Denim-blue kitchen. Terracotta lino. Once-pastel-green woollen carpets turning brown, grey, and smelly. Walls in various shades of white and yellow. Curtains in multi-coloured abstract paint swish and colour block patterns.
Dreadful stuff.
And then there was the general state of disrepair — everything from a cracked vanity to sink mixers with the “stainless steel” peeling off.
We’ve been here nearly three years now and are still making our way through our list of renovations.
Boy, it’s hard work. And it’s a lot of disruption to our lives. There have been days where we’ve had furniture piled up in our kitchen or no running water, some days we’re sniffing paint and glue fumes, and other days we’re traipsing around to the back yard because we can’t use our entranceway.
It’s been an adventure to say the least. But when a job is done, we have this satisfying feeling of accomplishment. Our house feels fresh, clean, cared for and something to be proud of.
It’s amazing how much work comes of not keeping up with maintenance and modernity, right?
Much like my slowly improving house, Tauranga City is a work in progress. Road Cone City, I’ve heard some call it.
If you’ve driven in and around Cameron or Maunganui Rds in the past year or so, you’ll know why.
It’s a mess.
But it’s an understandable mess. Tauranga has grown exponentially in just a few decades and it’s now the main centre of the Bay of Plenty region by a long shot.
Let’s take a look at the Bay of Plenty in 1997 when Tauranga and Rotorua were similar in size.
Tauranga was slightly larger — 83,500 people to Rotorua’s 66,900. The rest of the Bay of Plenty comprised small towns — the Western Bay district was home to 36,200 people and the three districts in the Eastern Bay of Plenty (Whakatāne, Kawerau and Ōpōtiki) had a combined 52,010 people.
It’s amazing what can change in 25 years.
As of 2022, the Eastern Bay’s population has grown by 4550 people, Rotorua’s by 9900, Western Bay’s by 23,500 — and Tauranga’s by 74,800.
Tauranga has basically added an entire Rotorua to its population in just 25 years.
Not only that, the Western Bay district, which is home to many people who commute to Tauranga or frequently travel to the city, has also grown by 65 per cent in the same 25 years, adding to the stress on Tauranga’s infrastructure.
It’s no surprise, then, that Tauranga is still playing catch-up.
But it has often seemed to me, and I’ve spoken to others who share similar sentiments, that Tauranga’s decision-makers over the years have been reluctant to make any major financial commitments that would help alleviate some of the stresses of a growing city and cater for more of its people.
It seems to happen at least once every election cycle — new and innovative projects are announced, public consultation opens, vocal nimbys flood the council with negative feedback, and the projects are put on the back burner, rejigged again and again, or completely stripped of anything that makes them exciting.
The examples that jump to mind are the eternal museum and Memorial Park boardwalk debates, the parking situation in downtown Tauranga, the abandonment of designs for a dramatic cycle bridge over the Wairoa River, and the toing and froing over the civic precinct.
It’s frustrating. I understand wanting to keep rates increases down — no one wants to pay more of their hard-earned cash to any government body.
But we can’t put progress off forever. Eventually, the bill always comes due.
It really sucks that so many of Tauranga’s central city businesses are suffering under the immense construction work happening in Cameron Rd. And it sucks when unforeseen and, sometimes, unpreventable events delay those huge projects and make life even harder for those already-struggling businesses.
But the fact is these are works that need to happen. Tauranga is bursting at the seams and for that reason, parts of its infrastructure are dated and/or no longer fit for purpose. And big works mean big disruptions. There’s no way around that.
Think of Tauranga as a doer-upper — she’s got good bones, but bringing her into 2023 is going to take some real sweat and tears.
If we do it well and get it right, Tauranga will be a city we can all be proud of.
She’s worth it.
Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.
