"I used to bring my children as a very special treat, what's great about Rush Munro's is that it hasn't changed much at all. The ice cream is still the same, where they serve it is the same, the gardens too," Frances said.
"It used to be a treat, now it's a must have. We all love to come here, we are die hard fans," Anthea added.
Others, like Kate McGregor, remembered working behind the counter scooping ice cream.
"I was privileged to spend my last days as a teen at Rush Munro's before joining the Army," she said.
"Twenty years on, Rush Munro's is still going strong, and I'm still in the Army - I was lucky to be working in the parlour for the 70th birthday celebrations."
An enduring memory for Mrs McGregor was the secrecy surrounding Rush Munro's coveted recipes.
"Back then there were only two people who knew how to make the ice cream, everything was really kept under wraps."
As part of the 90 year celebrations, 90 litres of ice cream has been given away, and last week 90+ year olds ate for free, with groups from retirement villages rolling up by the van load.
One of the first to take a trip down memory lane was 91-year-old Rita Godwin, who used to drop by the ice cream garden after a Sunday drive with her husband.
Rush Munro's was also top of her list when she had visitors staying from out of town.
"We would bring people here to give them a taste of Hawke's Bay, we had friends staying from Australia who just thought it was wonderful, they had never seen anything like it!"
The family of Frederick Charles Rush Munro even came forward to set the record straight on an important detail in the ice cream maker's history.
Mr Rush Munro's eldest granddaughter, Judith McMillan, 76, revealed that ice cream recipes and skills of the confectionary trade were likely passed on by Mr Rush Munro's mother Winifred, not his father as has been widely assumed for decades.
For 90 years the parlour has been a Hawke's Bay institution, selling hand-made, batch-churned ice cream, in single or double scoops, piled high into a peaked cone, or served as a sundae.
To celebrate the milestone, Rush Munro's ran a flavour competition where Hawke's Bay locals could choose a limited edition flavour.
The winner was Yvette May who chose mixed Hawke's Bay berries with white chocolate whip. First to put a new flavour to the test will be room 7 at St Josephs school in Hastings after Madelyn Clement won a class shout through The Hits radio station.
A party will be held at the Garden Parlour on November 19 to celebrate 90 years with lots of fun activities and competitions planned as well as discounted ice creams.
