My Books: Open 7 Days

I wanted to record, in watercolours, the old colonial stores that had served New Zealand communities for many years. But I was almost too late and had to extend this collection to include some colourful local corner dairies, many of which are run as family businesses.

Stores that sold everything to closely knit, local populations were killed off by the motor car, good roads and supermarkets. But there were a few left when I toured New Zealand seeking them, and I think I got most of them in this collection which was published by Random Century.

'Open 7 Days' has been out of print for many years but copies can still be found at ABE books, TradeMe, E Bay and many second hand bookshops.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

Open 7 Days 30. Freemans Dairy, Milton

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.

FREEMANS DAIRY

144 Union Street, Milton, Otago.
Proprietor: Bill Freeman

From a dreary world Bill Freeman’s dairy shines out like an artist’s palette! I couldn’t resist it, especially when I could see that so much trouble had been taken to cover up the old house next door (now used as a store room) and that one of the world’s classic motorbikes had, fortuitously, been parked outside.

The store (once two tiny stores – as evidenced by the two front doors) dates back to about 1930 and replaced another that had been there since the turn of the century. Bill Freeman runs it as a typical seven-day dairy, with a small garden centre selling flowers, shrubs and vegetable plants. (The faded sign on the rough wooden door had me imagining animated tomato plants coming and going like Chicago gangsters at a speakeasy!)

Milton may have been named after the poet. Whether that’s true or not, the name is appropriate, for since 1857 it has been a mill town on the Tokomairiro River. It has been famous for many years for wool spinning and scouring, although the oldest part of the mill complex started life grinding flour.

The town sprang to importance when Gabriel Read discovered gold at Tuapeka. Milton lay neatly placed between Dunedin and the diggings, a good spot to rest up, stock up and saddle up before taking on the heartless rocks of Central Otago.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz
.

Open 7 Days 13. Mangamairie Store

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.

MANGAMAIRE STORE

Tutaekara Road, Mangamaire, Wairarapa.
Proprietors: Jan and Eric Bird

Reversing the customary drift to the cities, Jan and Eric Bird forsook the mirrors of Wellington in 1986 for the pastoral tranquility of northern Wairarapa. What Jan describes as ‘life before Mangamaire’ was spent in Linden, where she and Eric both grew up, married, built their own home and raised three children. As soon as the family left home, Eric and Jan upped stakes and bought the Mangamaire Store. They love it there so much that they’ve bought additional land, on which they run sheep and beef cattle - that’s what the Wairarapa is all about.

The store’s white-painted plaster is reminiscent of the fresh, neat houses of Devon villages and is in stark contrast to the gloomy angles of the derelict cheese factory opposite, on whose roof the lettering ‘Rexdale Dairy Coy. Ltd’ may still be seen.

Jan believes the store goes back to 1906 and is on land previously owned by the dairy company, which closed in 1956. There was a post office next door from 1898, which was moved and run together with the store when it was established. The post office became a Postal Delivery Centre (PDC) in 1988. The Birds still handle counter mail and run the rural mail delivery, combined with bread, milk, newspapers and groceries.

Recently Mangamaire, which lies slightly west of State Highway 2 between Pahiatua and Eketahuna, has experienced an improvement in trade because its road has been upgraded to provide an alternative route between Masterton and Palmerston North, diverging from the main ‘Pahiatua Track’. This bonus, coupled with the amalgamation of five local schools into the one in the village, has increased sales of food, petrol and oil.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
. 

Open 7 Days 4. Supa Rupa, Freemans Bay, Auckland

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.

SUPA RUPA

103 Wellington Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland.
Proprietors: Dilip and Sarda Rupa

I’ll lay a pound to a pinch of Mrs Rupa senior’s special curry powder that this is the most photographed store in New Zealand. It’s on calendars, in books, films and television commercials. It’s a joy to an artist’s eye, a delightful dilapidation, but Dilip Rupa is ambivalent about it.

On the one hand, he has a deep attachment to the place where his parents made their home in 1953 after moving from Wellington. On the other, he and his sister Sarda regret that, although conscious of its historic charm and despite insisting that designs for a new store retained the frontage of both buildings, they were prevented from redeveloping on the site in 1987.

The wooden portion was erected around 1890, and the cement-rendered brick structure followed about twenty years later. It seems odd that in an area of fashionable rediscovery and renewal this old store should survive, but by doing so it adds enormous character to Freemans Bay, a neighbourhood of extreme contrasts, from low-income council tenants to wealthy townhouse residents. They all patronise Supa Rupa, and in return Supa Rupa, abundantly stocked, makes sure their needs are satisfied.

I asked Dilip how the store got its name, and he told me that when his sister, Pam, was a nurse she had a young patient who called her Super Rupa. Super store, Supa Rupa!

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz
.