Wilma van den Bosch, owner of Petronella's Gallery and Bookstore

12:57 AM, 29 November 2023

Five years ago, I opened Petronella’s Bookstore in Lake Tekapo. My full name is Wilhelmina Petronella Maria van den Bosch, but friends call me Wilma. An immigrant from the Netherlands, I have lived in Lake Tekapo, a holiday resort in the middle of the South Island for over thirty years. Running my own bookshop was always a dream, but I worried that it wouldn’t be viable in Lake Tekapo, a small town of only 500 residents. Now I realise that Tekapo has always wanted a bookshop. The domestic tourists especially are grateful because holidays are the best time for browsing and reading.

Travellers don’t do weekends, so the shop is open seven days per week, and I manage this with my lovely team of staff who all like the part-time hours I offer. I am the sole owner of the business and I make all the decisions and own all my mistakes. That is lonely at times but thanks to my neighbour Renee from Timaru Booksellers and the Booksellers WhatsApp group and the conference, I feel part of a supportive community.

The drawback of a bookshop in a tourist resort with only a small number of residents is that my regular customers, and I do love them, are not my bread and butter. Seventy-five percent of my customers will only visit once. On the plus-side, these visitors are not expecting the latest releases, so I need not get too stressed about inevitable delivery delays and missing orders. Another beautiful benefit of having many overseas customers is that they love reading New Zealand authors – I play a small part in promoting New Zealand culture to the wider world.

I mostly read fiction, but when new textile craft books come in, I am truly salivating.

—Wilma van den Bosch, owner of Petronella's Gallery and Bookstore