Newspaper Article 1993 – Whirlwind trip to wedding at 97

Whirlwind trip to wedding at 97

Ninety-seven-year-old Beatrice Heays made a whirlwind trip from Hastings to her old home, Terangi [Te Rangi], inland from Tutira, on Saturday.

Her granddaughter was being married and she wanted to be there. She decided “to go home in a helicopter”.

It was Mrs Heay’s first flight in a helicopter – a vastly different experience from the ride on horseback she used to have to make to Napier.

Pilot Paul Wolff made the trip so that Mrs Heays and the owner of Gracelands Aged Care Centre, Hastings, Bev Barton, who accompanied her, arrived before the three o’clock wedding ceremony in the garden Mrs Heays had planted in 1942.

Mrs Heays, who was born in Queensland’s back country, has written a book of her 75 years in the back country of Hawke’s Bay.

Mrs Heays and her husband began farming at Terangi in 1918 after Mr Heays returned to New Zealand aboard a hospital ship after the Gallipoli campaign.

The 1200-hectare property was balloted to them in 1918.

Mrs Heays said they were told to order the timber to build their home because a road would be put in within six months.

The couple were still living in a tent four years later.

The property is now managed by Mrs Heay’ s grandson.

Photo caption – Mr Wolff helps Mrs Heays with her seat-belt before leaving Gracelands for the back of Tutira where she was to attend the wedding of her granddaughter. Rest-home owner Mrs Barton is with Mrs Heays.