NZ Dimensionz Information

Many of you will know the business by the name of its retail tourist attraction, Paua World, in Carterton, which sees more than 30,000 visitors through its doors each year. What many people don't know, however, is that the products created in the factory onsite are sold all over the world, featuring at American tourist attractions like Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Canyon. NZ Dimensionz directors Matt and Rosie Carter have steered the company growth for the past 40 years. It was the brainchild of Matt's accountant father Rob Carter, who ran a small exporting company in the late 1970s. "One trip over to the States, Dad found that Paua was sought after - in particular Paua cabochons," Matt said. A cabochon is a precision shaped and polished insert (gemstone or shell) that is tted into jewellery. "So, Dad being Dad, on returning to New Zealand, he went straight into working out how we could manufacture them." The business started off in the family's old chicken shed in Masterton, where Matt and his father would build machines to make the cabochons - "because we couldn't afford to buy the machines". "In those days, there was very little in New Zealand in the way of lapidary equipment anyway," Matt said. "I was a regular at the local dump, pulling electric motors out of old washing machines and various other parts to build some of the original machines for cutting and working the shell." In the beginning, Matt and his Dad would draw various shapes on the paua shell and cut them out by hand to produce about 200 cabochons each day. But after working with Lambert's Engineers in Masterton,they soon developeda machine which could precision prole cut 800 cabochons a day.