Cathy Wolfenden is a keen recycler, up-cycler and re-purposer of products – in fact anything to do with recycling gets her undivided attention.
Cathy is an inventor. She sees a need, and with the help of her husband Tom, and children CJ and David, develops an environmentally friendly solution. Her wheelie bin-towing device, the Bin Towa, is a case in point, helping rural residents transport their new Auckland Council recycling bins.
“We live on a long bumpy driveway and we saw a need to help solve a problem,” Cathy says. “It also helps people to recycle, which is great.”
Cathy grew up on an 80ha ranch, two hours outside of Chicago in the US. She moved to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband Tom 12 years ago. Tom has had family connections to the Mahurangi region for decades, and they moved to Kaipara Flats from Auckland nine years ago. Cathy wanted to give her children the kind of rural upbringing that she enjoyed.
“Where I grew up was very similar to Warkworth’s small town, country feel. It was also close to a major city so you didn’t feel completely isolated. It’s funny how life brings you back around.”
From childhood, Cathy wanted to be a teacher, but she also discovered a love for business and completed a degree in teaching and business management.
She embarked on a career in teaching, and then in marketing and management, before finally combining the two vocations by getting into senior management for higher education institutions. Cathy decided she wanted to work in the Mahurangi area and saw a market for her passion for sustainability and recycling. So she created Eagles Rest; a home-based, family-run business. Cathy’s latest invention is the GroBot – a herb growing capsule made mostly from a recycled glass bottle.
“I don’t have a green thumb and I was fed up with my herbs dying in the kitchen. Herbs prefer to absorb moisture from below. We developed a sophisticated wick system made from New Zealand wool. Even herbs like coriander, which are notoriously difficult to keep alive and tend to go to seed, thrive in the GroBot.”
Eagles Rest has a range of innovative and functional products that support up-cycling and recycling. If you live in the area and Cathy is passing, she will drop one off to help lower the carbon footprint for delivery.
