People and Places

A weekender’s guide to Greytown and its picturesque shops

Article by Your Home and Garden

This small Wairarapa town is as pretty as a picture, with shops to match

Greytown’s reputation for being really good-looking is well deserved. Why, if you drive down the main street, the restored Victorian buildings make you feel as though you’re on a Peter Jackson film set – if hobbits lived in a bucolic colonial town. If you happen to find yourself in town, park on the main road and check out the shops.

Parking is free and you’ll always find a space – even on a busy Saturday morning when the Wellingtonians arrive for the weekend.

Medina Perfumery

87 Main St, medina-perfumery

Medina Morin is the founder and creator of this prettily named face and body skincare and home fragrance perfumery, which is housed in a pretty colonial building.

The Tea and Oranges room perfume is a beauty but it’s hard not to scoop up the poetically named Where the Birds Sing fragrance as well. Buying small batch-made products at the source is a privilege.

Miss Maude

Oddfellows Hall, 11 Hastwell St, missmaudesewing.co.nz

Who’d have thought haberdashery could be exciting? This beautiful store is like a siren call for anyone who sews, knits or just likes buttons. High-spec interiors full of reels of cotton, glass-headed pins, lilac elastic, adorable Bohin silicone steel-topped thimbles, and bolts of pretty silk cotton voile, coloured oilskin and organic cottons.

Also, when did sewing patterns move on from the badly illustrated Butterick ones of my youth to cool versions from Merchant & Mills and The Assembly Line et al, in which you can make your very own Mahsa-like dress?

Miss Maude in Oddfellows Hall, Greytown

Hospice Wairarapa – Greytown

68 Main Street, hospicewairarapa.co.nz

Greytown is known for its well-heeled population, so this thrift shop is a happy hunting ground and possibly the only one in the country to have Kartell barstools on their inventory list. On Saturdays, the well laid out Hospice Bookshop is open from 10.30am-12.30pm.

When we were there, one of the volunteers was overheard saying to another that she’d just found a first edition of Barry Crump’s A Good Keen Man.

Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop

93 Main St, villagebookshop.co.nz

Close your eyes and imagine the perfect bookshop. It’ll be almost identical to Mrs Blackwell’s shop of the best selection of books sitting on floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves – you know they are because you’ll want every single one of them. Behind the counter are framed photos of Mrs Blackwell’s advisory board consisting of John Steinbeck, Mrs Blackwell’s husband and Martha Stewart.

There’s also a stationery offering of fetching-looking pencils, pens and notebooks but the piece de resistance is the Caran d’Ache pencil sharpener. Dare you to leave without buying something.

Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop, Greytown

The French Baker

81 Main St, Greytown, frenchbaker.co.nz

Prepare to queue for the sourdough breads and fabulous French pastries. The parmesan roll is a cheesy dinner roll that’s a familiar sight at local dinner parties and the croissant is among the very best you’ll find in the country. They’re pretty quick on the coffee machine, so you shouldn’t wait too long for a long black to dunk your pastry into at one of their comfy booths.

While you’re in the area…

Juno Olives (1931 State Highway 2) is a five-minute drive south of Greytown. Tour the olive groves and they’ll explain the production process. Buy some of the award-winning oil. Schoc Chocolates (177 Main Street) for some of the most stunning handmade chocolates you’ll come across. The fruit-shaped marzipans are a wonder. Stay at The White Swan Country Hotel (109 Main Street) for everything you could possibly want in a historic country hotel.

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