Donovan’s World

Wanaka is the lake: a magnificent glacial aqua-sculpture that thrusts deep into the heart of the Southern Alps and points the way to the grandeur of the Haast Pass and southern Westland beyond.

Wanaka is one of those fortunate resorts that works as well in winter as in summer, with the consequence that there are always visitors as well as residents to make life busy at the store.

It was started in the 1870s by Robert McDougall (a legendary figure who had a kind heart as well as being postmaster, justice of the peace and registrar of birth, deaths and marriages) to supply the diggers at the Cardrona goldfields. It was taken up later and rebuilt by D.W.Jolly.

A storekeeper had to stock everything imaginable then, and Jolly’s carried men’s and women’s clothing, horseshoes, nails, picks, spades, pans, basic foods and patent medicines. They baked bread, too, and delivered to Luggate, Albert Town, Hawea Flat and Makarora. Right up to the 1950s, Wilson Bros., the then owners, were still carrying on in the same way.

The Gillespies bought the store in 1981 and started a self-service and check-out system. But tradition dies hard and the Wanaka Store, whose Four Square paint can’t hide its sturdy lines, still serves as a meeting place and information exchange for the townsfolk.

The tourist launch Ena De is pink by design, and the question I heard a local wit call out is obviously a standing joke: ‘When’re you going to give it its top coat?’

© DON DONOVAN

It’s a tough coast hereabouts, a narrow strip of sand and shingle, the restless Tasman Sea on one side and the steep, largely trackless bush behind.

In the hills that block the rising sun from the store there’s a treasure of coal. While it maintains Granity’s economy now, it could, in Daryll’s opinion (and no doubt many of his neighbours) lead to real prosperity if, ‘some large conglomerate could get stuck in and mine the coal on a serious basis’.

The majority of the people of working age who live in Granity are employed in the few privately owned mines or the vast open-cast state mine at Stockton. The Granity Store supplies them with milk, bread, postal services and all general household needs including the weekly Four Square specials. There are also tearooms, which Daryll, a carpenter by trade, built himself and he and Roz are currently establishing a fish-and-chips takeaway.

Roz says the visitors’ talk in the tearooms is usually about the beautiful scenery of the Heaphy Track or nearby Charming Creek, with its spectacular waterfall, bridge and tunnels. The locals, on the other hand, deplore the ‘pounds’ of whitebait that leave the coast! Well, they can’t eat them all, can they?

Granity was named by gold miners from the large granite rocks in the area. A short distance north of the town is the mouth of the Mokihinui River, where once stood Kynnersley, site of the last of the big West Coast gold rushes of the 1860s. The town was washed away in 1867 and nothing is left except ghosts.

If you can stand the sandflies and the weather, you can still do a bit of gold prospecting around Granity. Daryll or Roz will sell you sandfly repellent before you go and fish and chips and a cup of tea afterwards if you feel you’ve had enough!

© DON DONOVAN

With pinpoint precision, Rob Hayman dates the establishment of his shop as 20 October 1916. It was a Loan and Mercantile stock and station store and continued as such (although later owned by Dalgetys) until 1971, when it was turned into a fruiterers by Parbhu Patel.

Patel - nicknamed ‘Boxer’ - was one of Waverley’s characters. He was particularly famous for a very potent curry powder of his own blending, which is still sold in the Waverley Fruit Supply to gourmets who pop in for it from all points of the compass. ‘Boxer’ Patel lives in Huntly now, having sold the store to Rob and Colleen in 1988.

The match-lined inside walls of the store and the front verandah are original, but the thing that appealed to me most was the colour scheme, which owes nothing to Coca-Cola or Four Square - it came straight out of paint pots of Rob Hayman’s choosing.

Since 1977, when the Haymans moved here from Taihape with the Post and Telegraph Department, Rob has built up a horticulture business growing export melons for Japan and other crops for the local market. This dovetails neatly with his Waverley Fruit Supply, and no doubt accounts for the high quality of the produce.

Creative spelling!

Waverley is a peaceful little town, but there was a particularly nasty battle in the district during the Maori land wars of the 1860s. The town was called Wairoa then, and remains of a redoubt can be seen just along the road from the store.

© DON DONOVAN

Waving the flag is a tradition that’s become unfashionable recently, so it was nice to see the New Zealand ensign flying so proudly over the Piriaka Store. The store has been in the family for many years, and tradition is important to Joy Climo.

‘My grandfather John Braithwaite and his wife were early settlers during the mill days [1900s], when he had a mill at Piriaka. There used to be a mill where the shop stands. My uncle, William Braithwaite, once owned the shop. He and his friend Lefty Gray ran out of beer once so they emptied all the bottles of liniment out then put the empties back in boxes on the shelves. You can imagine what happened - many men went home trying to ride their horses and bikes back to front. It’s a wonder nobody died!’

That was in the era when the King Country was officially ‘dry’ but ’sly grogging’ was rampant, Matai beer being made by the railway workers and whisky brought in by packhorse from Tokaanu.

While Joy, who took the store over from her sister Carol Laurent in 1985, insists that she maintains the family tradition of ‘serving the needs of the people’ it’s strictly Four Square and postal services these days, and ’sly grogging’ is consigned to history.

This cryptic sign opposite the store is obviously not intended for high-speed readership by passing traffic!

© DON DONOVAN

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book.

T-JAYS SUPERETTE

30 Barry Road, Waihi.
Proprietors: Trevor and Doreen Powell

The Powells took over the store in 1987, the latest in a series of owners going back to 1909, when it was built to service what was then a separate little settlement to the north of the main town of Waihi. In those days there were other stores and a hotel, which was subsequently removed to Rotorua and became the Princes Gate.

Coincidentally, Waihi was at the peak of good fortune in 1909, and it’s only a short step away from T-Jays to the gaunt ruins of the Martha Mine pump house building, relic of one of the world’s most productive goldfields. Today a mining renaissance exploits the gold and other minerals that still enrich the strata of Martha Hill.

Trevor Powell is a professional storekeeper of the old school. He learned his trade with Farmers’ and Super Value in Matamata, and with Farmers’ Co-op in Kaponga and Ohura (where he witnessed the closing of the state coal mines). His experience and an opportunistic move to Auckland later fitted him to help set up New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square stores all over the North Island, from Northland to King Country to Poverty Bay, before he and Doreen took over the superette.

One solid, no-nonsense structure, T-Jays and the adjoining house reflect the steadfast earnestness of a goldmining town. The customers comprise local residents and travellers heading for the beaches and resorts of the eastern Coromandel.

And, no doubt, once the kids at No. 21 have sold their pups they’ll be in to T-Jays to spend some of the proceeds on ice lollies or Coke.

© DON DONOVAN