Until I was eight, I lived on a farm near New Plymouth, where summer was heralded by the arrival of my Auckland grandparents in their 1960s sedan, a vehicle the colour of sunrise they called ‘The Golden Holden’. Their arrival would follow a set menu: my grandfather screeching to a halt in a spray of gravel and the uncorking of my grandmother, staggering out to complain about his driving.
Grandad inherited a Morris Minor but traded it in for the faster Holden. He loved driving fast, and in the 1960s there was much less traffic. Although the default speed limit until 1969 was 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), “once off the main roads, it was open slather”, says my aunt Lindsay.
Last week Greg and I packed our togs into the jalopy and took off for a trip on some of the same roads. It had been a while since our last roadie and, like Granny, I found myself hanging onto the passenger door handle in fright, although Greg was keeping pace with everyone else. The roads seemed so fast, so busy: or did I just imagine it?
Not according to Waikato District Mayor Jacqui Church, who told RNZ in a story headlined ‘Going backwards’: 19 killed on roads over summer break, that traffic levels in the district had soared well above long-term projections.
“We’re well over 10 years ahead in terms of the percentage of people driving through the Waikato Expressway.”
Many Waiheke businesses will applaud Christopher Luxon’s state-of-the-nation address – especially his recipe for short-term growth by ramping up tourist numbers. Summer’s visitor boom has come after a hard winter.
Down south, my family have seen no summer reprieve. My cousins own a machinery business near Palmerston North and tourists don’t buy concrete mixers. This recession is the worst ever, they say.
In his speech to the Auckland Business Chamber last week, Luxon used the word ‘growth’ 43 times, as if his words were an incantation and the economy a magic bean. “It is about saying yes instead of no!”
As interpreted by The Spinoff: “It’s yes to mining, yes to tourism, yes to an overhaul of the science sector, and no to saying no.”
We have spent the year being sprayed with a high-pressure hose of noes – to housing; improvements to schools; the Dunedin Hospital rebuild; healthy school lunches; care for the disabled and two new interislander ferries (which might have been almost finished by now).
Nicola Willis, the Minister of Finance, Minister for Public Service, Minister for Social Investment and Associate Minister of Climate Change, is now also the Minister for Economic Growth (the new name for the old Ministry of Economic Development).
Up until now, tourism strategies from National and Labour governments have targeted wealthy tourists, rather than lots of tourists, for obvious reasons. Fewer visitors who spend more leave less impact, while the economic gains remain the same.
This ‘value over volume’ policy is about to change. “I want all tourists,” Willis told RNZ’s Morning Report. “When they get here, I’ve great faith in our tourism providers that they’ll do everything they can to get as many dollars out of those back pockets as possible.”
Her first action is to allow those on visitor visas to work for an overseas employer for nine months. While this should help ‘digital nomads’ stay on Waiheke through the winter, whether they turn out to be ‘big spenders’ or café seat hoggers is the question.
More tourists need more infrastructure. There are few signs the government understands this. The Department of Conservation, one of the biggest tourism providers in the country, has seen its core budget slashed despite an increase in the International Visitor Levy which might have paid for a lot of bridge maintenance. As Gary Taylor has pointed out, DoC manages one third of our country on a budget the size of a city council.
Queenstown Mayor Glyn Lewers told RNZ he was dubious over the plan to “open the floodgates” to tourists. During the days of peak ‘volume over value’ tourism pre-Covid, he saw hospitality workers living in cars in winter due to a housing crisis. On Waiheke, of course, affordable housing has been a dire issue for years.
In 2019, former Queenstown mayor Jim Boult told North & South magazine: “You can’t create infrastructure for 40,000 people and stuff another 90,000 people in and hope it all works, because it doesn’t.”
On Waiheke, we need tourists, but we also need doctors for everyone, a seat on the ferry and housing for the friends who cook, garden, teach, nurse, drive, guide, work in cafes and keep the island moving.
We need sustainable tourism which respects the moana, whenua, honours Te Tiriti and acknowledges our rental crisis, narrow roads and lack of cycle infrastructure. Tourists are vital to the island’s economy. By protecting the interests of our environment and community, we create the paradise they seek. •
Jenny Nicholls
