Joan Gardiner has some advice for the single girls out there.
‘‘Just enjoy the music. Don’t get outraged by things, eat well, be kind and just do what you want to do,’’ the 100-year-old said.
Miss Gardiner celebrated her birthday with friends at her home at Brooklands Retirement Village in Mosgiel yesterday.
The day also brought a stream of visits, phone calls, bouquets and cards, including one from King Charles and Queen Camilla, for the popular and active centenarian, who only gave up driving two months ago.
Born in Nelson, Miss Gardiner and her twin sister Margaret, older sister Janet and their mother, moved to Dunedin before the twins turned 1.
They were joined shortly after by their mother’s sister.
‘‘It was only girls in the home, we were all brought up together.’’
Until her sister Margaret died in 2023, the twins, neither having married nor had children, were inseparable.
They had been living together at Brooklands for 14 years.
A lack of male figures in their lives had strengthened the sisters’ bond.
Miss Gardiner recalled her father’s ‘‘peculiar aversion’’ to twins, having left her mother to raise the three girls on her own shortly after the twins’ birth.
‘‘[Mother] just got on with it, she was a very strong woman.’’
Their mother made sure both girls were taught an instrument growing up.
Miss Gardiner showed strong interest in the violin and her sister played piano, both sisters excelling as musicians.
‘‘Our neighbour … taught us. She would put on shows at the end of the year and we would perform in them.’’
She was eventually offered a scholarship at Trinity College in London.
‘‘They asked me if I would like to go. But then they said I suppose you wouldn’t want to leave your sister. She always played with me, you see, and like a little duck, I just said ‘no, I don’t think I would’.’’
The twins became members of the King Edward Technical College Symphony Orchestra in Dunedin in 1952, Miss Gardiner becoming it’s first principal violinist.
The pair would perform together for the next 60 years.
‘‘It was a jolly good outfit they had.’’
Miss Gardiner was recently awarded a life membership by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, and after retiring, still attended every concert performed.
On reaching the age of 100 unmarried, she said she just kept her mind on her music.
‘‘I have plenty of dear male friends, but avoiding them for marriage was easy,’’ she said with a laugh.
Proud to have received recognition from the King and Queen, she noted her go-to drink was gin, as was the late Queen Mother’s.
Her first recollection of receiving the Otago Daily Times also had a royal connection — at age 11 in 1936 she read about King Edward VIII’s abdication.
‘‘It was the first article that interested me.’’
Miss Gardiner attributed her longevity largely to her genes — her mother’s five siblings all lived well into their 90s.
Aside from that it helped to eat well and stay active mentally and physically.
‘‘I’ve had a good life indeed. I’m always busy in retirement, especially when everything takes twice as long.’’