With such a cute name you’d expect an equally cute store. Well, you’re in luck! A Port Chalmers gem, Box of Birds is a retro store selling great vintage clothing and Kiwiana kitsch to locals and visitors. The walls are covered in old paintings and the store is scattered with taxidermy which, alas, is not for sale. What began ten years ago as an excuse for an artist studio, Box of Birds has developed into a fully fledged treasure trove. The store’s owner fills the shop with bits and bobs collected from up and down the country, online auctions and her own personal stocks of the odd and the marvellous.
You’ll find a wide array from cocktail dresses, crockery to woollen blankets, and if you’re lucky you may get your hands on a specially made skivvy for your nipples (while stocks last). One thing that will strike you about Box of Birds is everything here is reasonably priced. From the folk art, biscuit tins, crocheted rugs and old postcards, you’re destined to bag a bargain!
Words by Abigail Egden
Photography by Naomi Haussmann