A love of travel and doing "everything together" is the secret to Warrnambool couple Les and Merle Wines' 70 years of marriage.
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They celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary in December with a family dinner and say their love for the great outdoors has helped keep them fit.
The couple met at a church youth group and tied the knot at the then Methodist Church in Koroit Street on December 22, 1951. "I was 24 and he was 22-and-a-half," Mrs Wines said.
The couple bought their first house just a week before the wedding, and still live there 70 years later - albeit with a few additions.
"Houses then were scarce because it was not long after the war," she said.
The couple raised their three sons in the house, and over the years added on two extra rooms, two garages, a workshop and porch.
The couple now have eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Mrs Wines, 95, worked as a teacher in Warrnambool - starting out at Jamieson Street before moving to the now closed South Warrnambool primary school.
After having her own children she went back to teach the younger grades at West and East Warrnambool schools.
Mr Wines, 93, had moved from Coleraine to take up an apprenticeship at the Ford dealership in Warrnambool where he worked for two decades before taking a job as a technician in the engineering laboratories at the Warrnambool Institute before it became Deakin University.
The couple spent much of their weekends and holidays in the great outdoors, camping in the Grampians and later taking their caravan around Australia when they retired.
"We've done everything together mainly," Mr Wines said.
Mrs Wines said they only stopped using the caravan about 18 months ago. "We've been all around Australia - up the centre and to the west and the east," she said.
"We have been fortunate to have had mainly good health, grateful for many wonderful friends over the years."
The couple has been active in many community organisations. Mrs Wines, who has played piano since she was 12, has been the organist at the Uniting Church for decades.
For 30 years she has been the pianist for the Mozart Chorale Group, which became Merri Singers, and was part of the Probus ladies choir for two decades.
"I've always been playing or doing something musical," she said.
Mr Wines said riding motorbikes had kept him fit and active and he only stopped when he was in his late 60s before he took up clay shooting again - something he had done at school.
"I did a lot of trail riding up around the Grampians for many years," he said.
Mrs Wines received an opal broach for a 70th wedding anniversary as a gift. As for Mr Wines, she said her husband's words were: "I have everything I want".
"All he wants is to get in his car and go for drives out into the country," she said.
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