The lights for the Christmas Trail should be going up on the shop front.

But there’s no point. It won’t happen this year.

Business should be building in the run up to Christmas. But it’s at a trickle. Life is dust. And road works. And noise. And frustration.

“I do not want to be seen as just another moaner,” says a pragmatic Vicky Lang, manager of that quirky gift boutique, ‘The White Rabbit’, on 9th Avenue, just off Cameron Rd.

Right opposite ‘Love Rosie’, a favourite coffee and cake haunt.

And amongst a neighbourhood of other small speciality businesses – the ‘perfect antidote to shopping malls’ they call it.   

“I like to think it’s progress,” says Vicky searching for something positive to say of the Cameron Rd upgrade.

“And sometimes progress comes at a cost.”

A noble sentiment considering her business has been hammered by that ‘progress’.

Turnover’s down 50 per cent on last year – and that for a business enjoying 30 per cent year-on-year growth for five years.

There are many stories of Cameron Rd businesses on the brink, bent or busted by the roadworks.

“I won’t let that happen to me,” says Vicky.

And for this story about a business that is a bit buckled, The Weekend Sun embedded itself at The White Rabbit.

We watched, listened and learned for a couple of hours.

“I do wish for the ‘progress’ to be finished – yesterday preferably,” she laughs.

But that won’t happen.

“They first told me the work would take six weeks. That was four months ago.”

Vicky says she has learned to take promised timeframes and double them.

Now she’s been promised it’ll be done by Christmas.

“But that’s no good. It’s far too late.”

Because Christmas has already started for a business that relies on Christmas.

Vicky depends on the November and December trade, it represents 50 per cent of her annual turnover.

Vicky Lang in Wonderland – the Cameron Rd upgrade has hammered her business. Photo: John Borren.

And as she chats with The Weekend Sun, her head is spinning. She’s tired of the roadworks. Very tired.

“It’s the constant construction noise. By the end of the day I am exhausted.”

It’s day in, day out.

“Then this morning a concrete cutter.” And the reversing alarms on roadwork machines – beep, beep, beep, for as long as they’re backing up. And then again. Beep, beep, beep.

She throws up her hands.

“You just can’t let it upset you. And I suppose if there’s noise, it means there’s progress and we’re nearing the end.”

Then right on cue, a worker starts up a compactor outside the shop and the whole building vibrates. There’s some resigned laughter.

Progress is slow. Sometimes it appears at a standstill. Vicky points to what appears to be some drainage work right outside her shop.

“Nothing’s changed there for days. They’ve run into a problem. Could be a delay of several more days.”

And the dust, the infernal dust. Noise, dust, noise, dust, endless.

“We keep the doors closed, but that doesn’t keep the dust out.” Vicky’s hired someone specifically to fight that losing battle.  

At the time of writing, ‘White Rabbit’ was snared in some major roadworks at the intersection of Cameron Rd and 9th Avenue, trapped behind temporary fencing and fences, masses of machinery, vehicles and an army of hi-viz jackets and hard hats.

Access is down the footpath, which has become a narrow alleyway between the shopfront and the safety fences.

“People who set out for the shop will find us. And I am grateful to our loyal regular customers.”

Before the roadworks you could pull off Cameron Rd into 9th Avenue and park right outside the shop.

Now you circumnavigate The Warehouse, around a large block, park down the road and negotiate a tight pedestrian alley way between the shop front and the safety fences.

“But we’re not getting the passing by, drop in, new customers. There’s not much foot traffic. It’s just too hard.”

The shops been quiet for the time The Sun has been there.

But then, as if to make liars of us, the door opens and along with more dust and noise, several customers come in and start fossicking and chattering.

It’s that sort of shop, organised clutter; interesting stuff to fossick through and talk through.

But when they should be chattering about fair trade items, New Zealand made small business products and other Christmas novelties, lovely items, the talk is, of course, about the roadworks.

“To be expected,” laughs the manager.

Vicky says she is no engineer. “But the job’s taking an awfully long time. Why don’t they tag team around the clock and get it finished.”

There’ll be many businesses the length of Cameron Rd feeling that way.

But she doesn’t lie in bed and worry about it.

“It’ll pass. So we sit tight, hold onto our hats and be patient.”

Then, just a few days ago, an exit opened from 9th Avenue onto Cameron Rd.

“But we need the traffic coming in,” says Vicky. That might be another couple of weeks apparently.

If Lewis Carroll used his ‘White Rabbit’ in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to comment on modern life and the difficulties and anxieties that come with it, then Vicky Lang chose well in naming her store.