Back to work (January 2015)Famed NZ designed-and-man­u­fac­tured cloth­ing and out­doors equip­ment com­pany Cac­tus are open­ing a new store at 241 Thorndon Quay this week­end. It’s some­thing of a home­com­ing – the com­pany star­ted in Wel­ling­ton before relo­cat­ing south many years ago to be closer to lar­ger moun­tains and more con­veni­ent snow.

But they’ve remained a favour­ite of Wel­ling­to­ni­ans and so we get to host their second shop after their HQ in Christ­ch­urch. So on Sat­urday from 10am there’ll be free L’Af­fare cof­fee, and on both Sat­urday and Sunday there will be “spe­cials on gear […] and a chance to win $1000 worth of Cac­tus kit”, they say.

What I like about Cac­tus, apart from the fact they make their gear in New Zea­l­and, is the no-non­sense tough­ness and prac­tic­al­ity of what they make. It has a style all of its own; one maybe not to every­one’s taste but at least you don’t have to buy a replace­ment in two years time. Which is some­thing I value highly.

Oh yeah, and did I men­tion the life­time war­ranty on the things they make? Or their pretty good blog?

I can­’t think of anoth­er loc­al cloth­ing com­pany whose products are so loved equally by rur­al folk, tradies, and out­doorsy types. For example, ima­gine the happy scenes at Christ­mas­time when you give:

  • your Dad the dad­dest of dad hats for those times when he’s fish­ing in the rain, all alone, because who likes that really? And at least this way you’ll still be in his good books even if you stay at home instead
  • your sis­ter, who’s just star­ted her build­ing appren­tice­ship, a pair of the world’s toughest work trousers – they’ll last for years even if the break­ing-in peri­od might take a while
  • your lycra-lout broth­er a moun­tain-bik­ing back-pack, iron­ic­ally of course (you can claim it back from him if he does­n’t take it very well – after all, the Velo­m­inati’s loss is your gain)
  • your Mum a nice thick merino shirt because she and her friends insist that spring is the best time for the Tongari­ro Cross­ing (“few­er tour­ists, dear”) – Cac­tus sell moun­tain-climb­ing stuff too – per­haps drop a hint about this
  • your cow-cock­ie cous­in a super-rugged down jack­et that won’t rip when his prize bull tosses him over a barbed wire fence (at least the jack­et should sur­vive OK)

And so on and so on.

Well maybe you would­n’t buy all that at once, because Cac­tus stuff ain’t cheap. But it’s good and it lasts. You won’t have to buy anoth­er replace­ment thing for a loooong time.

In fact, on second thought maybe you should just buy for your­self. You’ll appre­ci­ate it more.

As for me, I already have what some have said is a little too much stuff from Cac­tus, but even so, I really like the look of this hat. And these trousers.

I may need an inter­ven­tion.

Where: 241 Thornton Quay
When: 10am – 5pm Sat­urday / 10am – 2pm Sunday