Newspaper Article 2012 – Ninety years and still living large

Ninety years and still living large

It’s not every 90-year-old who can boast having just travelled on a cruise ship around Australia, but for Isa Anderton who reached that birthday milestone last month, age is proving no barrier to living an adventurous life.

Surrounded by family, including two great grandchildren and 92-year-old husband Charlie Anderton, Isa enjoyed a festive lunch at Oruawharo Homestead to mark the occasion.

Times have certainly changed since Isa was born in Hastings where her father did agricultural work, both before and after the depression in the 1930’s – a time of extreme hardship, compared to the current economic downturn, she says.

“When you think back on it there were far more people starving and [more] services like soup kitchens.”

When Isa was in her teens she went into the airforce in World War II as a traffic clerk – an office job receiving and sending messages to their correct departments.

Then, in 1943 she married Charlie Anderton who she met when he worked on some of the same farms as her father.

They went on to have three children, two boys and a girl, and farmed a property in Farm Road which they eventually sold.

They then went into partnership with their daughter and son-in-law Judy and Donald Macdonald, farming Mangatarata Station just out of Waipukurau.

Isa and Charlie moved into Waipukurau itself in 2002.

A keen golf player, Isa played with the Waipukurau Club for about 50 years, and she and Charlie are intrepid travellers.

Over the years they have traversed the globe, completing about 16 trips overall to far flung places including Canada, Russia, South America, China and Africa.

Their most recent trip was last year, when they went on a cruise around Australia.

She also spent many years supporting Charlie in his dog trialling career, in which he took every major title in the country at least once.

Isa doesn’t have any particular magic tips for living a long life.

“You just need to keep yourself fit and eat the right food – we have always been keen on meat and vegetables.

“I also play bridge still which keeps your brain active.”

Quote – ‘You just need to keep yourself fit and eat the right food – we have always been keen on meat and vegetables.’
ISA ANDERTON

Photo caption –
CUTTING THE CAKE: Waipukurau’s Isa Anderton celebrated her 90th birthday at Oruawharo Homestead on December 21 .