been playing tennis the day before. It's very sad but these things happen don't they."
Mrs Tankard, who lives independently in a retirement village, said the success to reaching her 100th year was her positive attitude to life.
"Being occupied, being happily occupied. You have your bad periods. After my husband died, I picked up the pieces. I had one of my boys behind me. I've always been good, contented."
Mrs Tankard said she had just spent the last two years writing memoirs of her life, I Have Walked 100 Years.
Surrounded by photographs of her life, Mrs Tankard spends her days reading books and keeping up to date with current affairs with magazines such as The Listener and North and South.
