WEEKEND MAGAZINE: Ken Tremaine, a formidable force

Planning for the Western Bay's future is a time-consuming process. But as Jo-Marie Brown discovers, the man in charge is always raring to go.
Ken Tremaine is in a spot of bother.
His new Jaguar - the only brand of car he has ever owned - has broken down. Again.
He is on the phone to Bay European when I arrive, politely explaining he has "a deep interest" in whether or not it will be ready by the end of the day.
"I don't have gaps in my life for the car to break down," he whispers to me while on hold.
I don't doubt it.
His diary proves he is booked solid at least two weeks in advance. I count myself extremely lucky to have sneaked in an hour with SmartGrowth's key man with only seven day's notice.
The 58-year-old planning consultant is in such demand that he is due in Hamilton, Taupo and Whakatane over the next two days.
Getting his Jaguar back is vital.
"I do 40,000 km a year so I want some sort of lumbering tank that can get me from A to B on New Zealand's terrible roads," he chuckles.
Despite his frantic schedule, and the weighty responsibility of planning for Tauranga's future growth, Tremaine is always in good humour.
A wide mischievous grin spreads across his face and his eyes crease with laughter as we discuss his colourful life.
Based on his appearance, he is the most unlikely-looking person to hail from a Gore sheep farm that I have ever met. Custom-made silk ties and matching braces have become his trademark.
"I suppose it's all about patterning. I don't know really how I got into that but I've been wearing them for about 20 years."
Whenever he visits Hong Kong on business - which occurred frequently between 1999 and 2003 - he takes a weekend train trip to visit a Chinese silk market and picks out a new print.
"I get them made up by Rixon Groove in Wellington. I've got about 30 pairs now. It's all a bit too Imelda Marcos really," he admits.
Curiosity about city life drew him away from the family farm at an early age. He left high school after School Certificate and spent a year working in Dunedin's BNZ.
"It wasn't for me. I decided I wanted to go to university with the idea that I would be a planner.
"I was curious about how cities worked, how decisions were made that affected them and how they were funded."
Several years at Otago University followed before he considered studying for his Masters degree in Canada.
"I wanted to get a Masters because I thought it was a better international meal ticket. If you're going to qualify in something, do it properly."
As it transpired, Auckland University decided to launch a Masters degree in urban planning at that exact point in time, so plans to travel overseas were shelved.
"I was the first graduate in New Zealand to complete the programme and the only one in my year. There were six of us doing it but it was a Kiwi-style course. We partly taught ourselves."
From there, Tremaine embarked on a high-profile career.
He served his planning apprenticeship at the Mt Albert Borough Council in Auckland before winning the top departmental job at Palmerston North's city council.
"I was only 29 so I was a boy head of department," he recalls. "Everyone else there was over 55 and I arrived in my purple suit from Auckland."
As a political appointment, it was tough going at first.
"It taught me that people are looking to see what you're made of. They're looking at what sort of leadership qualities you've got.
"And they were comparing me to the unsuccessful incumbent who was still on the job, waiting for me to fail."
Undeterred, Tremaine remained in charge of 40 planning staff at the council for the next 17 years.
He is at pains to point out that Palmerston North's prominent Tremaine Ave was named after a distant uncle "who was mayor there or something at one stage", rather than any ego-trip on his part.
But he does profess to being an extremely focussed extrovert.
"It comes from my mother," he says firmly.
"She had a strong influence on me and she was quite a character. She was always the life and soul of her rest home. The teller of many tales."
His career has taken him to all corners of the globe, including the Maldives, Canada, the United States and United Kingdom. He was head-hunted by a major international firm, KPMG, and the New Zealand government.
"I worked in Simon Upton's office for a time. There were five of us who finished designing the Resource Management Act in its final form in 1991."
Tremaine is certainly full of energy which is quite a feat seeing he lives in Auckland - "not from choice, it's a dreadful city" - but spends most of his working week travelling around the upper North Island.
Tauranga's Harbour City Motor Inn on Wharf St has become a second home since taking on the SmartGrowth project three years ago.
He generally works until midnight and always asks for the same room. "I'm a creature of habit in that sense. I always try and get the same seat on the plane when I travel to Hong Kong too - 14d. It saves me thinking about where I am."
His wife Raewyn - and his three step-children whom he describes as "the family intellect, the family conscience and the family capitalist" - are understanding and supportive of his choice to travel so much.
"I've just been lucky with my energy levels and my health. And I have a job that absolutely fascinates me," he says.
"I sleep solidly for six hours. For the rest of the day, I'm on the case."
Being on the case in Tauranga has meant making some tough calls about where new growth should be directed in future and what facilities will be needed to keep up.
SmartGrowth is a joint initiative between Tauranga City Council, Western Bay District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty.
Tremaine praises all three organisations for having the foresight to invest in planning now before it's too late.
"Auckland is a living laboratory of what happens if you take your eye off the ball. It's got itself in the 'too hard' basket now. You can't deliver solutions when it's suffered from 40 years of neglect."
The goal of the SmartGrowth team has been to figure out how to fit more people into the Western Bay without destroying the existing environment.
"I'm very lucky. I've got a lot of good colleagues here and I think the skill base in Tauranga for solving these challenges is as good as anywhere in New Zealand. And there's a really good will to work together."
Now the initial planning has been done, Tremaine is focussed on the "implementation phase".
He hopes locals will embrace the idea of developing larger communities in places like Te Puke, Waihi Beach and Omokoroa to cope with a population predicted to top 289,000 in the next 45 years.
"It's my hope that each resident has some understanding of the challenges of managing growth and that they're happy to support efforts of their councils to put long-term strategies in place," Tremaine says.
The Western Bay's biggest obstacle would be finding enough money to finish off the roading and public transport network, he said.
While there were rarely any short-term results in his line of work, Tremaine hoped people would look back in 20 years time and think he and his colleagues had done a good job.
"We're leaving behind a legacy. People in the past have been visionary in terms of leaving us public spaces for parks and things and it's our job to be visionary for the future."
Aside from Tauranga's growth pains, Tremaine is juggling another seven or eight projects at the moment - including getting his Jaguar back on the road.
His consultancy firm is based in Remuera but he makes a determined effort to have weekends off and escape to his bach on Waiheke Island.
A 10m trimaran - which Tremaine fondly describes as "a rather ancient floating pontoon" - takes the family there and back, although his wife is the one in charge.
"She's the captain. I'm just the cabin boy," he beams.
Over the decades, Tremaine's workload has grown heavier but his flamboyant personality has remained a driving force.
"People have told me that I haven't really changed much.
"I've always been like this and I haven't lost any of my enthusiasm."