The people sending birthday cards to Wallace Price for his 100th birthday ranged from Queen Elizabeth to Taranaki iwi Ngati Ruanui.The card from the iwi made him reminisce about his boyhood in the North Island and the sight of "beautiful old Maori wahines with mokos".
"Words fail me ... it is a sight which will never be seen again," he said, holding back the tears.
Mr Price, of Invercargill, was the oldest living descendant of Sophia Hinerangi, principal tourist guide at the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana.
His grandfather, Charles Primrose Murdoch, was the first commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and settled in Dunedin in the 1870s.
Mr Price was born in Auckland and moved to Dunedin in 1932, where he enlisted to join World War 2 in 1939.
"I never got overseas but I did army work in and around Wellington."
He did not know the secret to a long life: "It is beyond me."
A career outdoors helped him stay healthy, he said. The best job he had was 35 years as a carpenter in Bluff.
He has two children, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and celebrated his birthday surrounded by family and friends in Dunedin on Saturday.
