Breathing new life into the Rocky Bay Store
Hi, it’s great to meet you! We are Mel and Simon. We love adventure and are always up for a challenge. It’s with this spirit that we have bought 3, 5, 7 Glen Brook Road which of course is home to the old Rocky Bay Store.
As part of our plan in figuring out what to do with the site, it is our firm intention to ensure we maintain the spirit of the store.
Our latest updates
It’s been a rollercoaster as you will see in these latest videos. To see more updates, check out our blog.
Meet Mel & Simon
Meet Simon Thompson. Simon is a maker, loving nothing more than upcycling old weathered items and making something new from them.
Meet Mel Rowsell. Mel is a leadership coach and sixth generation Waihekean. Mel's family ties are related to the Hooks, of the bottom end (Hooks Bay) and then Surfdale (Hooks Lane). Mel's mum Jenny was raised on the island, her poppa George used to count people onto the Surfdale ferry and her nana was a shopkeeper, including working at Poppelwells in Oneroa.
We have developed one other bush site before at Opoutere near Whangamata and can’t wait to get started on our next adventure.
We will be blogging here as we go.
Why not stop by and say hi.
The agenda
First up on the agenda we will be getting the lay of the land, for example finding old foundations, old water tanks and securing what is left of the store. Next we will be clearing out the sections of weedy trees, noxious weeds and letting some light in. This will then help us understand what we have bought :-) - see the topography, where the views are, where the little stream runs, how the sun moves across the site, etc.
We anticipate that we will get to know the council pretty well through this endeavour, working with them on what it means to work with a building with a heritage listing. This most likely means it will be quite some time before any building works start! In the meantime we will probably move a caravan or similar onto the site.