From a Hawke’s Bay farmer teaching the next generation of shearers, to an endurance athlete breaking world records and a florist preparing to represent New Zealand in one of the toughest fitness events on the planet, these three inspiring Kiwi women share their secrets to how they’re redefining what later life can look like.
Michele Alison
A record-breaking Ironman performance
When Michele crossed the finish line first in her age group at Ironman New Zealand in Taupō in March 2025, she also recorded the fastest Ironman time ever achieved by a woman her age. The impressive result came despite a painful toe injury sustained during the event as she exited the swim leg. But giving up was never an option.
“I remember saying to myself, ‘The faster I go, the quicker I’ll get to the end,’” recalls Michele, 70, of the gruelling race.
A full Ironman event starts with a 3.8km swim, followed by a 180km cycle, then a marathon 42.2km run. It took Michele 12 hours and 23 minutes.
No turning back once she started
She recalls, “Once I got started, I just knew that I was not going to stop.”
The win qualified her for the world champs in Kona, Hawai’i later last year, where Michele once again came first. The Wellington grandmother of nine has also set 13 national age-group records in the past six years, completed 80 marathons, run all the Great Walks in New Zealand, paddled 42 South Island lakes by kayak, and regularly competes in multi-sport events.
A mindset that drives everything she does
Michele explains, “I won’t look at something and say, ‘That’s too hard, I can’t do it.’ I’m like a dog with a bone, I won’t let it go until I can do it.”
It’s a mindset she also applied in earlier years to her career at the Stock Exchange, then later working for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. But Michele will be the first to tell you it didn’t start that way.
The athletic feats all started after her late sister, Bernie Portenski, borrowed her husband’s running shoes after watching him run the Rotorua marathon about 43 years ago.
The run that started a movement
“She went out for her first run the next day.”
Soon after, Michele, then 27, was talked into giving it a go and spent years trying to catch up with Bernie, who passed away in 2017 as one of New Zealand’s most celebrated runners.Michele misses her sister running beside her, but her love of the sport and the community she’s found brings meaning to her life.
“It’s not really about the exercise, but everything else that comes with it,” she reflects.
The community behind the medals
The friendships forged through decades of shared finish lines and at running clubs, including the Scottish Harriers, where Michele is a lifetime member, keep her calendar full. In March, Michele won her age group at the Christchurch marathon in three hours and 56 minutes.
“Sometimes I feel I can run a marathon just off memory because I’ve done so many,” she tells.
Finding movement at every age
Michele knows it’s not realistic, or advisable, for all 70-year-olds to take up marathons. But she’s a firm believer that everyone can embrace and benefit from some kind of movement. She says her husband Richard, 72, is living proof of this. While he can no longer run because of a heel injury, with her encouragement, he has found his happy place swimming.
“He was actually scared of the water and hated it,” smiles Michele.
“Now he goes to the pool every single day and swims 2km, talks to everyone and gets all the social benefits too.”
A simple approach to health and food
Asked about her own good health, Michele shares she doesn’t follow a specific diet, but she’s quietly disciplined and rarely eats highly-processed food.
“I can’t remember ever having eaten a McDonald’s burger.”
And if there are more than six ingredients on packaged food, she puts it back on the shelf. After farewelling all four of her siblings, Michele’s adamant there’s no time to lose.
She shares, “I’ve been working through my bucket list for a number of years now and I’m not stopping.”
Her next goal is earning a coveted Six Star medal, awarded to runners who complete all six of the original World Majors marathons in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City. She’s already ticked three off the list and has an entry for Berlin this September.
She enthuses, “That’s the next achievement. Then I’ll have a think about what else comes up. Maybe they’ll make a new Great Walk I can run.”
Joan Stretton & Jeff Taylor
Te Awamutu florist Joan is out to prove determination and fitness have no expiry date – and she’s planning to do it on the global stage at the Hyrox World Championships in Stockholm.
“It’s about health and living positively,” shares Joan, 68.
“At my age, you have to get out of bed for something.”
What the Hyrox challenge involves
Hyrox sees competitors alternate running 1km between eight different exercise challenges, such as 100 metres of lunges while carrying sandbags on your back or 1000 metres of rowing. Next week, Joan and her partner Jeff, 76, will compete in the 70-plus category at the sport’s pinnacle event in Sweden.
Taking up the intense sport has been transformative to both their physical and mental health.
Joan enthuses, “We want to live longer and encourage others to be active too. Exercise and muscle building are huge for longevity. I’ve got so much stronger and I don’t ache any more when I get out of bed. It’s amazing what a bit of exercise does.”
A wave of community support
For Joan and Jeff, it’s also been a joy to see their community, family and friends rally around them.
“I get stopped all the time by people congratulating us and wishing us all the best for Stockholm,” she smiles.
Competing in the 70-plus mixed doubles category – “they take the average of both ages” – means Joan is required to carry the same weight as the men.
She explains, “A 20- or 30-year-old in the women’s doubles has to carry two 16 kilogram kettle bells [for the 200-metre farmer’s carry]. I have to carry two 24kg kettle bells. For the lunges, they have a 10kg sandbag, mine is 20kg.”
Embracing the challenge head-on
But she’s up for the extra challenge, training six times a week. February was the first time Joan and Jeff, a former Navy man turned wine broker, competed in a Hyrox event. They won their category, but didn’t initially realise they had also qualified for the world champs.
“We were so tired, we just went home,” laughs the Bundles and Bunches florist.
When an invitation to Stockholm arrived via email, despite the high costs involved, they immediately accepted.
“Because what an opportunity – what an experience!” grins Joan.
Marg Baynes
At an age when many people are slowing down, Wairoa farmer Marg is still out every day mustering, drenching, vaccinating livestock and teaching young people to shear – even after breaking her neck earlier this year.
“Just getting out in the sunshine and doing what you love doing is probably the biggest thing,” says Marg, 71, when asked what the secret is to long-lasting happiness.
It’s the way she’s always lived. Growing up the second of eight children on a large farm near Raglan, 12-hour days helping out on horseback with her sisters were the norm.
She recalls, “People say that Dad was a hard man, but we girls didn’t think that. We loved what we were doing.”
Learning the craft from a young age
Marg was about 11 when her father started to teach her to shear sheep. Few women were shearers at the time, but Marg knew no different.
In her early twenties, she went shearing around the world before buying Makapua Station in Hawke’s Bay with her husband Colin. Together they raised five children, who all learned to shear under Marg’s watch.
“We both feel very proud about that,” smiles Marg.
“They’re all very handy in the wool shed and on the farm.”
A world record moment in shearing
In 2009, Marg and her daughter Ingrid set a women’s two-stand, eight-hour lamb shearing world record when the pair sheared 903 lambs. Now a grandmother to 15, Marg’s legacy extends far beyond her own descendants. Alongside fellow local farmer Roz, she runs a shearing school for young people in the region.
“I want to give back to the industry and I feel we can offer a safe place – especially for girls – to learn to shear,” she says.
Marg credits her good health in part to staying active on the farm, but she’s also an advocate of the carnivore diet, which she consumes almost exclusively.
“I’m not saying everyone should do it, but for me, it’s been life-changing.”
Her day starts with coffee and cream, then late afternoon could be pork chops with eggs or steak with butter and cheese. Since eating this way for the past seven years, Marg says she’s noticed fewer aches and pains, and feels stronger, even after breaking her neck and bruising her spinal cord when she fell down the stairs in February.
Now almost back to full strength, Marg admits, “It’s been a wake-up call.”
While her mum Lilian is still driving at 92, her dad Frank died at 60 from oesophageal cancer so, more than ever, Marg’s determined to make the most of her time.
“I still feel fit and strong,” she enthuses.
“I can run, climb hills and ride my horse – and I can’t see us living anywhere else.”
