Vanessa Hudson had a MacGyver type of dad so it’s no surprise she started up two repair cafés.

She’s been fixing and tinkering since she was young — her mum who taught her to sew, and she learnt how to take things apart and have a go at fixing them from her dad.

“I learnt as long as you put it back how it was you’re unlikely to make it worse... and you may even figure out how to fix it along the way,” she says.

Vanessa has made and repaired jewellery, plenty of clothing, fixed her own car, adjusted a wobbly dining table, restored furniture, rewired a plug and has even built a campervan from scratch with her dad.

Vanessa held her first Repair Café Katikati last month and another will be held on November 9. She used to facilitate Repair Café Te Puke for several years before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now she lives in Katikati and is keen to help the community with these pop-up repair sessions.

Repair Café fixers will take a look at anything that is not working properly. There’s also an IT help station so people can learn how to do things on their smartphone, tablet or laptop.

Vanessa is keen for more volunteers such as electricians, sewers, IT people and general handy people.

She encourages locals to bring their toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothes, bikes, jewellery, lawnmowers and ceramics etc that need repairing for the cafe.

The Repair Café Foundation concept arose in the Netherlands in 2010 and provides support to local groups globally wishing to start their own repair café.

The idea is “don’t ditch it, let’s fix it!”.

Repair Café Katikati also want to help reduce items going to landfill and save people from having to buy replacements.

Locals with items for repair at last month’s pop-up event.

Throwing things away is often unnecessary, Vanessa Hudson says.

“We throw away loads of stuff in New Zealand, even items which often have not much wrong with them and which could easily be used again after a simple repair.

“Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to repair things like previous generations did, don’t have the tools or can’t find anywhere to take them for repair. Repair Café wants to change all that.”

Vanessa says repairs can save money and resources, as well as help minimise CO2 emissions and reduce landfill.

“But above all, our repair café just wants to show our community how much fun repairing things together can be, and how simple it often is once you know how.”

The details

What: Repair Café Katikati

Where: Katikati Community Baptist Church

When: November 9 from 9.30am-12pm

facebook.com/RepairCafeKatikati