The beach at Wainui is seen as one of the jewels in the crown of the district. Photo / Ben Cowper
The beach at Wainui is seen as one of the jewels in the crown of the district. Photo / Ben Cowper
A Canada-based website ranks Gisborne among New Zealand’s most captivating small towns - recognition the city’s mayor and other locals believe is fully justified.
Worldatlas.com has Gisborne on a list titled “6 Of The Most Captivating Small Towns in New Zealand”.
The others are Kaikōura, Wānaka, Blenheim, Oamaru and Whanganui.
The Reunion Technology Inc-operated website was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Quebec, Canada.
It describes itself as “one of the largest publishing resources in geography and other topics ... including sociology, demography, environment, economics, politics, and travel”.
Dearsley wrote glowingly about Gisborne being “one of the first cities in the world to see the sunrise”, its Māori culture, Tairāwhiti Museum, wine, Rhythm and Vines (R&V) music festival, outdoor activities such as Haurata High Country Walks and, of course, its beaches.
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz is proud the town has been recognised.
Mayor Stoltz was delighted at Gisborne being seen in such a positive light.
“Often we are in the media – especially the last few years – for wet weather events and cyclones and other issues that we have to address, so it is really refreshing and lovely to be recognised this way.
“And sometimes us locals who live here, we don’t see the beautiful place we live in, and it’s great for some outside eyes to again remind us of what a wonderful piece of New Zealand we live in.
“The beaches, the wineries, the museum, R&V – we have so much to offer. Also, our beautiful bicultural community that is unique to New Zealand and unique to Gisborne.”
Ryland Jackson (left) and Raydon Kemp back the Worldatlas.com story that has Gisborne listed as one of New Zealand's "captivating" towns when spoken to by the Gisborne Herald at Waikanae Beach this week. The pair said Gisborne was “the most charismatic” as it was “the first to see the sun” and had “golden sand beaches”. The palm trees and “loving people” are also highlights of Tairāwhiti, they say.
Stoltz agreed with Dearsley’s reference to the popular R&V festival.
“Since R&V has been around for the last 25 years, when young people come here and have fun in Gisborne, once they go back to university and they qualify as a doctor or a policeman or a teacher, when they then ask for placements, often they say, ‘yep, I’ll go back to Gisborne because I had a great time there and I love the place’.”
Stoltz said there were issues in Gisborne but also a lot to be proud of.
“I do think we sometimes undersell ourselves because we do have issues and these issues are not unique to Gisborne. I have been travelling in the last week [to] Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland, and they are also struggling with potholes and homelessness and lack of investment.
“I don’t want that to be our main headline. I want our main headline to be, yes, we have issues, and we are working to address them, but look what we have to offer.
“I’m really proud that we are on that website, and I think it’s well-deserved for us and it is also a great reminder for us locals again that we do live in paradise.
“We want people to see, especially after all the extreme weather events we had – hey, we are open for business. We have so much to offer.”
“We do have our pains, but we have way more wonderful stuff than we have problems,” Stoltz said.
Meanwhile, WorldAtlas.com said that all six Kiwi towns it profiled were places not to be missed.
“From Gisborne’s music festival on the North Island’s East Coast to Kaikōura’s whale-watching tours in the South Island, these six captivating small towns are must-visits when in New Zealand.”
