Plenty of golden moments

THROUGH floods and fires, Jack and Esme Smith have never lost their sense of humour.
The Stratford couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently with the help of family and friends.
The couple were married on November 3, 1958, just a few weeks before Esme's 18th birthday.
They met when they both had jobs on farms owned by two brothers, and they've been working together ever since.
It's this that Esme saids the secret to their happy marriage.
"Also talking things through - we've had a few rows but we never got to blows," smiles Jack.
That and a good sense of humour too - there's been plenty of fun along the way, Esme said.
They raised five children, working on several farms around the Stratford area.
Some of their photo albums show snaps of Esme and the kids on horses, a massively flooded Waitara River in 1990, and some of the hill country where they lived at Toko, Huiroa, Ratapiko and Puniwakau.
Over their career they went from using horses for mustering and lambing, to motorbikes. One of the earlier farm bikes Jack used was a modified road bike.
Esme spent many hours cooking for shearers and doing stock work alongside caring for their growing family and the large garden they've always kept.
About 13 years ago they moved back into Stratford, although Jack spent the next 10 years travelling away for weeks at a time, fencing on farms from Taumarunui down to the South Island.
Just seven years ago, their Celia Street burned down, so they moved to their current home, which has a large and productive vegetable garden.
Jack enjoys wood-turning and makes wooden toys in his spare time, while Esme works at the Peoples Activity Centre.
They now have 16 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.