Northland has rolled the dice on something new – its very own edition of Monopoly.
From Cape Rēinga to the Brynderwyns, Northland is officially the star of its own Monopoly edition.
The customised board celebrates the region’s attractions and businesses, while doubling as a playful way to promote local pride.
The idea was sparked by NorthChamber as a way to bring some light-hearted fun and regional flavour to the iconic game.
The board swaps out the traditional London streets for local towns, attractions and businesses and includes iconic hotspots and must-see attractions like the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Poor Knights Islands, the ancient Waipoua Forest and the breathtaking Hokianga Harbour.
And forget the top hat or little dog, in the Northland edition you can play as a traffic cone (a cheeky nod to the region’s roadworks), a pair of jandals or even a surfer.
NorthChamber chief executive Leah McKerrow said the idea was sparked after seeing other regions create bespoke Monopoly boards and they felt Northland deserved the same spotlight.
“After the challenges of the last few years economically and the impact of that on our region and people’s stress levels, this would be a positive, feel-good project that also celebrated our unique and beautiful region and provided a good news buzz promoting our local business community.”
She said hopefully the game will be a great reminder of the places to visit and things to try in Northland.
“It’s a fun and functional promotion. Hopefully the board reminds people of some of our local businesses, unique locations and attractions. It’s not going to radically shift any dials, but it’s a novel talking point and we hope that Northlanders will appreciate some of the humour we have tried to include.”
NorthChamber approached Winning Moves, the licensor for Monopoly in NZ and Australia, directly to create its own Monopoly edition, and McKerrow said they enjoyed bringing the project to Northland.
“It’s been a great way to engage with businesses, and we’ve loved seeing how well the public have gotten behind it and are very grateful to all the businesses who came on board to support this project and join us in celebrating our amazing region.”
She said NorthChamber will be using this as an opportunity to engage businesses and hopefully schools in the discussion of managing money.
“We will be offering ‘Monopoly events’ where businesses can send along a team to ‘compete’ with others. As well, we hope to offer this to schools as well with the objective of raising awareness of commerce.”
She said that are in the process of developing some ‘Northland Rules of Engagement’ for these events “which will make them fun, fair and start good conversations about the challenge of having a monopolistic mindset.”
Partnerships manager for Australia and New Zealand at Winning Moves, Dale Hackett, said they always love working on Monopoly editions based on areas of NZ.
“Especially when they are community and local business focused.”
Winning Moves has created a select few editions across NZ, both larger cities and more rural regions.
“The best thing about these regional Monopoly editions and social media is that news travels. I would be surprised if anyone with a connection to the Northland area, either local or tourist, would not know about this.”
He added they are constantly looking for regions worthy of having their own edition. “There are so many locations that don’t have their own so if other locations want to be considered then we are all ears.”
The first run of Northland Monopoly has already drawn plenty of interest, with the official launch event selling out. Copies will be available through NorthChamber, Mitre 10 Whangārei and summer events across the region.