Three weeks on the wonderful South Island of New Zealand bought us to a little town called Geraldine. Funds unsurprisingly dwindling, used up in recent days during adventures involving jumping from a plane at 25000 feet, exploring a twinkling glacier reminiscent of winters long gone, and bouncing around speedily on blue seas looking for rare dolphins.
In search of a cheap and cheerful way to stretch out our last few dollars with an easy afternoon we discovered an advertisement for the world’s largest woolly Jumper. Fascinated, off we trotted through the quaint and colourful market town in anticipation of such a spectacle and our findings were indeed delightful.
Into the shop we wandered clutching our precious remaining few dollars expecting to get a picture taken with an item of large knitted outerwear, feeling that surely fame by association was ours. Hoping, at the very least, that it would be a quirky snap for the trip’s designated photo album.
First impression boasted a fine selection of wools and knitted gloves, socks and scarves. Then there she was, Geraldine’s giant and colourful jersey, stretched out over one wall, arms akimbo, proud and upright. Bold as brass, the giant jumper, largest in the world.
We then wandered into the rear of the shop proudly entitled The Medieval Mosaic and there we met the real jewel of Geraldine. We had just planned to look and leave. Yet as we viewed his version of the Bayeux tapestry and admired many of its intricate meters covering the three walls of the rear part of the shop, Mike approached us with a diffident smile and told us how he had recreated the original tapestry of the battle of 1066 from small parts of knitting machines. From the moment this gentle and genius man started talking we were fascinated.
Gem of Geraldine
That afternoon we stood in a small back part of a shop halfway around the world and played with meticulously designed puzzles, explored the most eclectic mixture of interests that we had ever seen all honed to perfection, asked question after question and had an unexpected wonderful time in the small rear area of the shop that holds the world’s largest knitted jumper.
We were excited and enchanted by Mike’s single handed labour of love, his part of history so painstakingly recreated and detailed so perfectly and his infectious enthusiasm for all he had formed and was still creating. As a consequence we were transformed from an exhausted crumpled of clothing couple to a happy animated pair, so much so that we felt we needed to inflate our compulsory meagre entry fee to a larger and more appreciative donation.
Stepping back into the street on that sunny April Autumn afternoon we agreed that this humble little shop was and will forever be one of the most surprising experiences of our month long trip in the much appreciated and long remembered wonderful country of New Zealand.
Sally Gutteridge - Sally is a writer and holistic therapist that lives in Scotland with her boyfriend and four rescue dogs
