Newspaper Article 2017 – Seven decades celebrated

Seven decades celebrated

Baking together

BY BRENDA VOWDEN
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There was no mucking around when Elaine and Angus Mapuhi were trying to decide which day to get married – Angus suggested the third Saturday in June.

“It just happened to be the shortest day,” he remembers.

The couple was married on June 21, 1947 and 70 years later has just celebrated the milestone with family and friends.

Angus impressed Elaine from the get-go, arriving at the local skating rink in his airforce uniform and showing he was able to skate on one foot.

“We hadn’t seen anything like that before in Blenheim.”

Angus was a qualified pastry cook and as a young married couple, they joined forces, borrowing money from a school friend to buy a bake house in Munroe Street and later Hastings Home Cookery, which they owned for 25 years. Daughter Glenda was brought up “sleeping on sacks of flour”.

“There were no kindergartens in those days so they were always with us,” Elaine says.

The couple worked extra long hours, with Angus biking from Napier to Hastings at 2am to punch the dough and wait for it to rise.

“There was no pre-mix back then – not like today.”

Once a year, they would shut up shop, pack up the children and go to Kairakau for the Christmas holidays.

“There was no hot water, no power – it was the best,” Glenda remembers.

Angus was an avid cyclist, eventually becoming a ref and assisting at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. At 60 he took up running, competing in three marathons including the Honolulu Marathon in 1982. Glenda says she has developed “great work ethics” from her mum and dad.

“My mother used to tell me more than once a day that hard work never killed anyone.”

Photo caption – REFLECTION: Angus and Elaine Mapuhi celebrate 70 years of marriage.