When Rex and Dot Williams first laid eyes on each other in Te Puna they didn't have any idea they would end up marrying each other, after all marriage is the last thing a six and three-year-old think about.

'He was six and I would have been three when we first met. He was nobody then because at six and being on the farm next door, it didn't mean anything to a three-year-old,” says Dot.

Dot and Rex Williams celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the same hall they held their wedding breakfast in.

Dot and Rex on their wedding day.

But one trip to see Selwyn Toogood's It's in the Bag show at the Aongetete Hall lead to a 60 year marriage for the couple.

Rex, 83, and Dot, 80, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary today at the Te Puna hall, 60 years after having their wedding breakfast in the same building.

The couple arrived at the hall in a 1926 Ford Model T, otherwise known as a new beauty. It's the last of the Model Ts.

'I married the girl next door,” says Rex

'I'll be honest, she wasn't my first girl. I did court a girl from Ngongotaha for four years. If you had been around and drove through the Tauranga Direct Rd nearly 70 years ago, it wasn't very good, it was bloody awful.”

He says after four years, they drifted apart and he 'didn't have any lady for about 18 months”.

'I hadn't had a lady for about 18 months and Dot was next door and I knew her quite well, along with her brother and sisters because we had all gone to school together.

'I rang Dot and asked if she wanted to come to this thing [It's in the Bag show] at the hall in Aongetete. After that we just sort of kept on going out and one thing led to another and here we are.”

The couple are both from farming backgrounds, so shared a common interest right from the start.

'We got on well and she was close and handy,” says Rex. 'And she could milk cows,” adds Dot.

'I thought after 60 years why do we come back here and have our celebration at the Te Puna hall,” says Rex

'It doesn't seem like 60 years, everything still feels the same,” says Dot.

When asked what the secret was to a long and happy marriage, Dot's advice was to 'make sure you're suited to start with. You put your problems out and solve them.”

Rex and Dot have four children, two sons and two daughters, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.