By Julie Walls - Focus Media
On 25 April 2026, 76 women gathered at Distinction Te Anau Hotel & Villas for the 50th celebratory dinner to share the many happy memories attending the celebrations.
This made the event a re-joining of out of town ex members creating lots of chatter with old friends of the past.
Fiordland has a unique club of different organizations that have reached their 50th year in operation. Fiordland Women’s Club is another club to reach that milestone.
Guest speaker for the evening was, a Research Fellow at the Dunedin Study. With a research focus on preventive brain health and how early life shapes the ageing brain. She is particularly interested in what midlife biomarkers can tell is about dementia risk and whether we can intervene when symptoms appear. Her work spans retinal imaging as a non-invasive marker of brain health, and blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, all explored through the Dunedin Study's lifecourse data.
A Dunedin local, Ashleigh has been involved with the study in multiple ways, including as a research interviewer at the age-45 and age-52 assessment phases.
Marie Galland and Judith Risk, both inaugural and still current members after 50 years, shared in the cutting of the cake.
The club’s popularity has changed over the years since Jaye Brown floated the idea of a women’s only club with no plates or stitchery, plant or vegetable growing to her newly found friends over coffee, 50 years ago.
Jaye proposed a few ladies gathering to share a meal, perhaps a wine and a speaker.
The club proposal quickly gained momentum and popularity, where venues were sought and Fiordland Women’s Club was under way.
The club originally had up to 100 members and long waiting lists. Today the list have been abolished and now enables all interested women to immediately become members. The current membership is 65 members.
The speakers have been varied in past 50 years such as Carmen, Tim Shadbolt, Gary Tong, Paula Ryan, British Ambassador Anne Crawford who battled a heart/lung transplant, Robyn Broughton-Netball Stalwart, Professors and Fiordlanders’ who have shared their knowledge, passions and talents. It has been a privilege to be entertained by these wonderful speakers!
There have been a number of establishments in Te Anau who have hosted the monthly meetings but the pressure of tourism has not enabled them to accommodate the numbers over the season. The Kea Café has been the venue for the meetings for a number of years now.
President Pam Smith, a relatively new member to the club, joining in 2018 and now in her fourth term as President said: “I believe we still have increasing interest in joining the club. The speakers have included people from around Southland and further afield.
I am amazed at how we have so many talented and interesting people around Fiordland”
“I was extremely pleased with the success of our 60th celebrations. An excellent venue and speaker, Dr Ashleigh Barrett-Young. All credit goes to our organizing committee of Ann Campbell Sharen Bradley Marilyn Hunter and Marie Galland.”, she said.
The club meets on the last Thursday evening of the month.
