Seventy years ago when the late Queen was about to be crowned and Sir Edmund Hillary had just conquered Everest Whangārei couple Ian and Muriel Hodgson said “I do”.

So it is fitting Ian, 93, and Muriel, 90, celebrate their 70th anniversary of marriage amid the royal fanfare of King’s Birthday Weekend after Charles III was crowned on May 6.

The couple’s love story began with a blind date in Taranaki. The annual ball was coming up and a friend of Muriel’s asked the 17-year-old if she was going.

She didn’t have a partner, she replied. Fortunately, her friend’s date had a mate they could invite and in to Muriel’s life danced Ian.

“I thought she looked very pretty,” Ian said of his first impression of his date.

He sheepishly confessed to stealing a kiss while the watchful eye of Muriel’s mother was distracted at the ball.

And Muriel’s take? “He wasn’t bad looking – in those days,” she teased.

“I still am good-looking,” Ian interjected.

Their comedic to-and-fro is a key ingredient in their timeless love.

“You’ve got to have a sense of humour,” Muriel said. Along with patience and understanding, Ian added.

Muriel was an usherette working in the picture theatre in the small Taranaki town of Eltham when she met Ian who was new to town having shifted south from Whangārei to farm.

“It just blossomed between us,” Ian said.

So much so, he was driven to fork out 400 pounds to buy his first car – a 1936 Ford Ten – so their dating life was made easier.

“Nobody had cars in those days so transport was a bit of a problem,” Ian said.

The couple dated for three years before pipping Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation with wedding bells by a day. Three days earlier, Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay conquered Everest.

On June 1, 1953, amid much fanfare, Ian and Muriel married. The wedding was a packed affair as Muriel is one of 12 siblings and Ian one of five.

“It was a very appropriate weekend for us, Queen’s Birthday Weekend,” Ian said.

Their nuptials were officiated by a man with the last name King.

“So, it was the King and Queen.”

The newlyweds road-tripped around the South Island in a hired Volkswagen for their honeymoon.

“Everything was lit up for the Queen. All the towns had beautiful lights and there were lots of parades and celebrations going on,” Muriel said.

In 1954 the couple moved to Northland where they took over land in Takahiwai owned by Ian’s family and turned it into a dairy farm. There, they raised their four children, Russell, Graeme, Christine and Neil.

“I swapped Mount Egmont for Mount Manaia,” Muriel said.

Ian later became the caretaker at One Tree Point School, a post he held for 23 years until he retired at 76.

The couple, determined to see as much of the world as possible, packed their suitcases on multiple occasions to explore Europe, the UK, Russia, Siberia, Asia, South America and more.

After 62 years, the couple returned to Ian’s hometown of Onerahi where his family had owned 50-odd acres of farmland in Raurimu. Hodgson St bears the family name.

Ian said the couple’s common ground hailing from “farming stock” made married life easier as they were on the same page.

“I have been so lucky with Muriel, we get on so well. We have been able to share everything that has happened and our travels.”

The couple were especially proud of their children, five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

“We’ve had a very wonderful life,” Muriel said.