Whitcoulls honours man's 22-year-old voucher

Don Collingwood (Supplied)
Don Collingwood (Supplied)

A forgotten gift has come full circle for a Taranaki man, whose daughter used his two decade old book store vouchers to buy him a Christmas present.

The four $10 vouchers were bought around 22 years ago by Don Collingwood as gifts, but he'd completely forgotten about them. 

"I bought them to give them away at Christmas and never got around to it. I put them in a cupboard and left them there."

His daughter Bronwyn Atkinson recently cleaned out Mr Collingwood's filing cabinet when she found two unaddressed Christmas cards with the vouchers inside.

She said there were still in good condition when she found them inside the sealed envelopes with the cards.

"There was no expiry date on them – [I thought] 'I don't think they'll accept them but I'll give it a go'."

On a planned trip to Auckland, Ms Atkinson went to a Whitcoulls store in Manukau to try find a book on New Zealand working dogs her dad, 75 and a former farmer, mentioned he wanted.

"There was no problem whatsoever.

"[The cashier] was quite intrigued because they were so old and he had to ask his manager how to put it through," Ms Atkinson said.

She wrapped the book up for her dad for Christmas, and she said he was "over the moon" about it especially since Mr Collingwood didn't think they'd be valid.

"Honestly, I didn't but when I heard that the others ones [from Dick Smith] weren't being honoured.

"That was really amazing after all that time," he said.

No one from Whitcoulls was immediately available for comment.

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