Putting the Boot In
At the top of the year I brought a brand new pair of gumboots (wellingtons, wellies, top boot or rubber boot to you Brits) which really isn’t such a big deal except that I hadn’t owned a pair since I was a teenager feeding out hay from a tray behind a tractor. That’s was a few years ago!
They’ve got to be the most practical footwear. I don’t do floppy footwear of any kind so mine are broad at the toe area and snug everywhere else that matters. I’d wear them to town if my conscience would let me, that’s what happens when you’ve lived in the city too long, it matters what other people think! They’re plain black so as to differentiate them from the city-slicker patterned ones that they wear when they’re pretending they’re going to do some farm work. They’ve become a fashion accessory, imagine that!
I love it when it rains here in Central Hawkes Bay because all the farmers come to town in their gumboots. A girl hardly feels out of place. What I love the most is that there are lovely little handwritten A4 pieces of paper in the shop windows or at foot level that say, “Please remove boots if they’re dirty.” I still chuckle when I walk past a shop and see gumboots or riding boots lined up outside a shop. It just tickles my fancy!
“Here in New Zealand, a mere ninety-nine years to this year, George Skjellerup, a Danish Australian opened his first store in Christchurch, The Para Rubber Company named after Para, a source of rubber in Brazil selling a variety of rubber products including milking machine components. Para is the founding company of the Skellerup Group. Some thirty-odd years later, the first gumboot was manufactured on the present site in Christchurch.
Ever since New Zealand’s first rubber gumboot, the original ‘Marathon’ emerged from the vulcaniser on September 9 1943, they have set about creating a standard for rubber gumboots not just here, but around the world. Every Skellerup gumboot is hand made. Why do we do it this way? Because it allows us to incorporate specific features for New Zealand conditions, and to use the very best components, for extra durability.
Each boot component is bonded in place by hand before the finished boot is vulcanised using heat and pressure. To ensure comfort and compatibility with local conditions, all their boots are shaped to match typical New Zealand feet. Skellerup leather working boots are made to their own rigid specifications on purpose built production systems.
Soles are constructed using the latest Skellerup formulations specifically designed for the rigours of outdoor use and inside each boot can be found an unsurpassed level of padding and support that have taken work boots to new levels of comfort. I know because mine are and I think I will wear them to town.
About an hour and half drive from Waipukurau is the small township of Taihape. In 1985 the effects of the post subsidy era in agriculture were being felt in both the town and country. The Government of the day removed subsidies from agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and drench whilst making exports more competitive.
This had the effect of reducing incomes and curbed spending among many people in small towns like Taihape. In addition to this, Taihape also experienced the down-sizing of New Zealand Railways. The population of the town fell from 3500 in the early 1960s to about 1800 in 1985. To survive the town needed to take action.
In late 1984 a group of people that became known as ‘Taihape Promotions’ held a series of meetings searching for ways and means by which the effects of the imminent downturn might be averted neck of the woods. During one of those brainstorming exercises Pam & David Sykes, Denis Robertson, Martin Little, Henry Fleury and others decided to build on the ideas of the comedian John Clark who was experiencing considerable success with “The GUMBOOT song”. Clark had also referred to the “Taihape University Seat of Joinery”.
In an attempt to halt the traffic on State Highway One Gumboot Day was born. The first Gumboot Day consisted of gumboot throwing, gumboot races, Fred Dagg look-alikes, decorated gumboots and shop window displays providing a day when town and country alike could get together and enjoy themselves whilst selling the town to the rest of New Zealand.
The second Gumboot Day in 1986 provided an opportunity to develop the Taihape University theme. Degrees in “Gumboot Throwology” were awarded by Michael Abraham the Professor of the University and Roger Blackiston the Dean. The attempt on the gumboot throwing record became a fixture for the event. Christine Le Varis coined the term ‘Gumboot Country’ and designed the distinctive logo that has become synonymous with the town and the event.
Since 1985 many novel ideas and themes have been explored. The venue has been changed and also the date but overall concepts remain. Taihape ‘Gumboot Day’ is a well established promotional activity on both local and overseas calendars.” As for me, well, they won’t become a permanent fixture on my feet but by crikey they do the job!
