Archives for April 2018

MAGIC CAVES

Freddy Jones was affectionately known as ‘the youngest old man in Nelson’. Today his postcards of life in and around Nelson at the start of the 20th century provide a valuable record of life in New Zealand at that time.

Frederick Nelson Jones with Mutt the Monkey (teara.govt.nz)

Apart from taking thousands of photographs, he also created the magical world of  Pixie Town.

CHILDHOOD TREAT

One of my earliest childhood memories is visiting Pixie Town in the basement of the DIC department store in Dunedin. It was a Christmas treat for my sister and me (along with most other young kids in Dunedin) to enter Santa’s Grotto, a magical place where hundreds of mechanical pixies, nodded, bounced, rocked and swayed as they clickety clacked their various activities in a series of scenarios that were exhibited side by side in rows of  booths. read more