Mondays are fun days for a group of Wanaka start-up entrepreneurs, with the recent opening of the Good Service, a new co-share work space in Pembroke Mall.
Film-maker Fin Woods and his flatmate Jonty McCool floated the idea for Good Service over a kitchen table during Covid 2020.
‘‘We were flatting together and working on the kitchen table. We thought, this is cool, working beside each other and helping each other out. But not in the kitchen,’’ Mr Woods said.
So they teamed up with three others — Chris Maunsell, Sam Baker, and Patrick Greene — and opened the Good Service in a windowless lock-up instead.
The lock-up was in an industrial area and its limitations included being too cold in winter and too hot in summer.
‘‘There was no running water but the culture was pretty cool,’’ Mr Woods said.
Fast-forward more than two years and ideas have germinated and businesses have flourished.
The group members work across a variety of creative industries, including filmmaking and product design.
‘‘It is something you really look forward to on a Monday, being able to come in and catch up with everyone and crack into a good week,’’ Mr Maunsell, a photographer and film-maker, said.
Recently they decided they had had enough of the lock-up.
They spent pretty much every hour of July fitting out their new space and opened the doors in August to anyone who needed a ‘‘hot desk’’.
Polly Withers, the owner of the Good Spot coffee and food caravan on Anderson Rd, operates a hole-in-the-wall servery to the street.
‘‘We have a graphic designer, a photographer, a filmmaker, an engineer, an architect. It is a crazy, cool atmosphere having people coming and going,’’ Mr Woods said.
Mr Woods grew up in Wanaka and developed a passion for snowsports and videography.
He has been full time self-employed for two years, and now follows his heart around the world making snowsports, motorbike and surfing films for commercial clients.
‘‘It is awesome having all all these diverse people here to talk about what you are doing and your business. We all feed off each other,’’ he said.
He and Mr Maunsell last year worked on a major project helping friends convert an old school bus into an adventure wagon and tour Canterbury club skifields.
The resulting 23-minute movie, The Great Alpine Highway 73, now screens as inflight entertainment with Air New Zealand and will soon be released by Red Bull.
It also won an award at the recent New Zealand Mountain Film Festival.
Jonty McCool, an industrial product designer, proposed to his bosses in Mt Maunganui that he work from home in Wanaka during the 2020 lockdown, and has since become hooked on Wanaka’s lifestyle.
‘‘It is small enough so your name can pick up and start travelling fast but it is also big enough, what with ongoing construction, that there is a lot to have a crack at. There is a lot happening and other people’s processes are growing too,’’ Mr McCool said.
