Centenarian witnesses evolution of Cromwell

It was a celebration fit for a Queen — and rightly so.

To mark her 100th birthday last month, Audrey Cowie was picked up from her Cromwell home in a marque which matched the year she was born and driven to Pisa Moorings for a celebratory lunch.

On the way, the centenarian was taken for a victory lap around the track at Highlands Motorsport Park in a 1926 Chrysler 50 Roadster, obviously at a dignified pace.

A gracious and charming lady, Mrs Cowie (nee Willson) still lives independently in the town where she was born at the St Helens Maternity Hospital on March 16, 1926.

Central Otago has always been her home.

The youngest of three siblings, she grew up on a dairy farm at Quartz Reef Point, below Northburn Station, which was later flooded by Lake Dunstan when the Clyde Dam was built.

To attend Lowburn School, Mrs Cowie and her siblings would walk to the Lowburn Punt to cross the Clutha River.

She later attended Cromwell District High School and left at 14 to work on the family farm.

Her work included helping to milk the cows via Pelton wheel-powered machines.

Dances in the district provided regular social gatherings, including at the Lowburn Hall where the last punt left at midnight and it was a long walk home via the Cromwell Bridge otherwise.

She lived on the family farm until she was 23 and married Matthew Cowie on March 4, 1950.

He had joined the Royal Navy in World War 2 and served on a mine sweeper in the Persian Gulf, returning to Cromwell in 1946.

The wedding was held at the Methodist Church in Lowburn and a newspaper report of the nuptials recounted how the bride looked ‘‘charming in a gown of cream cloque’’ and carried a bouquet of white gladioli.

The couple, who had six children, settled on a farm called Deer Park near Tarras, which did not actually have deer but instead was a mixed farm with sheep and cropping.

Previous owners, the Munros, had named it Deer Park supposedly after wild deer that came down from the hills.

It was not a big transition to being a farmer’s wife as Mrs Cowie was used to working outside.

They lived only a mile from the Tarras Store, which was handy and she became involved in the community, including Plunket as well as school and sports groups.

In 1990, the Cowies shifted to Cromwell. Mr Cowie was too fit to do nothing, so he helped out orchardist Doug Jones.

He died 14 years ago.

Mrs Cowie believed there would be few places in New Zealand that had undergone such change as Cromwell.

When she was growing up, the population of the town was about 800 and her family knew most people there.

‘‘Now I go to the supermarket and don’t know a soul,’’ she said.

Surrounded by congratulatory cards and birthday wishes, Mrs Cowie described herself as ‘‘one of the lucky ones’’.

She never considered not returning home after breaking a hip several years ago and did not have any aches or pains.

Not one for a fuss, she said she had lived ‘‘the most boring sort of life’’ and turning 100 was ‘‘just another day’’. 

While there was no real secret to reaching the milestone, she described herself as a fairly placid person, who could ‘‘take things and get on’’ and wondered if that had made a difference.

Her cousin was turning 100 in September but no other family members had come close to that milestone.

Mrs Cowie has nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

sally.rae@odt.co.nz