On Sunday TRM posted their usual Daily Report which featured Little Waihi – a tiny settlement near Tokaanu.  The touristy style report featured the Waihi waterfall and other historic buildings of interest being the abandoned dairy factory and church and marae.

Unfortunately this coincided with some computer problems and communication problems which have now been fixed.  So during Sunday we were unaware of the negative facebook comments and concerns of some locals upset at TRM posting the images and repeating their “googled” history.  The email that alerted us to their issues was sent after 9pm on Sunday.  (Thank you to Christina McIntyre and Mike Forrett for giving up their Sunday to keep TRM on line.) 

TRM was only trying to promote the scenic attractions locally, as we have for many years… but it sadly misfired.  The photos were all of public buildings and any offending comments had been plucked from public sources – on Wikipedia’s description of the village and the story of the church from a Catholic newspaper.  Anyone can access them on an iphone.  So we could not understand the fuss over TRM trying to promote scenic attractions in this region.

Tourism is the main industry in Turangi and now the biggest industry in NZ, so it is sad to see some people preferring to lock themselves away and not embracing the future.   It is their loss.

TRM Reports have featured Waihi before – i.e. the last time included the images above on right were posted after the Dawn Parade on 25 April 2017.

Previously we had always been encouraged by positive encouragement from readers – indeed, they have mainly kept the reports going for so long.

Unfortunately this time the report unwittingly upset some Waihi individuals.  It was sad to see their response and receive their abuse instead.

TRM reports have often included maraes and other local maori architecture or historic buildings as they are of genuine interest to tourists.  No one ever objected to their promotion on TRM reports before.  So the criticism and threats were a complete surprise.

If the Waihi people really want to organise a march onto TRM – as threatened – then they are welcome, although I can think of many other better places to picnic than next to SH1.  If they let us know ahead we will have the picnic tables out and will smoke some trout.

So TRM unreservedly apologise to those more sensitive souls who felt upset at photos of their privately owned waterfall being posted on our “blog”.   The number of complaints were a tiny fraction of the encouraging “thumbs-up” response.  But to avoid any unnecessary controversy, in the interests of racial harmony, the offending facebook entries and report have now been removed.

TRM have been posting Daily Reports on local trout fishing and all manner of local subjects for over 13 years, attempting to promote anything that might be of interest to tourist guests and readers, hopefully in the wider interests of Turangi.  This is the first time, from over 4000 reports, that we have received such threats and negativity.  So we admit to being quite bewildered by the objectors’ response.

As such, TRM readers would be interested in your feedback.

That is such a depressing start to the week.  To cheer you up watch the TRM video of what you will find within a five minute walk of TRM.  We apologise in anticipation of any objections…