19 minute read
On the Street
Blenheim Glassons manager Amelia Riches believes that an outfit can be transformed from casual to chic with a few wellchosen accessories.
Describe what you are wearing today.
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Today what I’m wearing is neutral, street chic and comfortable. Everything is from Glassons except for my shoes which are from ASOS and I’ve added some big gold earrings and a necklace to bring it all together. Do you have a usual style?
Not really, I mostly just wear what I feel like on the day. Today was cold and I had a lot on, so I went with something that’s comfortable and easy to move around in. Other times my style is quite businessy. I get a lot of my inspiration from Pinterest as well as the other Glassons’ girls from around the region. What items do you have the most of in your wardrobe?
I have lots of bags and jewellery, basically loads of accessories. I feel like a casual outfit can be really elevated with jewellery and bags. For example, today I feel like my outfit wouldn’t look complete without my big earrings and jewellery. What looks or trends do you like at the moment?
I like going really neutral or choosing just one colour and coordinating my outfit around that. At Glassons recently we have been doing this, each of us picking a different colour such as pastel green or pink. We all take inspiration from each other.
It gives me that extra bit of energy when I feel dressed up and it’s fun too. Sometimes I’ll throw a blazer or pleather jacket over the top to finish the look. Where do you buy most of your clothes?
Definitely Glassons, I don’t really buy my clothes from anywhere else! Sometimes I will go to Hallensteins for the odd oversized, graphic crew jumper. They’re really great to wear with a cute, pleated skirt.
What wardrobe staple should everyone invest in?
I think everyone should invest in an oversized college shirt, even if it’s just plain white it looks very sophisticated. You can just throw it over jeans or biker shorts and that looks very chic too. Finish this sentence. You would never catch me wearing....
Pyjamas in public. Even when I go to the mailbox outside my house I never would!
Magic moment made in Marlborough
WORDS: PETER JONES SUPPLIED
The gold medal that set the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games alight was forged in the blazing heat of a Marlborough summer.
With the QE2 crowd’s chants of “black, black, black” ringing in his ears, Kiwi athlete Dick Tayler kick-started the memorable sporting festival with an astounding victory in the 10,000m on the first day of competition.
Leaving world record holder David Bedford of England and a host of top Kenyan runners in his wake, Dick prevailed in Commonweath record time, his triumph the first major sporting event to be beamed live into Kiwi homes in full colour.
The 25-year-old’s heroics popped the corks on a 10-day sporting party that would become known as ‘The Friendly Games’.
Dick was no newcomer to international athletics, having competed at the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games and the 1972 Munich Olympics. However, his performances at those events were disappointing by his own high standards. And that is where his Marlborough connection began. In 1972 he joined forces with renowned distance coach Arthur Lydiard, who had guided such luminaries as Peter Snell and Murray Halberg to Olympic glory. The perceptive Lydiard persuaded Dick to leave the family farm in South Canterbury and move to Blenheim, his wife Kate’s hometown, during August 1973.
There he could train in the midday heat and north-westerly winds of a Marlborough summer, providing a perfect template for the conditions he was likely to face in Christchurch during the Games. “I cursed him for that,” Dick recalled. “Having to train in the heat of the day.
Dick Tayler leads Marlborough rugby skipper Ramon Sutherland around Lansdowne Park during a fundraising relay in 1974.
“I was a pretty fit athlete but I lost a stone in weight over the next 14 weeks. I couldn’t believe it … when you are fit you don’t think you are carrying any extra weight, but I must have been. “I’ve got a lot to thank Marlborough [conditions] for. When I won in Christchurch even the Kenyans were struggling in the heat, whereas I was conditioned to it … it was a huge plus.” Devoting his time to training, rest and recovery after Lydiard upped his training mileage from 100 to a tortuous 200-miles a week, Dick was advised by his coach to stick a couple of bottles of beer in the fridge and, after every long run, drink both bottles with his feet in the Wairau River to cool off.
“At first I thought, why would I want to put my feet in an ice-cold river?,” he said. “But it must have worked because I never picked up any injuries.” To further aid his recovery and under Lydiard’s direction he ate lots of honey and slept for one to two hours every afternoon. He also included a weekly 10,000m time trial in training to aid his preparation. “I’d done so many [10,000m time trials] that, by the time I got to the Commonwealth Games, running 25 laps was not a big deal,” he added. When Dick set up home in Marlborough the province was in the grip of a particularly infectious virus – Shield Fever. A month before his arrival the Marlborough rugby team had prised the Ranfurly Shield from the clutches of Canterbury, that victory and the ensuing defences sparking feverish support and unprecedented excitement in the top of the south.
As a high-profile athlete in a small region, Dick quickly got to know the local rugby heroes and often trained with them, as well as joining forces with the flourishing Marlborough Harriers Club. For Dick, rubbing shoulders with the likes of All Black Alan Sutherland provided the best of both worlds.
“I would do a long run early in the day and a shorter run with Alan around the racecourse late afternoon. He would always try and outsprint me at the end of it and, because he was so big, I would always let him win,” he added with a chuckle. with an All Black was pretty special. Plus getting to know all the other Marlborough guys was pretty cool. They were good guys and very dedicated.” The ‘Red Devils’ players knew they would have to be in top condition to repel a string of eager challengers for the ‘Log of Wood’ and were grateful an international athlete had landed in their laps. The relationship was mutually beneficial, the rugby team going on to defend the Shield five times and Dick laying the groundwork for his stunning success at QE2.
Post-Games, he was given a civic reception in Blenheim, before embarking on a hugely successful trip to the USA and Canada, alongside John Walker. Back on home soil, he returned to Marlborough and was asked to help prepare the Red Devils for the forthcoming rugby season, utilising his cross-country course on Walter Shallard’s Fairhall farm.
Dick’s friendship with the local harriers also grew and in May 1974 he helped put together a fundraising venture for the local club.
On a mown track at Lansdowne Park, he raced over 10,000m against a team of relay runners drawn from the ranks of the Marlborough rugby team, who ran in full playing kit. Walker was also in attendance, doing the same thing, but over 1500m. A large crowd turned out, helping swell the harriers’ coffers by $900, Dick thrilled to give something back to the province that had quickly adopted him as one of its own.
“I have very special memories of Marlborough,” he added. “The support I had from the Marlborough people, training in that heat … I cursed Lydiard at the time, but it certainly paid off.”
MARLBOROUGH PICTORIAL
Pictured at the civic reception in Blenheim following his epic 10,000m victory are Dick Tayler and local woman Lyn Cronin, who was a hostess at the Games.
Jules and David Richards at their home in Fairhall.
Designing their Kiwi dream down under
For the British ex-pat couple, creating a space perfectly suited to hosting friends and family was key when it came to completely renovating their new home in Fairhall.
WORDS: EMILY MARTEN SARAH BROWN
Jules and David Richards made the move ‘down under’ just over two years ago. Living in Manchester, England for 20 years, the hectic nature of their careers as doctors was starting to take its toll.
“We had had enough of living where we were in Manchester, as well as the stress of working for the NHS [National Health Service],” says Jules. “By that time all of our kids had left home and gone to university, so there wasn’t much holding us back,” adds David. While training as doctors in Australia in the 90s they had both been attracted to the Antipodean way of life. “We had always wanted to end up somewhere in this part of the world because we loved the lifestyle,” says David. “I started to look at part-time jobs in general surgery over here, almost on a whim really.” David saw job openings in his specialism in Nelson and Blenheim, both at the sunny tip of our South Island. “I did have to Google where Blenheim was at first, but when I saw the vineyards, sunshine hours and everything that this part of NZ has to offer it was pretty tempting.” “I didn’t even expect to get an interview so when I was offered the job in Blenheim it was quite a shock!” David chose to accept his position and together they started house-hunting in Marlborough. “We looked online and actually saw this house before we came out to New Zealand,” says Jules. “There was a photograph of the view of the Richmond Ranges and it looked amazing.” David was offered the job in June of 2018 but they couldn’t relocate until all the necessary paperwork was completed in January 2019.
A clever meld of traditional and contemporary ensures the home is both eye-catching and functional.
“By the time we actually moved here the house had disappeared off the website,” says Jules. “Funnily enough it came back on the market the week that we arrived.”
The home in Fairhall boasted just over a hectare of land, complete with an olive grove with over 350 olive trees as well as fruit trees such as feijoas. “It all seemed very exotic to us - we’d never eaten feijoas before!” At the first viewing, it was the breathtaking views of the Richmond Ranges that sealed the deal. “When we arrived at the house for the first time we just looked at the view and didn’t really see the house. At that point the view was partially obstructed by trees but we could see how idyllic it was.” Alongside its sprawling views and generous land, Jules and David could see that the home had plenty of potential. “The house was built in the 1980s and was very much still in keeping with that style,” says Jules. “We knew it was a fabulous space and basically just needed updating with our own style as well as opening up and making the very best of the view.” At under 15 minutes drive from Blenheim’s CBD but with all the tranquility of somewhere more remote, the location was the perfect fit for the couple’s new slower way of life. “We really fell in love with the house and the area, but we’d never really renovated a property before. “A friend of a friend came to see it and had an instant vision of the property and where to knock walls down,” says Jules. Jules began searching for inspiration from magazines to TV shows. “HGTV became my favourite channel!” Jules and David had always enjoyed welcoming friends and family into their home so making it into a great space for socialising was a top priority in their renovation process. “We wanted to have a really spacious open-plan living/dining/kitchen space,” says Jules. “At the very heart of it we wanted to keep it simple, bringing the outdoors inside. The door openings were very small before so we installed large bifold doors to make the views a central element of the room.”
At this stage they enlisted the help of Simone Hill, owner and interior designer of Cinnamon House.
“We found a kindred spirit in Simone - her fun, eclectic and bohemian vision was exactly what we were after,” says Jules. Moving from Manchester, Jules and David had brought a lot of their furniture with them. Jules was tempted to throw it out and start afresh, but Simone had another idea.
“Simone persuaded us to keep our antique pieces that we had shipped over from England, she loved the mixture of old and new.
“We had also amassed a decent collection of local art from auction houses over the years in Manchester, and it was important to us to not detract from the art with the interior design.” They decided to keep the walls mostly neutral for this end. “Jules and David wanted the home to be a blank canvas for their art,” says Simone. “Getting to play with the incredible original art collection was my favourite part of the whole project. It was an immense amount of fun for me to place it in just the right position, in order to not detract from beautiful view but enhance it. The eye is drawn to the pops of colour.” Simone picked out the colour palette from the artwork and brought it to life in furniture, different textures and finishing touches.
“By bringing in layers of textures and colours this prevented the rooms from feeling too cold or clinical - for two doctors that’s exactly what I wanted to avoid in their home!” Each room started with a feature piece of furniture which blossomed into a fully-fledged concept from there. “The kitchen started with the three bird cage chandeliers over the large island,” says Jules, “they’re my favourite pieces in the whole house.”
The unique finishing touches turn this beautiful Kiwi house into a home with style.
The superbly crafted bifold doors offer unparalleled indoor-outdoor flow.
Simone brought in Cheryl from Today’s Kitchens to realise their kitchen dreams.
“We’d had a large island in our kitchen back in Manchester,” says David, “and we found it really suited our socialising style so that was something we wanted to bring into our house here. “Cheryl did a great job, combining a mixture of both creativity and practicality. “The kitchen had only recently been completely refurbished by the previous owners so we didn’t want that all to go to waste. Cheryl reused the old cabinetry, adding only two new units to create a true entertainer’s kitchen.”
It was also important to the couple to keep a few choice elements of the original architecture. “We kept the cedar window frames as a reflection of what was there in the past. Keeping just a little bit totally nailed the balance of original features and our own input,” says Jules. Everything around the fireplace was purpose-built, with Simone sourcing the tiles locally from Floorpride, while the downstairs cloakroom has a whimsical nod to their home country with a Great Britain map print. With the guest rooms each one has its own unique personality. “Even though our daughters are miles away back in the U.K. it’s still a family home and we can envision each of them in their own rooms here.”
When it came to the upstairs of the property, Simone wanted to craft this into a quiet haven for the couple, separate from the rest of the house.
“It’s a house that can be shared with everybody, so I wanted to make the upstairs their space where they can retreat from the world when they need to. It’s the most beautiful bedroom with amazing leopard print armchairs and a gas fire.” The dark and sultry decor of the bedroom with its black and gold textured wallpaper and sheer black curtains give it the opulence of a boudoir. For their ensuite bathroom, David wanted it to be quite rustic. “Simone found a wonderful old train mirror which she used in this room - that’s my favourite piece in the house,” says David. “The bathroom is a fantastic mix of new tiles with antique fixtures and fittings which work really well together.” “What I loved about working with Jules and David was that they were totally brave and nothing was too out there for them,” says Simone.
BE YOUR BEST, JOIN THE BEST
Sales Manager with Ownership Opportunity - Blenheim Region
We are looking to recruit a focused and driven Sales Manager to join our strong team in the Marlborough region based in our Blenheim office. This role could be an ideal opportunity for either an established Sales Manager who is keen to move towards a potential ownership opportunity OR an experienced Licensee who is considering a career move into Sales Management. The successful candidate will be responsible for driving sales growth across the region as well as recruitment/retention of Licensees along with overseeing the administration, brand standards and compliance expected from a New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty office. We are looking for someone who has a solid background in residential real estate with a successful sales career to date. In addition the ideal applicant needs to demonstrate the desired attributes required to take over the leadership of our existing successful and high performing team, to ensure continued outstanding results from the region is maintained. This is a permanent, full time position reporting into the National GM of Sales and Franchise and working within a national Sales Management team. All applications will be held in the strictest of confidence. Applications close Friday 28 May 2021.
If you have the relevant skills and experience and think this role could be your next move, please contact Rachel Exell: rachel.exell@nzsir.com or 021 058 8306
Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated. Browns Real Estate Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.
Winner of Best Kitchen and Best Kitchen Design at the 2021 NZ Master Builder Awards.
Award-winning joinery
Bays Joinery have long known they produce the best kitchens in the country, and once again they have the awards to prove it.
The family-owned Nelson company won two coveted titles at the 2021 New Zealand Master Joiner Awards last month.
Bays Joinery took out the national awards in the categories of Best Kitchen and Best Kitchen Design for their modern, black creation built in Blenheim and designed by in-house designer, Colin Hayes. The predominantly black kitchen features brass accents to tie in with the designer home. The design is symmetric but not visually cluttered, with cathedral ceilings to both dining and lounge. Bays Joinery design manager, Ben Knight, says the kitchen was credited for its boldness, innovation, and masculine design, which was tailored to their clients’ wishes.
The kitchen was designed with the intent to maximise its storage with internal drawers placed in all cupboards. An angled island ensures optimum use of space and drew special mention from the judges who also noted the fantastic use of materials. One of its main features is the brass splashback and island panel, where the ‘aged brass’ process has been used to soften the polished brass and to add detail. Though the kitchen appears simplistic in design, Ben says it was a very technical project in both the design and manufacture, which is not always evident. The client requested something a little outside of the box. With an architecturally-designed home they wanted a kitchen that wasn’t overstated, but also wasn’t the norm and like every other kitchen in the street. “They didn’t want the kitchen to overpower the space, but required two fridges, three ovens, and two pantries within the design and space.” Being recognised on a national stage is a great follow up to their recent success at the regional Joinery and Design Awards in Nelson where they celebrated four regional awards this year, including Supreme Joinery Award, Best Kitchen, Best Use of Timber and Best Interior Design. Bays Joinery, a family business that has been designing and manufacturing quality kitchens for since 1992, has grown from a small business to the region’s largest joinery manufacturer. “As a business we drive to inspire, and to create unique pieces with tailored solutions to each client, so to have an awards of this calibre is a credit to the team and our clients,” Ben says. A very community minded business, Bays Joinery has design studios located in both Nelson and Blenheim, they boast professional craftsmen with exceptional standards of workmanship and attention to detail. Bays Joinery Marlborough Display Studio 25 Redwood Street, Blenheim baysjoinery.co.nz
