Former firefighter and Queenstown RSA past president Lyall McGregor decided to hunt out his old lighting equipment from his days as an entertainer and set it up in the garden.
"I have always had this idea in the back of my mind to light up the garden."
When Mr McGregor and his wife, Ann, moved from Dunedin to their Fernhill house in 1970, keen gardener Mrs McGregor set about planting trees that have "grown up with us".
Last Saturday night, the eve of their wedding anniversary, Mr McGregor flooded those trees with a mixture of purple, green, yellow and orange light.
‘"I put a speaker outside and ran a real, sort of, haunting Ave Maria classical track. It was quite spectacular actually."
The pair met in Dunedin when the drummer of Lyall’s then-band, Cord 3, set them up on a blind date.
It was then 18 months before the question was popped and they had kept things fresh ever since by travelling and just generally "sticking together".
The couple have a son, Carey, daughter, Dalice, and grandson, Van.
The special evening was caught on camera by friend Alison Metherell from a safe distance and the celebration was topped off with a candlelit meal.
A bottle of Champagne was supplied by Dalice, who had been dropping off shopping at their house during the Covid-19 lockdown.
