Kaitaia has a brand new business

Evelyn Wild, ready for a horde of customers on Saturday morning. Picture / Peter Jackson

For most people in business in these Covid-19 days, the focus is on surviving until restrictions ease and people start spending money again. Kaitaia woman Evelyn Wild has gone one better than that though - she's opened her doors in the town's main street for the very first time.

It was something of an experiment, she said shortly after opening on Saturday morning (and having already served her first customer).

"I'll see how it goes before I decide whether or not to keep going," she said.

She opened from 9am to 1pm on Saturday, and will open daily throughout the rest of this week, from 9 to mid or late afternoon, depending upon the response.

"I might close the door at 3 if it's a bit slow, but if I'm busy I'll keep going until 5," she said.

Her stock, displayed in what used to be Hofstede's jeweller's shop, and more recently Winston Peters' electorate office (until he lost the Northland seat to National's Matt King), comprises art work (paint-by-numbers, which belie their humble origins, and the more recent technique, diamond art, all her own work), and hand-knitted clothing for infants, at very modest prices.

On Saturday she was selling cardigans and jumpers, with beanies, for $15, and a beanie alone for $3, in a range of bright colours.

A knitter since her teenage years, she had been putting scraps of wool to good use she, said, hence the plethora of stripes, but she was also buying more to keep her going.

She had tried selling her wares at Kaitaia's Saturday morning market, but without great success. There wasn't much room there, she said, and the shop allowed her the space to display what she had to much better effect.