The houses love built over 60 years

Hope and Colin Wade have spent 60 years together. Photo / Ruth Keber

Colin and Hope Wade celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary by building their third blue, red and white house.

Every 20 years the couple buy land and build a white, red and blue house to mark another milestone in their marriage.

Their first house anniversary house was built in Tuapiro Bay, Katikati, the second 20 years later, a section in Waihau Bay which they built on later, and now the last home in The Avenues in Tauranga.

The couple met at Tauranga College, now known as Tauranga Boys' College, in 1949 and were married January 8, 1955.

Colin Wade said the love birds would go dancing at the Tauriko Farmers' Club and Country Girls' Club. "She had pig tails, was a good dancer and had a mind of her own, which is essential if you are going to do anything in life."

Mr Wade said he knew his wife was the one about two years after their first meeting.

Three years after getting married the first of their five children, Melody, arrived. They had four more children, Gwendolyn, Nigel, Leandre and Pyteena.

The family initially lived on a 153-acre diary farm in the Lower Kaimai Range but as the children got older and started wanting to ride horses they moved to another dairy farm in Tairua.

The couple spent 25 years in Tairua before purchasing the first anniversary home, which took them seven years to find.

They had come back to Tauranga to look at a section at Kauri Point, near Tuapiro but found a section in Katikati instead.

The second was a home-away-from-home, Mr Wade said.

"Somewhere the whole family could enjoy. Far enough away if you forgot something you couldn't come back for it. It was literally an 8-hour drive for us but we would go up one week a month, mainly to help the locals.

"We would take fruit from where we were and planted fruit trees up there too."

Another 20 years on and the couple find themselves back in Tauranga, where they first met.

Mrs Wade said they called the three houses Serendipity 1, Serendipity 2 and Serendipity 3.

"We are growers, when we grow things it's a delightful unexpected surprise, serendipity is a delightful unexpected surprise.

The colour scheme of the three houses was not patriotic, but a set of colours the couple both liked, she said.

"We wanted to be different and loved the red roof. I love colour."

Mr Wade put the success of 60 years together down to tolerance.

"You cannot say you do not have any arguments, especially if you have your own ideas. We are absolute opposites, yet it work. She likes cold I like hot. She is into music and I can't play a note.

"She likes scholars and I was no scholar at school, I used to run across the top of the desks. Yet we can dance together very well, we worked through life, give and take a bit."

Now happily settled with their last white, blue and red house the couple do not plan on moving again.