Mrs Heazlewood, 82, nee Schmelz, is originally from Dunedin, and her husband, 85, moved there from Christchurch when he was 5.
Mr Heazlewood has the same nickname, "Toucher", as his father Leo, who earned it during a long career as a rugby player where legend had it he never missed touch.
Leo Heazlewood played for Otago, Wellington, Auckland and Canterbury and, Graeme said, made the All Blacks once only to be injured and have his place taken by the legendary George Nepia.
The couple met on a blind date in Dunedin, on the steps of the chief post office, on May 8, 1961, then attended a capping concert.
"We didn’t like to laugh as the jokes were so dirty," Mr Heazlewood said.
More than four years later they married at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Hillside Rd.
Mr Heazlewood started as a plumbing and gas fitting apprentice before going out on his own, while Mrs Heazlewood was a typist for the public service.
Mr Heazlewood played rugby for Zingari-Richmond then took up coaching.
But his main sporting involvement was with basketball, and he was a key influence in the early years of the Otago Nuggets.
They had three children, Christopher, Nicky and Jeremy and regularly had summer and skiing holidays in Arrowtown.
They bought a holiday home in Arrowtown in 1992.
About two years later, a plumbing and gasfitting course Mr Heazlewood taught at the Otago Polytechnic was shut down, and Mrs Heazlewood lost her job as PA to the Post Office district manager so, as she says, "all roads led to Arrowtown".
Mr Heazlewood immediately found work as a building inspector.
He was a member of the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board.
The couple took up bowls at Arrowtown Bowling Club, winning club championships and representing Central Otago.
Mrs Heazlewood later became a Central Otago and Arrowtown selector.
They inadvertently hit the news in 2009 when a young driver smashed through their fence and somersaulted into their newly renovated pool.
For several years, the couple also ran an accommodation business, "Heazlewoods", from their home.
They have both had health wobbles of late, but Mrs Heazlewood was delighted to report she returned to the bowling greens two weeks ago for the first time in two years.
As to the secret behind a long marriage, she says, "just being supportive of each other".
"We’ve both had our differences, but I think with us both having an interest in sport, that has been a good thing."
