A Wellington woman has returned to the same spot for 51 years. PAUL YANDALL reports.
It takes Eve Roberts three days to drive from Wellington to Gisborne in her Honda Civic.
For one who has made the trip every year since 1950, it might seem like an unnecessarily long time.
"But it's worth
it, I tell you," says the sparkling 74-year-old with a cheeky grin.
"They've got the friendliest people in the world in Gisborne."
The Dunedin-born woman has become a local holiday icon on the East Coast.
For 51 years she has returned to stay at Gisborne's Waikanae Beach Holiday Park, making her the camp's longest returning merry-maker.
Her husband, Bill, died four years ago, but she has continued making the annual pilgrimage.
But because she is on her own, she now stops for two nights in Hastings for a rest before continuing her drive north.
The couple came to the holiday park 51 years ago during a trip to Ruatoria.
"Bill wanted to see if it was true that the locals had to carry their horse saddles with them into the movie theatre so they wouldn't be stolen. It was true," says Mrs Roberts.
The couple rented a spot at the camp grounds for their truck at seven shillings a night.
Mrs Roberts has rented the same spot and stayed the same three weeks, December 23 to January 14, ever since.
The death of her husband didn't stop the spritely mother of three making the holiday trip.
"That was hard. I thought that it would be too lonely. But it hasn't, you know.
"I have lot of friends here and [the camp] really looks after me."
She now rents a modest tourist cabin built near the spot she and Bill first came to stay.
Holiday park manager Leslie Greaves says Mrs Roberts has become part of the furniture.
"She's a bit of a character all right. She likes a drink and she likes the merry-making, but we don't mind at all."
Mrs Roberts celebrates Christmas and New Year at the local RSA.
"All my friends are there but there are fewer and fewer of them every year," she says.
She now has diabetes and recently broke her right ankle in a fall.
"But I'm OK. As long as I can get up and go, I'll be coming back for more, don't you worry about that."
