The pie’s the limit after baker takes oil rig job
A spell on platforms off the Taranaki coast taught Scottie Nunn the skills and drive to open his own business. And, writes Jane Matthews, that’s now become a thoroughly family affair.
Sitting in a crowded Wellington pub watching an All Blacks match, a man Scottie Nunn had never met asked if he would work on the oil rigs off the Taranaki coast.
But the job wouldn’t see him get his hands as dirty as you’d think – it entailed baking for 100 people every day. He said yes.
Nunn, a qualified chef, had done little to no baking in his life, but it was that leap 10 years ago that helped him land something he’d never dreamed of – owning his own business.
‘‘I was really lucky,’’ he says. ‘‘Most people don’t get the opportunity.’’
Nunn, and partner Jennifer Hilford, own Bateman’s Bakery in New Plymouth, and have done since August 2019. It’s in the heart of the CBD, has cabinets the length of the store that face the street, and is known for its pies.
‘‘People love all our pies.’’ The smell of fresh bread, pastry and coffee wafts from the small bakery and onto the city’s main street, and the pair’s charisma and jolly attitudes can be soaked in the minute you walk inside.
The Devon St East building has housed a bakery for 26 years, and known as Bateman’s for 11 of those.
‘‘We intend to rebrand as Ryebaby Bakehouse sometime in the new year.’’
They balance running the bakery on their own with raising their 3-year-old daughter Beatrix. ‘‘Everything you see is all us,’’ Nunn says. ‘‘We sell a lot of stuff that Mum used to make.’’
Looking back, the 35-year-old now realises how that conversation at the Thistle Inn changed his life.
‘‘There were no seats left because it was the Rugby World Cup,’’ he says.
‘‘This guy sat next to me and asked if I would work on an oil rig. It was the weirdest thing.
‘‘I took it as a sign, an opportunity.’’
He had trained to be a chef in Wellington when he was 19.
And, although Nunn was qualified and worked in the industry, he says he had barely baked.
‘‘I wouldn’t actually call it baking,’’ he says.
‘‘It was different from classic Kiwi baking.’’
But, he stepped – or flew – out onto the rigs, and loved it.
Everyone wanted to be friends with the baker, so they could make requests, and he basically ran his own ship.
‘‘I got to do whatever I felt like.’’
The custard square was a hit, and is still in the bakery today – but he makes it only once a month.
Nunn, who is originally from Nelson, lived there, Wellington, Auckland and New Plymouth during his six years on the rigs.
‘‘I got the job, and they kept flying me up on the plane.’’
He worked on the Maui Platform and Maui B, which sit in what was once New Zealand’s largest gas field, as well as different vessels.
But, it was tiresome. There was a time he worked 56 days straight.
‘‘It’s got a limited life span. I missed three summers. But I get them all now.’’
He’d met Hilford while back on land in Auckland, and continued the work.
After realising they couldn’t afford a home in Auckland, the pair bought a 1900s villa in Brixton, just north of New Plymouth.
Nunn eventually made the call to leave the rigs, and took on his first job at Piccolo Morso Bakery in Fitzroy, where he worked for about a year before they bought Bateman’s Bakery.
They were juggling parenting Beatrix from the start.
‘‘We bought the business when she was three months old,’’ Nunn says. ‘‘We’ve just made it work for us.’’
It was funny for Hilford, who is a fifth-generation baker, and had never intended to follow it as a career.
But, they both love it. ‘‘We’re not married, but if we sell enough bread we’ll definitely get there,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s a job that really gives back to the community. ‘‘This is us for the long run.’’ They say they have a brilliant community within the surrounding businesses, who support each other.
His own path has seen the 35-year-old want to inspire other youngsters.
‘‘You don’t always like it, but stick at it,’’ he says. ‘‘I always say, just do it.’’
Extraordinary people are everywhere in New Zealand. This summer the Sunday StarTimes’s Super Normal series shares some of their stories.