In an at times ridiculously over the top article by an Annamarie Quill, the Stuff website recently waxed worshipfully about the virtues of the West Coast town of Reefton.
First, it had the cheapest houses in New Zealand. There’s an age-old reason for that being few people want to live there, notwithstanding its vaunted trout-fishing, potential gold mining resources and the discovery of a rare mineral, antimony, yet to be mined but apparently in hot demand.
I loved this line from the puffery, “NIWA recently named Reefton as one of the country’s least windy cities”. City? I bet NIWA did nothing of the sort. It has a population of about 1000, for God’s sake. Even the Vatican City has more inhabitants than that.
But my favourite quote was re an alleged Auckland “rich-lister” “who had shifted there when he could have chosen any of the 243 countries he’d visited”.
He must be an alien and have visited countries in distant galaxies, given there’s only 195 acknowledged states, including self-governing dependencies, on planet earth. But if not, presumably he includes Reefton as a nation, although even the Stuff hyperbolic article stopped short of that assertion.
Perhaps the best line of all was the claim that Resources Minister, Shane Jones, was “jumping up and down with excitement” (about Reefton).
I think most folk would happily bet that Shane, whose figure doesn’t lend itself to such an action, would be incapable of even standing on one leg, let alone jumping up and down.
Still, given the region has been hit by some earthquakes recently, perhaps we’d be wrong. And if so and Shane has taken up jumping up and down, let him be responsible about doing this and confine it to remote villages like Reefton.
Curious about the astonishing incompetence in this article I Googled Annemarie to find she’s based in the Bay of Plenty and once worked for the Herald’s Rotorua newspaper.
As no-one leaves the Herald for Stuff we can draw an obvious conclusion, quicky borne out when I brought up one of her articles, this about John Key, only to read this four word line,
“Like me and John.”
I could read no more, nevertheless it says everything about Stuff’s lack of editorial staff that such glaring illiteracy is now being published.
6 Comments
Reefton recently experienced 4 days of torrential rain which caused more than $ 200,000 worth of improvements
Ah Bob, to visit Reefton in mid summer, what bliss. We recently found ourselves in Reefton due to roadworks on our usual route. But as I said, bliss. Not only a charger for our electric car, but the most splendid public toilets you have ever seen. So while awaiting the transfer of a few kilowatts, we partook of the local coffee and assorted savouries before sauntering the sunny sidewalks.
We left full, evacuated and relaxed.
Ah , Reefton . The town where the past lives on forever , but where the future never arrives .
It sounds like the stuff reporter must have knocked back too many Gins while visiting the Reefton Gin distillery.
Reefton being one of New Zealand’s least windy locations has its drawbacks.
Reefton has adjacent coal mines so a major method of heating is coal. On still winter afternoons at around 4PM the residents light up their coal fires resulting in a blanket of smog in the town.
Years ago I worked for a power company installing infrastructure into Reefton and the West Coast. I recall on one of the public toilet walls some wag had written “want a good time? Piss off and never come back”
Pretty much summed up Reefton for me.