A treat to be back home

The doors to central Blenheim’s sweetest new dessert store opened on Friday and proved incredibly popular to kick off the school holidays.

The Bocky Boo Gelato store, in Market St, opened its doors at 3pm on Friday afternoon, and franchisee Kylie Wates says the response from Blenheim has been incredible as the store sold a week’s worth of gelato over its first weekend.

When looking for business opportunities in her hometown, Kylie says she was eager to find something fun to fit around family life. “I’ve been in Australia for 11 years, but ever since [my daughter] Sara was born, I’ve said I wanted to be back in Blenheim and send the kids to Springlands, the school my mum and I went to.

“Bocky Boo seemed perfect, because the national franchise owner Chris De’Ath moved back from Australia and set this up, so we’re following in his footsteps and learning off him.”

While Kylie and partner Damien are new to the hospitality life, they say they’re loving their first days in charge and already have some creative ideas in the pipeline. “I don’t want to put too much out there just yet, but there’s 80 flavours created by the team and we can always create more as we go ... we’ve got big plans to collaborate with Easter seasonal flavours and one for the Omaka Air Show too,” said Kylie.

“We sort of weren’t sure what to expect, but it’s been incredible - everyone’s so happy and saying thank you to the staff and I.”