Digs Hargreaves - ‘Dig’ that silver lining...

His distinctive, handcrafted silver jewellery has celebrated many a special occasion around the world – a creative gifting discovered in 1968 in desperation for money to get home from his OE.

Dig Hargreaves, now retired, was among the Whakatipu’s most renowned jewellers for almost 50 years – the perfect lifestyle for a man who loved skiing.

Born in England in 1948 to Kiwi parents – a dad who’d been a parachute instructor in the British Army during WWII, they moved back to New Zealand when Digs was 18 months. Unfortunately, his father moved back to England leaving his mum to bring up two little boys with help from Christchurch grandparents.

Digs’ mum then moved to Hanmer Springs where his grandfather was in a convalescent hospital after a major heart attack. Digs and his brother were sent to Cathedral Grammar boarding school in Christchurch, aged eight, enjoying wonderful outdoor freedom back in Hanmer in the holidays. “We’d disappear after breakfast and come home for dinner, and no one worried. It was a wonderful life.”

Digs was a school swim champion and star national shooter at 16.

They joined Amuri Skifield as foundation members, he and his brother becoming Canterbury champions. A Roy McKenzie scholarship saw them among six South Island skiers put up at the Southland Ski Club on Coronet Peak for a week’s race tuition.

They’d visit every holidays – a 13-hour drive over the unsealed Lindis Pass. “I fell in love with the place – snowcapped mountains and blue skies.”

He didn’t cut it at uni so headed to Western Australia as a surveyor in the gold mines, then pegging out leases for nickel mines in the late 60s.

But the ski craving overtook and on a Coronet Peak holiday a Canadian instructor convinced him to sit his instructor’s exams in Banff. “It was my dream to travel overseas and be a ski bum, very few New Zealanders were doing that.

“I arrived with what I thought was a lot of money – several hundred pounds written in my passport. They laughed at me and only stamped me for two weeks,” Digs says.

He was one of only about 40 of the 160 sitting the exam to pass. An American examiner invited him to instruct at Mount Snow in Vermont, instant visa provided. The ski school director had worked at Mount Ruapehu and loved Kiwis. “They loaned me money to get a flat. I went back there for three seasons.”

He also worked in a hotel while skiing in Switzerland, then in London a job offer came to instruct at Porter Heights in three weeks. “Unfortunately, my return air ticket had expired, and Mum wouldn’t loan me money.” He’d spent two summers in Spain running a waterski school and making leather bags at night. “It was the early 70s. They had big market days at Hyde Park, but every hippy and his dog were out selling leather gear.”

He tried making jewellery instead, borrowing a silver bracelet off his girlfriend to copy, his last £10 spent on silver wire.

A London jeweller selling the same bracelet for big money referred him to the Indian supplier, Digs quickly learning how to barter. “He took six and said make me 50 for tomorrow! I sat up all night and, in the end, they took five minutes to make. I made thousands and had orders for hundreds.” Rings were requested, Digs pretending they’d be “very tricky to make”. “I soon had more than enough for my airfare, around $2000.”

He sold through a Christchurch jeweller around Australasia until silver took a huge fourfold price hike. Digs got stung on orders already priced, so set up on his own.

A Queenstown jade and jewellery store under Noah’s Hotel was gaining sales so the Christchurch jeweller opened a Queenstown shop in Eureka House, Digs working there before moving across the Mall to a tiny space on his own. “It was a gap between the Skyline building and a walkway, no windows. Rent was $30 a week and when it rained the roof leaked, which meant rent was cut to $15. I’d produce a bucket of water for proof,” he grins.

Digs then created a studio at his Malaghans Road home, selling from his Mall space before selling that to Rob Lynes and Gary Mullings. “I’d take my pieces in on a Friday, and they’d buy the lot. Once I made a beautiful blowfly brooch. I’d pinned it to the workbench when it was annoying me.”

He was regularly commissioned to make special pieces and only retired in 2021 due to bad arthritis. “I donated all my tools and equipment to Jess Winchcombe at her studio by the Honey Centre. She couldn’t believe her luck. She was so grateful.”

Digs, who’s also done a stint as a marriage celebrant, has passed on his skills to young people over the years, one Norwegian girl and a Kiwi in London, both now famous jewellery designers.

“I was completely self-taught, no books even. I’d buy German magazines and steal the designs,” he grins. “I loved doing what I did. It wasn’t work.”