Jan Maxwell - A Remarkable Multitasker
When you’re the eldest of nine kids it’s all about pitching in and being organised, something Jan Maxwell has modelled her life on.
A busy mother of five, Jan grew up in Gore in a happy blended family, after her first father died when she was five. Theatrics and music were in the blood with Jan’s mother a talented ballerina and choreographer.
Speech and drama became Jan’s thing and the family took turns at travelling with their parents on cruise ships around Australia and the Pacific. “Mum and Dad saved up and took half of us at once,” she says. On one trip her father brought back the first microwave oven for Gore. “My sister’s home economics class all came around to see how it worked and we all stood on the other side of the kitchen,” smiles Jan. “We’d been told it may have weird waves.”
A strong hockey player, she played for the Dunedin Teacher’s College team while studying there, also picking up basketball at 32. Late husband Ewan was the College hockey coach and initially put paid to Jan’s teaching career. They married in her final year having their first baby a year later. “Then we moved to Christchurch and had another baby, to Invercargill and had another baby. We had three under three – a busy time, but we loved it,” says Jan.
Ewan left teaching to become assistant manager at Whitcoulls until an opportunity arose to partner in Paper Plus Gore. Ewan became operations manager for four branches and Jan started teaching. Then came their chance to own a Paper Plus in Queenstown, with Jan about to give birth to their fifth child during the move. “I arrived very pregnant and starting a new business with four other kids. It was head down and tail up to make it work. People in Gore expected us to be back in a year. That was 28 years ago,” says Jan. “We found this community amazing.” It was winter in Queenstown and people were skiing to work from Queenstown Hill, streets were iced over, pipes were frozen, and the Maxwells walked everywhere, Jan with a new baby and four kids.
“The nuns at St Joseph’s Convent let me have hot showers and the community, and families, heard about us. People dropped off meals and Owie O’Connell arrived after Day 5 and got our water going, refusing to send a bill,” she says. “People were so lovely and I felt I’d found a really good community.” She’s always made an effort to give back to that community.
Jan has chaired the St Joseph’s School Board of Trustees and Wakatipu High School’s PTA, also coaching hockey.
Music was always a big part of Maxwell life, all, including Ewan, talented singers and performers, with sons Tom and Sam now renowned locally, and having scored gigs overseas with their bands.
A great sewer, Jan was in hot demand as wardrobe creator for high school and community musicals, which she still is for Showbiz Queenstown and Remarkable Theatre. Apart from a few local cameo roles, she’s always preferred being behind the scenes, making things happen.
Somehow she and Ewan juggled five kids with seven day a week, 15-hour days in retail until selling Paper Plus in 2005.
They survived the record 1999 floods, and supplied reading material to Vertical Limit and Lord of the Rings movie stars.
Jan and other Mall business owners like Doug Champion and John and Ann Mann formed the Mall Committee, organising Mall events and activities.
Then in 2011 tragedy struck with Ewan passing away at 55 in a hunting accident – a huge shock and difficult time for the family, but one when they felt the love of Queenstown yet again.
By then Jan was arts and events facilitator for Queenstown Lakes District Council, a role she’s become renowned for, for almost 20 years, organising many a great downtown New Year’s Eve celebration.
The Maxwells could be likened to Queenstown’s own von Trapp family, Tom and Sam inheriting their grandmother’s unique ability to play by ear. Sam wasn’t always destined for the stage though, that was until Jan made the boys dashing blue Blues Brothers costumes for the local Arts and Variety Show. “Sam was five and he wasn’t keen, but when he got out on that stage he shoved Tom aside and took off down the catwalk,” laughs Jan. Needless to say, they won.
She has many proud Mum moments, and as her own family grows – seven grandkids already, she still loves her theatre roles, meeting amazing young people from around the world. “I’m still blown away by the level of creativity in this town, so many talented people.”
Jan also serves on Creative Queenstown’s committee, and is a Baby Box and Wakatipu Youth Trust trustee and volunteer.
