Kat Kaiwai has become a pathfinder for women on the East Coast - both in her job and in the rugby arena. Neil Reid talked to the mum of three who has gone from stop-go sign operator to owning her own roading contracting business
Kat Kaiwai never forgets to offer a friendly wave to stop-go sign operators – whether they are staff members of hers or not – as she drives past.
While driving SH35 on the remote East Coast, the expertise of Kaiwai and the roading crews who work for her is ever-present.
Her Tairāwhiti Contractors is one of several roading companies contracted for the repair works on the winding and at times challenging 334km highway from Gisborne to Opotiki.
And it's a near never-ending job as damage caused by weather, flooding and heavy trucks regularly leads to slips, washouts and sometimes a full road closure of the coastal route.
But Kaiwai hasn't always been the one calling the shots.
One of her earlier jobs on her way to running her own company was spending three years working traffic control with a stop-go sign.
"I do pinch myself on my journey to where I am now," Kaiwai tells the Herald on Sunday.
"At one stage I was a pen pusher [for a roading company]. After I decided to leave the office, I wanted to know what things were like outside and doing traffic management was probably the best place that I could start.
"Doing it exposed me the most to the potential of this industry."
Less than a decade since Kaiwai first started learning the art of traffic control she is now the managing director of her own company and is proud to champion the recruitment of women in the roading industry.
Tairāwhiti Contractors started off small; Kaiwai, a couple of road workers, a modified second-hand digger and a leased truck from Auckland.
Now she employs 23 staff members, a third of whom are women.
The vehicle fleet has expanded to 11 and Kaiwai now has a five-year plan to expand the company's reach further afield.
But one thing that has stayed the same in Kaiwai's journey through the ranks of the roading industry has been the importance of those men and women who operate stop-go signs at hazardous roading work sites.
And it is because those workers, who operate in all kinds of weather conditions, play a significant part in ensuring jobs are done efficiently and safely.
"There's a lot more to it than moving a sign around," Kaiwai says.
"There are different things you can do to set the traffic up to minimise the risk for the workers and the public.
"With traffic management, however you manage the traffic is both how the public perceive you and how fast the job can go or how slow a job can go."
"A sense of resilience to survive"
Kaiwai, 39, says a fierce sense of determination – and the ability to be self-sufficient when required - flows through the veins of Ngāti Porou women on the East Coast.
It is a determination installed in girls at a young age due to the region's remote location and the fact stores and services that those living in the big city might take for granted can be several hours' drive away.
"We are so far away from everything, you do have to learn how to be a handyman, you have to learn how to change a tyre on your truck," Kaiwai says.
"You don't have Bunnings or Mitre 10 down the road, so you have to be able to work with what you have got. You do build up a sense of resilience to survive.
"In the cities, they don't have places where you can go hunting and diving. So for the women who live up here, that is what they know. I suppose if they were brought up around cafeterias and nail saloons then that would be how their life would be like.
"Up here, it might be a barrier to some things but it is also a paradise."
That East Coast determination has been present throughout Kaiwai's career in the roading infrastructure industry for the past 12 years.
Her initial roles included being a contracts administrator for maintenance contracts between the Gisborne District Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency.
She then ditched the desk-bound job to take on a field officer position for Fulton Hogan, which entailed traffic management, for three years in a bid to broaden her horizons about the industry.
"Once I started learning what everything was outside [the office], everything just snowballed in a good way," Kaiwai said. "It opened up my eyes to so many doors and so many cool things to learn."
But even then she couldn't imagine one day owning her own company.
And those feelings were stronger when she handed in her notice at Fulton Hogan in late 2018 while pregnant with her third child.
Initially, she was going to do some part-time admin work.
But that plan rapidly changed when rival infrastructure company Downer asked her to run her own road drainage crew.
That crew, which featured the leased truck and modified second-hand digger, morphed into Tairāwhiti Contractors in January 2021.
Smashing through the gender barriers
More than 10 per cent of trade and technical apprentices are women; up from about 3 per cent in 2010.
And Kaiwai – mother to 8-year-old daughter Ruira and sons Diarn, 21, and Motureia, 3 - is doing her best to ensure that number grows.
As well as being a supporter of the Girls With Hi-Vis programme, run by industry training organisation Connexis, she is also proud to be "very proactive" in hiring female staff and giving them further training opportunities.
While roading work was previously a bastion of male employment, Kaiwai says some of the best workers she has hired or previously worked with have been women.
Men can sometimes be "quite impulsive" on the job and "just go full-tit".
In contrast, Kaiwai said women approached their work differently – including how they assessed challenging working environments – and tended to "take more care".
"I don't know if it is a female, motherly kind of thing, but they just seem to be a lot more concerned about things. What they naturally do is make sure that everyone is okay, make sure that the gear is okay.
"Women are a bit more reserved. They take a step back, I suppose, and have a look at everything."
Kaiwai's duty of care to her staff isn't just to make sure they have the tools required to do the job on the roads.
Just as important is providing support for young mums so they can continue working.
"Up here your child has to be one to go to a kōhanga or a puna ... there are no babysitting or childcare services [for babies] unless you have a really supportive family network," Kaiwai says. "And that is kind of dwindling down these days.
"Everyone is pushing for more people to work, but if there is no childcare support then you pretty much have to stay at home until your kids are older."
Kaiwai's approach to being a "more supportive boss" included hiring a young mum, who had roading experience, but couldn't seek roles at other companies due to a lack of full-time daycare options.
The woman initially took on an admin job where she was able to take her baby to work, before eventually returning to road crew duty when family or friends were able to care for the child.
"It worked out so well," Kaiwai says. "When she knew other people could look after her baby for a certain time, then she would go back out on the road and do what she was doing before."
And the job up the East Coast is not for those afraid of hard work.
Parts of SH35 are almost constantly in a bad state of repair due largely to successive batterings from storms which have caused flooding in parts of the region.
Tairāwhiti Contractors – and other roading crews – had to work around the clock after a huge storm hit the East Coast in March, leading to bridge washouts, massive road-covering slips and a state of emergency being declared in the region.
The perilous work environment included the ever-present threat of boulders, trees and other slips coming down on them while they worked.
Risks to staff included "slips coming down on top of you, risks of boulders coming off bluffs falling on top of you, trees which are already hanging coming down on top of you, risks of the road [going] out from underneath you...".
"With SH35, we do have a big job up here," she says. "There is so much do to after the weather ... and things kind of falling to bits."
Giving back to a community she loves
Kaiwai's own fierce determination was the No 1 driving force behind her aspirational rise through the ranks to eventually having her own company.
But she is also acutely aware she has been aided throughout her journey via support from whānau, friends and workmates.
And now, whether it is when she is sitting in her office at Tairāwhiti Contractors' base on the outskirts of Ruatoria or out on the road with her crews, Kaiwai thinks of ways she can give back to a community that has supported her.
That includes recently taking over a contract to provide school lunches to children at six schools on the East Coast.
Kaiwai describes the move as a "sideways expansion". It meant a lot to her to be providing another avenue to employ locals, as well as ensuring some children wouldn't go hungry.
"The programme is aimed at children for who lunch might be the only meal that they get in the whole day.
"I am happy that those kids can still continue to get that service and there are mums who don't have jobs and this job will suit those mums as it works with school hours."
Like so many East Coasters, rugby is a huge passion of Kaiwai's. She is a proud member of the Ruatoria City Sports Club – a club where the Kaiwai surname is legendary - and also one of the organisers of the club's upcoming centenary celebrations.
Kaiwai's love of rugby also saw her company become one of the first major sponsors of the Ngati Porou East Coast Women's rep team which was launched last year.
"It was an easy decision to help," she says.
"[Women's rugby] reminded me that I am in a male-dominated industry and I felt that the men have already got everything. So if I could help in some way as a foundation sort of thing for the women to get started and have something, then I was always going to be happy to contribute."
But the greatest way she has given back is by encouraging fellow East Coasters - via her own actions – to not give up on their own dreams.
"It is not until you talk to other people and they get inspired by what you have done, or if it gives them a little bit of a glimmer of hope that they could further themselves, [that it sinks in what I have done].
"For them, it might not be roading ... it could even be an outdoor pursuit or rugby. It's rewarding to see that you have given other people hope, given themselves a little bit of confidence like, 'Oh, if she can do something like that, I can do something too'."
Economists expect the recovery continued during the first quarter of the year.