about us

I started BONZ from my home in Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands with very little money but with a vision and a great deal of passion!

It started as a cottage industry with just twenty people hand-knitting from a woolpack containing a pattern, graph, yarn (sometimes up to twenty colours), and instructions on where to use each colour. The woolpacks were sent to hand knitters who took an average of four weeks to complete the garments before they were sent to the stores.

Originally, no yarn company would supply me with wool because i didn't operate from a retail shop.  So I had to buy pure wool in skeins, hand-dye and hand-wind it all, before completing a woolpack.

There were always four 'jam pots' on my oven top with blue, red, yellow and green in them and wool bubbling away in the dye!  Visitors were always given yarn to wind as we enjoyed a coffee or wine together.

In 1986, we opened the first Australian BONZ store at 'the rocks' in Sydney, followed shortly after with stores in cairns and the gold coast.

Our first NZ store was opened a few years later in Christchurch, then in Auckland and finally Queenstown, which became our flagship store, including the BONZ gallery upstairs.

At this stage the hand-knitting team grew to around 1,200, spread throughout NZ and Australia. We have since closed the Australian stores and now sell all our BONZ clothing ranges exclusively from our NZ locations.

The important criteria was for our hand-knits to be faultless but clearly of handmade quality, ageless design and made with the best pure wool which is produced 'down under'. A BONZ  hand-knit is made to last for 20 years if cared for according to the instructions.

It is always a pleasure to have a past customer walk into our store wearing an old BONZ hand-knit and to see it in such perfect condition!

I still design and sample most of our hand-knits which are hand- done, mostly on graphs, rather than on computers.

Our leathers are made in the south island of NZ and still carry the name of the staff member who handcrafted them so beautifully to last a lifetime.

We have had a long and wonderful relationship with the company that makes BONZ leather designs exclusively for our stores. much of our merino clothing range, accessories, and pure wool machine knits are made in the north island.

After twenty years i am still so very passionate about BONZ, our products, our staff, and our stores.

Six years ago, I also bought and fully renovated a mountain retreat, 'Songbirds Rainforest Retreat', in the hinterland of the Gold Coast and still manage both this and BONZ.

My 18 year old son lives with me and attends Bond University on the Gold Coast, so I now divide my time equally between Australia and NZ.