Thank you again for all the contributions to TRM Fb blog.  The total views over the last 28 days have now passed 520,000.  That is a new record for a little motel in Turangi or anywhere else, for that matter.  It confirms that viewers love anything contentious and controversial.  They must all be bored.  But wait, there’s more…

For surviving all the racist chit-chat over the past week, you deserve a reward with a story that you will love and hate in equal measure.

It is more exciting than just a story as it is all completely true – not like that book! 

TRM’s rules of trout fishing etiquette would not have allowed me to write it ten years ago, but now so many viewers have accused me of outrageous racist behaviour, I have found the courage to share it.

About ten years ago the same frustrating issues, about the reasons for Turangi’s lack of progress etc., were bugging me.

To put you completely in the picture, I was away on my annual one-week holiday (that is all She allows me), mountain biking off-road following a horse trek for the length of NZ in stages that had started in 2006.

To convince you how young I thought I once was, if only to maintain your interest, have a squiz at a brief video of the North Island stages below.  Look out for the TRM hat.

By the time the trek reached the McKenzie country, I was so weary of biking through such boring scenery (I suffered from having biked all the glorious North Island), so went off fishing instead.

Fortunately, the route was close enough to Twizel to encourage me to stop off at the iSite.  I had phoned previously to warn them and made an appointment to discuss my problem and interrogate the Manager, who had particularly been recommended to me.

Looking back now, I suspect it might have been a “set up”, but that’s ok.  I was desperate.

So, in wonderful laid-back South Island social style, I was invited in where they put the billy on to enjoy a cup of tea.  Their first question was, “Where are you from?”  Turangi, I answered.  Their response floored me.  “Then we know exactly what you want to know”, before I had asked any questions.  How?

The Manager had spent the last five years in a senior managerial position in Turangi so had heard it all before.  I could not have found a better or more qualified person to help to sort out my dilemma. (The bloke below was not the manager.  He was from the North Island!)

So I blabbered on about the problem that I could not understand and reiterated that Turangi was a wonderful hydro electricity village designed by MOW as a permanent town.  The MOW had plenty of practice designing workers’ settlements or smaller towns along the Waikato River where hydro dams had been developed, such as Mangakino, Whakamaru, Wairakei, Atiamuri, Karapiro, Arapuni, etc., but Turangi was their biggest and best.  It featured all the amenities for a successful modern town such as being the first town in NZ with underground power, a smart shopping centre and facilities to serve a population of about 7,000 residents.

But they knew all that.  So what was bugging me?

After Turangi, the next big MOW project was Twizel canals with the Benmore Dam etc.  But due to the geographical isolation, it was designed as a temporary town.  The housing stock was smaller, cheaper, with more simple basic construction design, no footpaths or curbed drainage, etc., planned for the town to be transported to the next hydro site at the end of the project.

Compared to Turangi, the remote location sucked.

Strategically, Turangi was on SH1, surrounded by three National Parks, the largest ski fields in NZ, and was already well known and established for tourists being famous as the trout fishing capital of the world, halfway to everywhere in the North Island, etc.

It outscored Twizel in every way, but one crucial element…  And that was what I was trying to identify.

In scenic terms, Twizel was so boring, yet it was enjoying booming real estate conditions.  New shopping centres were being built.  Builders could not erect new superior houses fast enough to satisfy the demand.  But Twizel houses were approximately twice the value of better Turangi homes.  Why?  How?

I could not work it out.  Then the teasing started.  I must have appeared so thick.

In the nicest possible friendly way, they encouraged me to keep trying, keep guessing, as I was getting close.

For their amusement, I kept trying but could not identify the reason.

What was holding Turangi back?

Why was Turangi struggling comparatively?

What had gone wrong?

 

For the simple, hard-to-believe but true solution, tune in to the TRM blog tomorrow. 

No – I could not be so cruel.

But I was absolutely astonished with their answer. So simple.

With the benefit of hindsight, it was so obvious.

I could not believe what I heard.

They gave me the answer in one word.

Maoris.

 

Think about it…

We look forward to your response…