| COROGATE CAFÉ GATEWAY TO THE COROMANDEL TOP SHOP FINALIST 2004 2005 2006 2007 2010 |
| FRIENDSHIP CEILING OVER 300 JIGSAWS PUZZLES & STILL GROWING |
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An amazing 'jigsaw puzzle story.
Our friendship ceiling began in our first full year 2003. The ceiling was in the original condition from when
the Service Station was built some 60 years prior .We decided this would be a fun project for us,
customers, and visiting tourists to enjoy doing whilst waiting for their drinks and meal. The whole ceiling
took 4 1/2 years to complete and indeed we had a lot of fun, and have many stories to tell. One in particular
captures the imagination of all to whom this is related, and it refers to the Dutch Puzzle showing a small
green house, which appears in several of the pictures you see now.
One of the first puzzles we began was of a windmill, which we had chosen as there are a lot of residents in
the Hauraki Plains, who are from the Netherlands. This puzzle was on a table one day when a young couple
visited from Holland, and I suggested that perhaps they would like to fit a few pieces in whilst I made their
drinks.I also said perhaps they knew the area and maybe they lived quite close to where it was. The young
couple almost fell to the floor laughing and commenced to explain that the puzzle actually came from UK
and was of a windmill in Kent.I felt really stupid .Several months later we received a puzzle from them, and
decided before we made the puzzle we would ask a tourist from Holland to tell us as much as they could
about the Windmill . Due to firstly being too busy , then forgetting where we had put the puzzle, then once
found not having the right people in, 9 months had passed, until one late Saturday afternoon whilst closing,
an elderly couple arrived and we of course served them. We recognised their accent immediately and
knowing where the puzzle was, we asked if they would be able to identify it, and tell us a little about it, and
read the letter for us. The gentleman was rather emotional as he looked at the picture on the box, and felt
in his pocket and drew out his wallet. From this he pulled out a picture, and there it was, the same picture
as was on the puzzle. This couple actually owned the windmill and surrounding homes. He pointed out
where his was, which was not in the puzzle but next to the green house, and explained it was now a
working museum .What a coincidence The story doesn't end here A few years later over the holiday period,
a group of tourists from the Netherlands were listening to the story, which I tell to many, and one person
was very excited and anxious to speak. He said that the couple were well, and the Museum still in working
order. In asking him how he knew, he said, "I am the maintenance engineer who works for them". Again this
story does not end. In 2010 another group listening to now the extended story had amongst them another
excited listener, who completed our puzzle. He is a lecturer near by, and it is to this Windmill he takes his
students to learn and see all the machinery in action. Maybe when you are visiting Holland, you can call into
De Kat - The Cat. Dye Mill on the Kalverringdijk (Zaanse Schans) in Zaandam, and give our love from
Corogate Cafe in Waitakaruru new Zealand to Piet Kempenaar, miller of De Kat.
Our friendship ceiling began in our first full year 2003. The ceiling was in the original condition from when
the Service Station was built some 60 years prior .We decided this would be a fun project for us,
customers, and visiting tourists to enjoy doing whilst waiting for their drinks and meal. The whole ceiling
took 4 1/2 years to complete and indeed we had a lot of fun, and have many stories to tell. One in particular
captures the imagination of all to whom this is related, and it refers to the Dutch Puzzle showing a small
green house, which appears in several of the pictures you see now.
One of the first puzzles we began was of a windmill, which we had chosen as there are a lot of residents in
the Hauraki Plains, who are from the Netherlands. This puzzle was on a table one day when a young couple
visited from Holland, and I suggested that perhaps they would like to fit a few pieces in whilst I made their
drinks.I also said perhaps they knew the area and maybe they lived quite close to where it was. The young
couple almost fell to the floor laughing and commenced to explain that the puzzle actually came from UK
and was of a windmill in Kent.I felt really stupid .Several months later we received a puzzle from them, and
decided before we made the puzzle we would ask a tourist from Holland to tell us as much as they could
about the Windmill . Due to firstly being too busy , then forgetting where we had put the puzzle, then once
found not having the right people in, 9 months had passed, until one late Saturday afternoon whilst closing,
an elderly couple arrived and we of course served them. We recognised their accent immediately and
knowing where the puzzle was, we asked if they would be able to identify it, and tell us a little about it, and
read the letter for us. The gentleman was rather emotional as he looked at the picture on the box, and felt
in his pocket and drew out his wallet. From this he pulled out a picture, and there it was, the same picture
as was on the puzzle. This couple actually owned the windmill and surrounding homes. He pointed out
where his was, which was not in the puzzle but next to the green house, and explained it was now a
working museum .What a coincidence The story doesn't end here A few years later over the holiday period,
a group of tourists from the Netherlands were listening to the story, which I tell to many, and one person
was very excited and anxious to speak. He said that the couple were well, and the Museum still in working
order. In asking him how he knew, he said, "I am the maintenance engineer who works for them". Again this
story does not end. In 2010 another group listening to now the extended story had amongst them another
excited listener, who completed our puzzle. He is a lecturer near by, and it is to this Windmill he takes his
students to learn and see all the machinery in action. Maybe when you are visiting Holland, you can call into
De Kat - The Cat. Dye Mill on the Kalverringdijk (Zaanse Schans) in Zaandam, and give our love from
Corogate Cafe in Waitakaruru new Zealand to Piet Kempenaar, miller of De Kat.