Cultural Watering Holes /
The Mackenzie Country is home to not just one, but two very special bookstores
Today technology invades almost every aspect of our lives and as a result many people
believe books are passé, so it is heartening to find a bibliophile’s oasis in not one but
two small communities in the Mackenzie Country.
Rowland’s The Twizel Bookshop, and Wilma van den Bosch’s Petronella’s Gallery and Bookstore in Tekapo are beautifully curated independent bookshops inspiring locals and travellers, young and old, to fall back in love with the hardcopy. Their own love of books is the inspiration behind them opening their stores, although, as you’d expect, their journeys to opening them have been divergent.
Prior to emigrating to New Zealand from the Netherlands, Wilma had gained a master’s degree in Dutch literature and had worked in bookshops for some years. From such a background Wilma began to harbour a desire to one day own one herself. In fact, her New Zealand immigration application included a business plan for one. Wilma settled in Tekapo with her Kiwi husband, Michael Midgley in 1992. The dream of owning a bookshop was put aside as work and family life took over. Together, the couple established a backpackers hostel in Tekapo, selling it in 2014.
After the sale of the business, Wilma took time to ponder bringing her long-held dream to fruition. It wasn’t all plain sailing, however – commercial space in Tekapo is always scarce and it took some time before she found a site to lease. In 2018 Wilma saw potential in two small uninspiring dark concrete block garages and set about, with creative flair, to make it into a light-filled, tastefully edited gallery and bookstore. A central feature of the store is a large table and chairs. The table, a means to display books, is more often than not an invitation for locals to sit around it, have a cuppa and a bit of a chat. Although, on book club nights it is more likely wine you’ll find being served.
Renee’s backstory is as unique as Wilma’s. After studying Economics at Canterbury University, Renee went on the great overseas experience, or OE, the rite of passage for so many of us Kiwis. Renee was away for 10 years, much of the time working in the corporate sector. She said she ‘sold her soul to the finance gods’ and on realising just how unhappy she was she sold everything up, bought a bike and proceeded to spend 14 months pedalling 33,000 km in a south easterly direction to her hometown of Nelson. ‘The bike ride gave me the space to take a good hard look at my life and what I was doing. And I resolved to live the simple life and not do anything that I wasn’t happy doing.’
When job opportunities failed to open up in Nelson, encouraged by a family member, she moved to Twizel to work for the summer. Renee very quickly fell in love with the Mackenzie Country and decided to settle there. She then had to find something more permanent to do, and recognising that throughout her travels she naturally gravitated to bookshops above all else, she decided she would open one in Twizel.
‘If I had any intellectual property at all it’s just from a lifetime of reading voraciously and being almost evangelical about the things I read and wanting people to read them and putting books in people’s hands. So, it was just like, books are what I know, what I love. I hadn’t had a retail background, but I knew what a good bookshop felt like and looked like, so into books I went and never looked back.’
Like Tekapo, Twizel’s available retail space is limited, so Renee is hugely grateful to the owners of the Hydro Café