Gone west
Posted 25 February 2009 // Jock Phillips
‘We’ve got the highest birth rate in the country; we’re the fastest growing region. All we need now is the lowest death rate and we’ll have the magic trinity.’ Tony Kokshoorn, Mayor of Grey District, was welcoming guests at the launch of our West Coast entry on Monday night in Greymouth. He went on to say that he was contacting the local bishop about arranging the latter.
He is right that the West Coast, with a huge export trade in coal and a flourishing tourism industry, seems to be booming. Certainly the over 100 locals at the launch were in fine mettle, and they especially loved the clip of Greymouth winning the 1977 Top Town competition. Even the weather obliged, with rain dropping gently on the roof of Tai Poutini Polytechnic just as Jeffrey Holman read us his poem on West Coast rain.
A flourishing West Coast, with smart places to stay and great coffee, is a rather different image from the West Coast of my youth. Growing up in Christchurch, I always imagined the Coast to be that wild place across the mountains where the pubs never closed, the weather was wild and the men were even wilder. It all seemed very romantic and I longed to be able to visit. But my parents refused to oblige, and it is only in recent years that I have made the journey from the dry brown river flats of Canterbury to the green, green bush of the Coast by walking over a number of the wonderful trans-alpine passes.
So it was great to go there again and present our entry to the locals. Simon Nathan, the author, has done a brilliant job summing up the region, New Zealand’s longest and least-settled. Janine Faulknor, who resourced the entry, found some great images.
Enjoy it and – even better – go visit.
If you’re interested in the West Coast, you should also check out NZ.History.net.nz. They’re featuring their West Coast content on their homepage in honour of the launch of Te Ara’s entry.