Northland's oldest man has died at the age of 105.
Bill Tuckey, who spent almost his entire life in Rawene, died peacefully at Hokianga Hospital - across the road from his Parnell St home of 67 years - on Sunday.
He will be farewelled with a service at Rawene Town
Hall at 11am on Thursday followed by burial at Rawene Cemetery.
Mr Tuckey lived independently and enjoyed remarkably good health until he was admitted to the hospital's long-stay unit about six months ago.
He moved to Rawene in 1928 and, apart from a break from 1937-50, the town was his home since. He drove until the age of 99, when he voluntarily gave up his licence, and was still gardening when he celebrated his 105th birthday on April 4.
He was born Trevor William Tuckey in Thames in 1912 and was a toddler when his father was sent to World War I. After the war his parents took over the Masonic Hotel in Tauranga but his father, who never recovered from the trenches, died a few years later.
His mother stayed on at the hotel, remarried, then took the family back to the Coromandel to run the Masonic Hotel in Tapu. Later they took on the Masonic in Papakura and in 1928 the Masonic in Rawene.
Mr Tuckey was 16 when he first set eyes on Nora Cochrane. She would walk past the hotel every day on her way to work at the general store. When his parents bought a farm on the next point Mr Tuckey continued his courtship by rowboat. They married in 1934 and had six children.
He worked in dairy factories around Northland until his mother-in-law's death in 1950 brought the family back to Rawene.
As a dairy farm inspector he spent nine years travelling around the district; later he worked as a storeman for the Hokianga County Council and finally for Rawene's general stores, driving to the railhead at Kaikohe to collect goods and delivering them around South Hokianga.
He was a close friend of Hokianga ferry captain Bob Edwards, who later moved to Ngataki and had the distinction of being Northland's oldest man, and New Zealand's oldest driver, for many years. Bob died last year aged 109.
Mr Tuckey had no particular secret to living a long life and seemed surprised by his own longevity. He never smoked or drank more than the odd shandy and was a great believer in the benefits of gardening - he was known for his dahlias and tomatoes - as well as eating plenty of fresh, home-grown vegetables.
He marked his 105th birthday with a get-together at Rawene Town Hall in April for friends, townsfolk and five generations of family. About 100 people from as far away as Bluff attended.
Eldest son Bruce Tuckey, of Kaeo, said he would always be grateful to the people of Rawene for looking after his father so well - and to the staff of Hokianga Hospital who had cared for him as if he was their own father.
"They couldn't do enough for him. You wouldn't get care like that anywhere else," he said.
Mr Tuckey is survived by four of his children and a large number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
