The spectacle before us was a quintessential early to mid twentieth century wooden general store and post office, thoroughly and beautifully iconic in its very essence, graceful to a nail and so genuinely captivating.
The Langford Store is a Golden Bay cultural institution in many ways as it exemplifies aspects of everyday life as New Zealanders lived it through much of the early to mid 1900s, in the days before supermarkets and shopping malls. The “local store”was a centre of activity and when it included a post office was somewhere people gravitated to even moreso.
Bainham, of course, has never quite been a thriving centre and one doubts a supermarket will ever be seen within 50 kilometres of the place; how fortunate for the area you could suggest.
However, the store has lived on through the times and is now very much a tourist attraction, its postal facilities although limited, are still offered and there is much merchandise to choose from within the store itself. After an enthralling look through the mini art gallery/museum in what must have been a workshop long ago, I sat on a comfortable old chair on the verandah of the shop, quietly ruminated, sipped my cup of English Breakfast tea and nibbled away at a most excellent, hot and moist scone covered in generous, utterly luxurious blobs of whipped cream and fresh raspberry jam. My pot of tea presented well with a brilliant, coloured woollen tea cosy and I felt myself being whisked back to the days I spent with my lovely old grandmother. Her teapot always had a knitted tea cosy on it.
Visit the “Bainham Store” and prepare to be charmed, both by the delightful proprietress and the rugged, wrinkled but oh so perfect store. The scones and other tidbits are the icing on the cake and well worth a small investment to enjoy. It would surprise me if you didn’t experience a tinge or two of nostalgia and a haybarn full of happiness.
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