That’s a big Mangle

Here we are staying at Motueka for a few days as we continue to travel around the South Island, and we have been enjoying glorious sunny weather.  A bit chilly in the mornings and evenings, but that’s to be expected at this time of year.  “Mot”, as it is called by the locals, is a pleasant town with a rather laid back feel to it, and the climate is just right for growing hops (for beer making) apples, pears, kiwi fruit and grapes.  The main street has it’s fair share of trendy shops and cafes, and a nice little museum which we visited today.  Once again, some vintage underwear caught my eye, this time a pair of child’s pin tucked pantaloons edged with lace hanging up on a clothesline.  Somebody’s mother would have spent hours stitching these for her little girl many years ago, I’m sure.

Pin tucked pantaloons

Close by was a huge mangle, and bars of hand made soap.  There was even a recipe on how to make your own soap.  Surely only wealthy households could afford to buy one of these solid machines, as I imagine such a piece of laundry equipment would not be cheap to manufacture? 

A mighty big mangle

There were no old quilts tucked away in this museum, but I did spot a pretty vintage patchwork cushion, in blue, cream and mauve.  Wonder where this came from?

Patchwork cushion

Motueka had a very busy port in the early years and has quite a family connection, on my mother’s side of the family.   It was in this town that a young man on the Green side of the family decided he didn’t want to continue sailing the high seas and jumped ship.  The story goes that he  hid under the voluminous skirts of the publican’s wife while the search was on for him.  Once the ship had set sail he was free to start a new life in the colonies and did quite well for himself in business, married and had quite a large number of children.  There is even a local street named after him, just around the corner from where we are camping.  One of his grandsons (my great grandfather) travelled to Martinborough in the North Island and set up his boot and shoe shop.  But we never did hear what the publican’s wife thought of that young man hiding in such an intimate place while the police conducted their search.