A LETTER FROM AROHA, ABOUT THE HOUSEWARMING PRESENT EVERYBODY TALKED ABOUT

A letter from a reader

I HAVE BOUGHT PRESENTS FOR A WHĀNAU OF FORTY FOR FIFTY YEARS. THIS IS THE FIRST ONE I HAVE EVER WRITTEN A LETTER ABOUT

Six things these quilted baskets get right as a present that a lifetime of candles, pot plants and tea towels got wrong, written by a customer, not a home writer.

Aroha Ngāta · Customer · Gisborne · 5 min read

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et me be straight about who’s talking. I’m Aroha, I’m 69, I live in Gisborne with my husband Rawiri and a dog called Tama who thinks every parcel that comes to the door is for him, and in all my years I’ve never once written to a shop about anything.

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et me be straight about who’s talking. I’m Aroha, I’m 69, I live in Gisborne with my husband Rawiri and a dog called Tama who thinks every parcel that comes to the door is for him, and in all my years I’ve never once written to a shop about anything.

What I have done is buy presents. In a whānau our size, there’s always somebody. Birthdays, twenty-firsts, new babies, weddings, housewarmings, and a Christmas list that would frighten most people. Fifty years of it, for sisters, nieces, cousins, aunties and the women who cook with me at the marae. So this isn’t a review. It’s a woman who has wrapped a great many things, saying which one was worth it.


The one I’m writing about is called the Ngaio, a quilted laundry baskets from Eleanor & James, a small boutique over in Coromandel that makes everyday things a little nicer for women our age. I first saw it at my niece Kiri’s housewarming, and when Eleanor & James later asked if they could share my letter, I said yes, on one condition: that I could be completely honest in it.

 

It was Kiri’s first house, a little weatherboard place in Mangapapa, and the whole whānau squeezed into the lounge with a plate each. The presents were the usual pile. A candle. A pot plant. A cheese board. A bottle of bubbles. Two sets of tea towels. Then Kiri pulled the paper off one great soft parcel and stood up a basket covered in fat white sheep under a swirling night sky, with a big yellow moon. Kiri grew up on her dad’s sheep station up the Waipaoa valley. She put her hand on her heart and didn’t say anything for a good while. It had come from my cousin Pare in Wairoa, who, I’m told, gives the present everybody talks about, every single time. Read on.

Kiri’s housewarming. Half the aunties were over to look at it before the kai came out.

Here’s what fifty years of present buying has taught me. Presents for a woman our age come in two piles. The pile that’s lovely and useless: the ornaments, the smellies, and the good soap that sits in a drawer being saved for best until it cracks. And the pile that’s useful and dull: the tea towels and oven gloves, which say you gave it about four seconds of thought at the till.

Either it was pretty and went in a drawer, or it was useful and nobody looked at it twice. I’d been giving both kinds for fifty years.

So I rang Pare that night and asked her, straight out, where it was from. Pare told me it was the new version. Eleanor & James had listened to what women said about the first baskets and made them again, with better material and a much firmer build, so they’d hold their shape for years rather than months. She said the old ones were lovely and these were better, which from Pare is the strongest recommendation there is. Then I did what I always do, which is order one for myself first to see if it’s any good. I chose the hens, fully expecting to send it back. It’s still by my back door, and after a month of it, I can tell you why it works as a present in six things.

The hen one, the morning it came. Tama barked at it for a full minute.

1

IT’S A PRESENT THAT GETS USED EVERY SINGLE DAY

I’m starting here because it’s the whole point. Everybody has washing, and everybody has a laundry basket they’ve never once thought about. This one is out on show from the day it arrives, full of towels by the back door or in the laundry, and she sees it every morning. Kiri rang me a fortnight after her housewarming to say it was the only present she’d used every day since. Nobody has ever said that to me about a candle.

Mine, by the back door. Towels in, sandy jandals out.

Bought it for my sister’s birthday. She says it is the first present from me she has not put in the loft.

Raewyn H., Te Araroa

2

THERE’S A PICTURE FOR EVERY WOMAN YOU KNOW

This is where it becomes dangerous. There are around thirty designs, each with its own picture, and every one of them made me think of somebody. Sheep on the hills for Kiri, who grew up with them. A row of patchwork hens for me, because I’ve kept chooks out the back for thirty years, and every one of them has had an opinion. There are cats in a row, dragonflies, sea turtles, a bee among daisies, Highland calves and a basket full of dogs. Choosing it is half the present. You’re telling her you know what she loves.

I bought the cats for my neighbour who has two kittens. She laughed out loud when she opened it.

Merle W., Tokomaru Bay

SEE THE LAUNDRY BASKETS 2.0 COLLECTION

3

THE PICTURE GOES ALL THE WAY ROUND

The artwork wraps right round the basket, so there’s no plain back to turn to the wall and no wrong way to stand it. On the Ngaio, the sheep carry on round the hills and the swirls of the sky carry on round the top. On mine, the hens go all the way round in their stripes and spots and florals, and a few of them stick their heads up over the rim, combs and all, as if they’re checking who’s coming in the back door. The quilting stitched across it gives it a lovely soft texture that you want to put your hand on. Kiri turned hers round twice in the lounge to count the rest of the flock.

The Ngaio up close. That big sheep has a face you can’t be cross with.

Much nicer in real life than the picture. The stitching catches the light and there is something to look at on every side.

Noeline P., Patutahi

4

IT STANDS UP ON ITS OWN, EVEN EMPTY

This is what made Kiri put her hand on her heart. The moment the paper came off, it stood up by itself on her new carpet like a piece of furniture, not a floppy bag that has to be propped against something. That’s the 2.0 version for you. The sides are firmer and better built than the earlier baskets, so it keeps its shape with nothing in it at all, and it doesn’t slowly sag at the top after a few months of use. It looks smart in a hallway or a bedroom corner whether the washing is done or not.

I expected it to slump like the fabric ones I have had before. It stands up straight on its own, empty or full.

Gillian R., Whakatāne

5

IT’S LIGHT, AND EASY TO WRAP

Anyone who has tried to wrap a present that isn’t a box will know why this matters. The basket is light and soft, so a sheet of brown paper round the middle and a strip of harakeke from the garden tied at the top, and it looks like it came from a proper shop. And because it folds, it’ll fold away out of sight until the day comes round. I’ve had three of them in the hall cupboard since September, and Rawiri hasn’t noticed a thing.

My sister’s, ready as gift. Brown paper, a bit of flax, done.

So easy to wrap compared with anything else I have given. Light as anything, and it looked lovely in plain paper.

Faye M., Muriwai

6

IT’S SOFT, BUT IT’S SENSIBLE

A present for the laundry has to earn its keep, and this one does. The new version is made from a heavier, better-quality quilted material than the first baskets, and you can feel the difference the moment you pick it up. The outside wipes clean when sandy togs get dropped in it after the beach, and it can be washed when it needs to be. The two handles are stitched on properly, so she can carry a full load of wet towels out to the line. It comes in three sizes: small at 35.5 by 45.5 cm for a bathroom, medium at 40.5 by 56 cm for a bedroom, and large at 51 by 71 cm for the family wash. I got Kiri’s sister the medium.

Bought one for my daughter and one for myself the week after. Mine wipes clean in a second, and so does hers.

Bronwyn S., Havelock North

A BASKET FROM THE COLLECTION, AGAINST THE PRESENTS WE USUALLY GIVE

You can spend a fair bit on a present in any shop in the country. I know, because I have. Here’s the difference, laid out plainly.

MOST PRESENTS

Put away for best and forgotten

One more thing to dust

Smells lovely for a week, then gone

Picked up in a hurry at the till

Awkward shapes that won’t wrap

Cheap and flimsy, gone by next year

THE QUILTED LAUNDRY BASKET 2.0

Used every single day

Tidies things away instead

Wipes clean, stays nice

Around thirty pictures, one for every woman

Light and soft, wraps in a minute

The improved 2.0 version, made to last

ABOUT THE PRICE

The Ngaio is $89.95 NZD in the small, down from $190.00 NZD; $99.95 NZD in the medium, down from $200.00 NZD; and $124.95 NZD in the large, down from $250.00 NZD. Every design in the collection is the same price, my hen one included.

 

I’ll pass on what Eleanor & James told me, which is that this is the new 2.0 version of the baskets, that they’re in the spring sale to make room before the summer stock comes in, and that the popular designs don’t tend to last into December. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that a mark-down is usually where I start asking what’s wrong with something, and after a month of mine in daily use, I haven’t found it.

 

And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered June’s. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. A good many of them were women who had bought one as a present and then gone back for one of their own, which is the same road I took, only backwards.

4.2 ★

FROM 300+ REVIEWS

30

DESIGNS TO CHOOSE FROM

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NZ DELIVERY

Three in the hallway for one night only. Don’t tell Rawiri.

If you’ve got a birthday coming up, a niece moving into her first house, or a Christmas list for a whānau that’s already got three candles on it, this is the present I’d choose for you myself, while the Ngaio is still there. Pick the picture that is her. You’ll know it when you see it.


Aroha

THE DECORATIVE LAUNDRY BASKET COLLECTION 2.0

4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

$190.00 NZD

From $89.95 NZD

New 2.0 version: higher-quality material and a firmer build 

Soft quilted basket, the picture wraps all the way round

Stands up on its own, even empty

Two handles, securely stitched

Wipes clean, washable when needed

Light and foldable, stores away neatly

Three sizes: 35.5 × 45.5 cm, 40.5 × 56 cm or 51 × 71 cm

Free delivery with NZ Post

SEE THE LAUNDRY BASKETS 2.0 COLLECTION

Spring sale on now. Once a design is gone, it’s gone.

About the writer. Aroha Ngāta is 69 and lives in Gisborne with her husband Rawiri and a dog called Tama. She is a customer, not a home writer, and she was not paid to write this letter.

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