Uptown taonga

Words: Russell Brown

Peter Lamont has been in the greenstone business since he was 20 years old – and he’s just turned 83.


“Dad does sort-of talk about retiring, but he just gets a bit bored at home,” explains his daughter, and Greenstone Factory Shop manager, Regan Lamont.


The shop had been in its spot in Kingsland for around 30 years when it was forced to move to make way for an apartment development late last year. Regan says she initially looked to stay in Kingsland, “but there was just nothing suitable” and she was relieved when she was shown the business’s new home in Mt Eden Road. They made the big move to Uptown over the Christmas holidays and reopened in July.

The fact that it’s a stand-alone building means Peter can make as much noise as he needs to cutting up blocks of greenstone and the new shop has something the old one never did – parking.


“It’s working out really well,” says Regan. “People can just come off the motorway to see us and there’s a nice lot of neighbours.”

But it does mean the factory part of the business, downstairs from the shop, is very small – there’s just enough room for Peter and his saws and no windows. Does he mind?


“No, I quite like it here,” he insists when we pop down to the basement for a look.

“At the old place people could see in from the shop,” Regan explains, “but now Dad can just chill out down here.” 

The business works much as it has for decades: greenstone is sourced largely from the West Coast, cut by Peter according to requirements and distributed to the shop’s four contract carvers in Auckland. Their offerings are complemented with high-end pieces bought directly from independent carvers like Neil Brown and Jayme Anderson.


More recently, however, Peter has been cutting pieces of stone he’s held for years.


“He’s known a lot of people of his vintage who say, ’well, we can’t take it with us’,” says Regan. “So it just comes up.”


Items at the Greenstone Factory Shop start at $5 and the business often does bulk seasonal orders for schools. Its customers are mostly locals and retailers, but some tourists do find the shop.


“They’ll be staying in hotels and people just tell them about us,” says Regan. “We don’t do a lot of advertising.”


On the day Uptown visited, there was a steady flow of customers, young and old. Customers like that it’s a family business, says Regan, and “people still want to buy greenstone – there’s always a birthday or an anniversary.”


Uptown says goodbye to Peter and gets a very firm 83-year-old handshake.



“I can’t stand people who’ve got weak handshakes,” he laughs. “Don’t trust the bastards!” 

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