The Story of the Only Cuckoo Clock Maker in the South!
After years of clock making in the UK it was always my intention to return to it when I came to New Zealand.
I arrived back in NZ almost twenty years after meeting my wife here in the early 2000’s. We are now a family of 4 and arrived with just 4 travel bags, 4 snowboards and a promise that our worldly possessions would be following not far behind us! The problem was that Covid was in full swing and our possessions took almost a year to arrive rather than the 8-10 weeks we were told.
Starting again with no tools or workspace was daunting. Setting up a workshop takes time and is never complete, it’s a constant evolution, at least for me it is!
Now, two years after arriving, my life and workshop are both setup and ready for making cuckoo clocks again!
I’ve remodelled previous old favourites to match up with the best materials on hand in this part of the world. I’ve also added a selection of new designs and there are more in the pipeline.
I’ve done a lot of research and it’s my belief that I’m the only person making cuckoo clocks in the Southern Hemisphere. There was a factory in Brazil in the 50s -70’s who made some cuckoo clocks but nothing nowadays.
As far as I know, nowadays it’s just me. It’s a lonely accolade but one I’m happy to wear with pride!
‘Visiting Schwarzwald, Germany, the northern hemisphere home of the cuckoo clock!’