To Be Shore - Our Record-Breaking Love Affair

ITS 50 TRIPS TO FIJI, AND COUNTING, FOR PAT AND HARRY!

- Fleur Mealing

After 56 years of marriage, Pat and Harry Tait are madly in love – however, it’s not just with each other!

As well as being visibly smitten, Pat (79) and Harry (82) also have a long-standing love affair with Fiji.

The retired couple have visited the idyllic South Pacific nation more than 55 times as tourists and say the real reason they keep going back is because it’s so easy.

“We prefer Fiji because it’s so quick. If we leave Auckland at 9.45am, we are on the beach at 1.30pm,” tells Harry.

“There’s no hassle and you don’t have to dodge crowds,” adds Pat.

Clearly, the weather is a huge advantage too, as Harry laments he’d finally had to trade in his shorts for long trousers to come and speak to the Weekly.

When they met 57 years ago, Harry was a physical trainer in the navy and Pat was a pay clerk with the air force.

Harry had served alongside Pat’s uncle and when he spotted her at Wigram Air Base in Christchurch he thought the surname sounded familiar.

The two hit it off, and soon after the pair married and had two children, Trevor and Kiri.

The couple say it’s that connection with the forces that first drew them to Fiji.

“I’d been there several times with the navy and she had visited once with the air force,” explains Harry. “We just really love the people.”