two weeks ago we quietly opened moki35, with no big launch, no crowd and no guarantee that anyone would even notice us. we simply switched on the machine, started making coffee and I sat at the bottom of my driveway
I think we all had a little bit of hope that locals would come but you never really know until you put yourself out there. slowly, one local at a time have started to come but more importantly, these locals have started to talk
the part I didn't expect
I thought these first few weeks would mostly be about coffee, learning the rhythm of the cart, figuring out the workflow, remembering locals orders and trying to make every coffee as good as the last one
of course, that has been a huge part of it however what I didn't expect was how many stories would come with those coffees. locals stop for five minutes and somehow you end up talking about their lives, their families, their work, where they've come from, what they're going through and sometimes what they're doing for someone else. in only two weeks, I've met some genuinely incredible people
one stranger helping another
a few days ago, someone came to the bar and paid $50 forward, not for a friend or someone they knew but simply for someone that they see passing and wanted to give that someone a little lift. eventually this local came along who really did need one. I gave them the coffee and watched their face change and it genuinely made their day, it made mine too
I stood there afterwards thinking about how strange and wonderful that moment was, two locals who had never met each other, one deciding to do something kind and the other happening to be the one who needed it...
a stranger helping a stranger...
then there was another local who comes past moki35 and climbs mount Parihaki a few times a week. we started talking about the bar and some of the work we are still doing around it, including the ground and the pad we are trying to improve
they told me their father had some pavers that needed a new home and offered them to us and just like that, another local I barely knew was offering something that could genuinely help us build moki35
then the conversation went somewhere completely different. they told me about a young local who is fighting leukaemia. they climb mountains, sky scrappers and raises money for this local and they are doing incredibly well and coming towards one of their final visits where hopefully they will receive the all clear
as this local told me about this local they are supporting, I could see how much it meant to him and he became emotional talking about it. I found myself getting emotional too
here I was standing beside a coffee cart worrying about pavers and coffee sales, while this guy was climbing a mountain, keeping fit to help a young local fight cancer
it put things into perspective very quickly. before this local left, they paid another coffee forward, for whoever needed it most
this morning, that coffee found its local
this morning a guy walked past moki35 and we started talking
he had recently moved up from Auckland and had been dealing with his own challenges and had started a new job in the area only last week. after just two days on the job, the car broke down, this morning I gave him the coffee that had been paid forward
the coffee that had started with one stranger helping another had now found its next local
I don't know exactly what that coffee meant to him, maybe it was simply a good coffee on the way home, maybe it was five minutes where things felt a little easier or maybe it was just a small reminder that someone cared enough to do something kind
but I know what it meant to me, it made me realise that something is already happening here
I thought I was building a coffee cart
when I started moki35, I thought the challenge would be building the business, finding the right location, building the cart, getting the coffee right, working out the costs and getting people to notice us
all of those things still matter but I didn't realise that I would also be building something around the people who stopped for coffee
I'm learning that a coffee cart is a strange little place, people come for a drink but sometimes they stay for a conversation
you hear things you wouldn't normally hear, you meet people you probably wouldn't otherwise meet and you start seeing the community around you in a completely different way
two weeks in
we are still tiny, we are still figuring things out and there are still plenty of things to build, improve and learn
but after two weeks, I feel incredibly lucky because already I have met locals who believe in the idea, locals who have offered their time, locals who have offered materials, locals who have paid forward coffees and locals who have shared their stories
these locals are quietly doing incredible things for other people, often without asking for anything in return and I think that is what moki35 is starting to become
not just a place to get a coffee but a little meeting point, a place where strangers can help strangers, where locals can stop for five minutes and have a chat and where you might arrive needing a coffee and leave knowing a little bit more about the local standing next to you
I started this business because I love coffee and I came home to Whangārei because I wanted to build something of my own. overseas I new I needed more community and more connection as life in a foreign language and in a foreign country is isolating, I mean, the city I was living in overseas had the population of our whole country!
but after these first two weeks, I'm beginning to realise that the most important thing I might be building isn't the cart at all, it's the community around it, one person at a time
and if the first two weeks are anything to go by, there are some seriously good people already standing around it
thank you to every person who has stopped, everyone who has supported the idea, everyone who has shared a story and everyone who has offered help without being asked
thank you to the strangers who have helped other strangers
we're only two weeks in although this already feels like something much bigger than coffee
moki35
specialty coffee made in Whangārei