7 Nov - 13 Nov
LOCALLY OWNED SINCE FOREVER
No 926
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
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112 IN SI
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Back to basics It’s not a HOUSING problem, it’s a PEOPLE problem. There are simply too many people trying to live in the finite area of the Wakatipu region with its constrained resources. Any area can only accommodate a certain number of people in a comfortable way, so there needs to be some serious control over the growth for housing and land use. Sure, we can build high rise apartments to increase density but that’s not the New Zealand-style of living, and the culture that we’ve built our lives on over the past one-and-a-half centuries. Such measures will dilute our standard of living and our way of life. Too often we hear the saying: “I liked the place so much, I stayed”. ALL VISITORS CAN’T STAY. We don’t have the space or resources. It’s best that 99% leave footprints and just take photos – then go back to their home, wherever they came from. Then, we need to ensure that the people who live here can afford to live. It’s expensive here, compared to other parts of NZ, and definitely an unbalanced scenario for people with essential trades and disciplines. The realistic minimum wage needs to be about $40 per hour, not $18-$20. Perhaps we need a ‘Wakatipu loading’ similar to ‘London loading’, where there is higher remuneration to off-set the higher living costs. A colleague once told me, (a few years ago!) that all the service workers need to go on strike for about a fortnight, bringing the region to a standstill, until they are paid remuneration that sustains a realistic comfortable living. It is a crude and hard but valid point. The tourists would then consequently need to pay for the privilege of visiting this region. Another way would be a three-tiered cost system, sloping upwards from locals, to domestic tourists, and then international tourists, so that locals were exempt from the high costs that cover service industry wages. It would be difficult to administer but it would be the fairest system. It’s the visitors that need to pay, not the locals for living and working here. There are other issues that people often neglect that need addressing for us to come back to bare basics. I believe our core values in NZ have become blurred and diluted. Contrary to what some people may think, or have idealistic opinions or beliefs, in NZ our core values include a Christian society. It’s what our laws are based on. The building block of our society is the family unit and our main national language is English. Such values have kept us in good stead for over 180 years. There has been a fair proportion of locals within the past few years who have left the Wakatipu for more desirable and normal NZ communities. They had exhausted their tolerance. Roger Petersen
THE ORIGINAL CAMPING, CLIMBING & BACKCOUNTRY STORE TENTS - SLEEPING BAGS - CLIMBING & TRAMPING - FOOTWEAR - RENTAL SMALLPLANETSPORTS.COM - 15 SHOTOVER STREET, QT
Community support centre Happiness House gained $16,000 from Shotover Jet Locals Day held at the end of October. Mental health charity Headlight also raised $500 through raffle tickets sales while local scout group, pictured, ran a sausage sizzle, raising a further $400. Locals grabbed the opportunity to ride the world-famous Shotover Jet for only $59, and support local charities at the same time.