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Before and after: Cindy delivering with her Dad today (above) and back in the ’60s (below).
Mahurangi travel agent Cindy Bakewell found the ability to move with the times paid big dividends during the Covid-19 lockdown.
While Covid-19 proved damaging to her travel business, Bakewell Creamery – the family’s farm and raw milk delivery business near Wellsford – was overwhelmed with orders.
Owner Guy Bakewell, Cindy’s younger brother, estimates business quadrupled during lockdown, with many reluctant to join long queues in supermarkets with strict social distancing regulations.
“Everyone was stuck inside. They were wanting home delivered goods and they had plenty of time to order it,” he says.
Bakewell Creamery found itself taking orders for milk from as far north as Marsden Point and as far south as Manurewa. Even when lockdown restrictions relaxed, demand for raw milk remained high, with the business still delivering 400-500 litres of milk each day.
“Once people have tried it, it’s quite hard to go back. It really does taste completely different and we know it’s a healthy product,” says Wendy Bakewell, Cindy’s stepmother, who looks after the business’s books.
To cope with the rush, Cindy was persuaded to temporarily leave her travel desk and join her father Marty Bakewell, 87, to assist with deliveries.
That brought back memories of helping her Dad in the 1960s, when he worked as a grocer in Levin. Cindy recalls travelling in the basket on the front of his bicycle as he made his rounds.
“Delivering milk was a fun way to reconnect with Dad during lockdown,” she says.
“But I think he is pleased that those days of me sitting in the basket on the bike have gone,” she laughs.
Although she continues to deliver milk, Cindy says she cannot afford to neglect her travel business, making sure she keeps up-to-date with cancellation and refund policies so that clients with disrupted travel plans do not lose money.
Last week, she took heart from the fact that people were again starting to think about travel. Her Rotary club is looking at booking several trips through her, including to Australia and Japan, even though the borders are yet to open.
Another client who books a lot of student travel to Asia, Africa and South America has abandoned trips to those places, but is looking at other options in Australia and New Zealand.
“I’m not finished yet,” Cindy says.
