An unforgettable encounter at South Otago\u2019s Milton Railway Station during May 1953 was the beginning of a long romance for Ted and Irene McCreath.<\/p>\n
The Rangiora couple, who will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary with family and friends on March 16, still have clear, fond memories of their first meeting at the station.<\/p>\n
Irene, who was then working as a secretary in Milton, was visiting the station to give Ted a torch which had been borrowed and needed to be returned to his family.<\/p>\n
Ted was disembarking from the train on his way back to his family home in Lumsden, in northern Southland, on leave from the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).<\/p>\n
There was an instant attraction between the two, and when Ted\u2019s leave was over he asked Irene if he could write to her while he was travelling the world, visiting the Falkland Islands, India, Pakistan China, Malta and Scotland during his enlistment with the RNZN.<\/p>\n
She agreed and they began a courtship mainly by correspondence which culminated in their engagement in Auckland during December 1953.<\/p>\n
At that time, Ted was based in Auckland with the Navy for the late Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s New Zealand visit and, although it was a long way for Irene to travel from her South Otago home in Waihola, near Milton, the young couple were eager to see each other after a long time apart.<\/p>\n
Irene planned to travel to Auckland by train, but Ted intervened paying for her to fly to the city instead.<\/p>\n
His decision proved fortuitous because if she had not flown to Auckland, Irene would have been on board the Christmas Eve express train that plunged into the Whangaehu River after a bridge collapsed, killing 151 people in what became known as the Tangiwai train disaster.<\/p>\n
The couple married a little over two years later, on March 16 in 1956, at Dunedin\u2019s First Church and spent their honeymoon in Oamaru.<\/p>\n
Their wedding was \u2018\u2018a lovely day, with everything going according to plan\u2019\u2019, Ted said.<\/p>\n
But in the lead-up to the big day he was \u2018\u2018blissfully unaware\u2019\u2019 of the dramas unfolding which began with the wedding car – a beautiful big, black American Studebaker – being badly damaged when it crashed into the the back of a bus.<\/p>\n
It had to be replaced with a Humber Super Snipe on the day which was just as nice, Ted said.<\/p>\n
Irene’s dad, Jack Anderton, also had a bad accident before the wedding.<\/p>\n
He was taken to hospital with suspected concussion, but insisted on being at the wedding for Irene and appears in the couple’s wedding photos with a large white bandage wrapped around his head.<\/p>\n
Two years before Irene and Ted married, his sister Maureen McCreath married Irene\u2019s brother Jim Anderton – no relation to the former New Zealand politician – and they have remained close life-long friends.<\/p>\n
Ted left the Navy before he and Irene married and the couple originally lived in Milton, where Ted drove trucks for a living. Eventually, he moved to various other firms based throughout Otago and Southland, before the couple settled in Invercargill during 1966.<\/p>\n
They lived there for 27 years before building their retirement cottage at Coopers Creek, a remote part of Sandy Point Domain, near Invercargill. They also bought an old bus, turned it into a mobile home and spent their early retirement years travelling around New Zealand, taking months at a time to explore the country and now have many good friends nationwide from that time.<\/p>\n
The couple only came to Rangiora to live last year.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018We moved to Rangiora in September 2025 to be nearer our two daughters, Kathleen, in Rangiora, and Karen, in Kaiapoi, and their young families,\u2019\u2019 Ted said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Our son Calum lives in Waldronville, a suburb of Dunedin, and our eldest son Ivan died in Auckland in 2017, aged 60 years.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The move from their retirement cottage in Coopers Creek, where they had lived for 33 years was a \u2018\u2018huge wrench\u2019\u2019 having to leave so many of their friends behind.<\/p>\n
But being closer to Kathleen, Karen and their families has been \u2018\u2018lovely\u2019\u2019, and Rangiora is proving to be a welcoming and friendly place to live, they say.<\/p>\n