Early chemists of South Wairarapa to feature in new book

A medicine bottle from Valentine’s Martinborough Pharmacy. Photo courtesy Adam Simpson

By Mark Pacey of the Wairarapa Archive
markp@library.mstn.govt.nz

An idea to catalogue all the old glass bottles with the names of Wairarapa chemists on them soon developed into something more.

It was going to be a basic booklet of photos and drawings, but what about the history of the businesses themselves? It was well worth the effort to find out about these shops and those that ran them. 

But not all shops had bottles with their names on them so it was also decided to find out who the first chemists were in each of the Wairarapa towns and write about them too. What began as a simple catalogue was now becoming a fully-fledged history book.

Daniel Keir was the first chemist in the South Wairarapa region, setting up his shop in Featherston in 1880. He was in business just six years before selling to William Fife. 35 years and six owners later the business was now in the hands of Thomas Ernest Lang and continues to this day under the name of Lang’s Pharmacy. … Continue Reading

Pork Underbelly

Prawn Underbelly Burger

How do you beat all comers in the burger section of Wellington On A Plate?  There’s plenty of competition.  Burgers have become such a popular part of the event that they’ve been given their own separate category.  

Café Medici has been honing its skills in the competition for the last 8 years and was a finalist in 2018.    But it’s a big challenge to come up with something that’s not only new but better than all the others.  There’s always a WOAP theme too, and this year it was “Challenging the Senses”.

With the deadline looming, Nick found himself suffering from the chef’s equivalent of writer’s block.   “It’s hard when you have to have to crank up the creative juices right in the middle of the busy summer season and the competition is still six months away.”

A visit to friends Baptise and Caroline – who set up Colombo and now live in Adelaide – gave him the breakthrough he needed.  “What’s Medici best known for?” Baptiste asked.  “Why don’t you work with that?”    No surprise to Medici fans that the answer was pork belly and prawn toast.   Lightbulb moment!    Right then and there Nick and Baptise raced into the kitchen and began experimenting. By the time Nick got back to NZ the basic concept was in place.  Prawn Underbelly was born. … Continue Reading

Country Dog City Dog

Waihinga Centre

It’s time to get crazy with colour!

Our final push to fundraise for the water element in the park is fast approaching.

Martinborough’s first Colour Run will be held on 2 November at Considine park.

The run is all about fun and you can run walk or dance your way around the course where you will be paint bombed a rainbow of colour! The nontoxic powder paint will be thrown by an army of Colour Crew (which we are recruiting for!) Its super safe for the whole family, although goggles or sunglasses advised for littlies and   please leave four legged friends at home.

Once the run is over the fun continues with colourful activities. Ventana Creative collective are organising a colour splat, The Martinborough Lolly Shop will have the kids lolly scrambling, plus we have bubble fun and giant twister to enjoy. The aim of the day is colourful fun! 

What could be a more colourful end to this than fireworks, so we are also hosting the community fireworks on the same day too (weather dependant but all fingers crossed!) it really would mean this fundraising push goes out with a bang! … Continue Reading