Reader's Digest Australia Feb/Mar 2026

I ’ve never had any interest in troll dolls, yet recently I found myself a bit obsessed, spending days down a rabbit hole exploring their history. These dolls have a strong connection to my childhood town of Tauranga, New Zealand. Let me explain. In 1963, when I was twelve, we moved from our acreage at the end of Levers Crescent (now Kings Ave- nue) on the Otumoetai Peninsula to a place in the middle of town. Staying on the peninsula for six years was a record; my father was very unstable and restless, always on the move. Our house was sold to a Danish family, Kristian Nyboe Pasgaard, his wife and two sons who had immi- grated to New Zealand in 1949. They gave my parents three paintings: two girls, Marie, with dark hair, and Leo- nie, blond; and a boy, Jean. Mum said they reminded her of my sister Anna, my brother Robert and me. She kept them through all their many moves — unusual for her, as she had to chuck away a lot of stuff — and when she went into a nursing home in 2007, I took them to Australia. They now hang in my lounge. For some reason, I thought the Pasgaards had invented troll dolls. What I discovered is more interest- ing: they manufactured these dolls in a factory at Sulphur Point, on the western side of Tauranga Harbour. They’d been granted a licence by the Danish creator Thomas Dam. This only came to light after an extract of my book My Father’s Suit- case , a memoir on family secrets and by Mary Garden The classic toy holds a special and surprising familial connection to one writer’s New Zealand childhood home reader ’ s digest 108   february/march 2026 dysfunction, was published in the New Zealand Herald in 2024. Sue Reynolds, administrator of the Face- book group Tauranga History Online , shared the extract, and suddenly people I hadn’t heard from since pri- mary school were commenting, and friends of my brother were recount- ing long-forgotten escapades. Dave Okeby, who hung out with my brother as a teenager, recalled: “Robert was a live wire and an avid drinker. One weekend, we polished off my father’s Drambuie — he wasn’t impressed when he found the bottle empty weeks later.” Others remembered building huts in willow trees and smoking under the causeway bridge. Lindsay How- land recalled stealing his father’s Model A car and tearing down Levers Road with the neighbourhood kids. (I hadn’t remembered any of this at the time I was writing my book.) I mentioned that we had sold the house to the inventor of troll dolls, but I was soon corrected, and pro- vided a link to a 2019 post on Troll Doll History on New Zealand: History & Natural History , which explains the Pasgaard connection. I was surprised at the affection for trolls, with people sharing stories of their own. “I have my original troll from the late 1970s. He is sky blue with blue hair. He is adorable. I have an original NZ Thomas Dam Boy. He has been my best most loved companion since 1977. PHOTO CREDIT: MARY GARDEN Above: The three portraits given toMary Garden’s parents by the Pasgaard family readersdigest.com.au     109 My Story