Originally from Pukerau, a tiny rural settlement in Southland, she now lives in Queenstown, yet all these years later still has her original pedigree doll.
She has a lot of dolls and they all have stories.
"I have my first doll from the 1960s, and two of them are from when I was younger than 5."
Mrs Kabuji’s mother was a maker of porcelain dolls.
Mrs Kabuji believed her doll collecting probably began through that early association.
On top of that she was a sentimental young girl, and had "kept every single one since."
When she moved from Southland to Timaru, then to Christchurch and down to Queenstown, she took the dolls with her.
"I have actually not counted them, but there would be 300 to 400 dolls.
"I am not a hoarder but I am very sentimental about things, and I keep things and I have a dolls collection. I have always held on to them."
Like others that felt attachment to a pet, she felt an attachment to the dolls.
She stopped short of saying they were like having daughters, because she had two of her own.
"That’s going too far.
"A lot of them I have collected because I don’t like them going to the landfill.
"In my retirement I wanted to fix them up, dress them and sell them. I like to save them."
But had the time had come to sell, because she and her husband were moving to Australia.
"A lot of them are beautiful.
"I have quite a few, it’s a bit embarrassing really."
While she would have loved to have passed them on to her daughters and granddaughters, she said most young girls did not play with dolls anymore.
"They are too busy on their phones nowadays."
As a result, Mrs Kabuji posted them on Facebook marketplace and would be happy to sell half of them.
"They take up too much space."
Pedigree was a type of doll popular while she was growing up.
One doll named "Trudie" was made of hard rubber and had "beautiful hair".
Mrs Kabuji preferred the smaller pedigree dolls with curly hair, she said.
She said the past decade had seen the most growth in her collection and she admitted it had become a bit of an obsession.
"Only in the last seven to five years that it’s really grown and got out of control.
"I can see the funny side."
