The town with the golden touch

A painted wooden cheer-leader is the first thing to greet visitors on the drive to Waihi from Auckland.

"Discover Waihi! Take in the colour!" the billboard commands, shaking its lexical pompoms as the familiar entourage of Phoenix palm trees - have we taken a wrong turn to Ha-Waihi? - welcomes drivers.

Today, driving out of the angry Karangahake Gorge and rolling past the RSA, the dot-sized old miners' cottages and the airy new supermarket, the colour of Waihi is decidedly grey as a drizzly winter pall slumps over the mining town.

But in the town that has a literal heart of gold, attitudes among its 4500 residents are brightening.

The town is growing, unemployment is down, the main road shops have tenants and - contrary to urban perception - most residents manage to get around without the aid of a stroller.

The median price for a house rocketed from $135,000 to $205,000 over the past year, bucking regional trends. And with a group of people ensuring the historic town has a future, the billboard is not the only one shouting the town's praises.

"It's a fantastic little town. We've got the beach, we've got the gorge, and everybody's really friendly," says Cynthia Davidson with relentless optimism. The petite young co-ordinator for the council-funded promotional body Go Waihi moved here just three weeks ago.

Passers-by nod ferociously when asked if they like living here, the friendly Subway employee can't speak highly enough about the town, and even those who have houses on property deemed to be at risk of imminent collapse won't be moved.

Less than 20 years ago, the golden town went through a very black patch. The mine had closed, and during the 1980s hundreds lost their jobs as the town's big employers, such as the Philips electronics factory, shut up shop.

"There was a period where people weren't too sure [whether they should stay]. But it's surprising how few people left," remembers resident Chris Hale, who after being laid off at the Philips factory eventually found himself working as economic development manager at Hauraki District Council.

Fortunes started to change when the mine re-opened in 1988, but the town made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2001 when in the middle of the night on December 13, two Barry Rd houses, complete with inhabitants, slid into a three-storey deep hole as wide as a rugby field, when an unfilled mining slope surrendered to gravity. No one died, but it shook residents' confidence and created rumours that the entire town - which sits above an 178km web of tunnels, some lower than sea level - could collapse.

The council and mining company Newmont Waihi Gold commissioned reports to establish whether the land was safe to live on, and owners of properties at risk of collapse were offered compensation to move out.

Some say the mining company played fair, others maintain it took advantage of fearful elderly residents who sold for less than their houses were worth. Anti-mining groups were established, Green MP Jeanette Fitzsimmons weighed in, and the town started to divide.

Newmont Waihi Gold external affairs manager Malcolm Lane pays little attention to the detractors. He says most residents are neutral towards the mine, and has noticed a broader acceptance of the mining operations since the events of 2001.

Some put this down to the new improved Newmont: it has been more transparent and more generous with its contributions to the community. It's a good corporate citizen, says Lane, that has stepped in where it didn't have to and paid out because of another company's flawed mining techniques.

But whether it was Newmont's better behaviour, or because people just gave up fighting a multimillion-dollar dinosaur which silenced its critics, depends on who you talk to.

Mike Hinstridge, who used to head the Distressed Residents Action Group before he left town in disgust two years ago, knows the mine has benefits, but he has also seen the downsides - the dust, the noise, the destroyed homes. He moved to nearby Te Aroha because he was sick of hearing hollow promises that one day the town would hear the last rumbling explosion.

"The town had a future before they came back. The mining company have pretty much taken over. You're faced with an enormous company. You cannot win."

And so the trucks continue to chug ore-rich rocks up and down the gaping wound that is Martha Hill Mine - the 12-hour-a-day operation is predicted to finish by April next year but may have life in it yet - and work has already started on the new Favona mine, just 5km to the east, which should produce its first ore in September this year.

As the international price of gold surges, Favona is predicted to offer 70 new jobs - some compensation for the 120 that will be lost when Martha Hill closes - and put more than $18m into the local economy.

The mine is a major part of Waihi, and beyond all the theories and distrust, it is here to stay.

But Davidson, Hale and other cheerleaders agree with the mine's detractors on one thing: Waihi will carry on well after there's no more gold in them thar hills.

"We're not going to fall over and die. We're not dependent on the mine. We have more strings to our bow," says Hale.

The fate of dairy farmers affects the economy more, he says - the mine is gravy to agriculture's meat and veg - and the two supermarkets have more staff than the mine.

The key for a small town to have a big future, says Hale, is to diversify, something the Waihi Consultative Community Committee has been set up to achieve.

Most of the committee's initiatives are tourism-based. Look at the Karangahake Gorge, says Hale, with its 200,000-plus visitors a year.

"We get not a cracker out of that. Some people will buy a bit of petrol, some might buy a pie and have a coffee, but that's about that. The people are there, we just need to capitalise on it."

Hale admits the "cumbersome" body has taken a while to get going - some residents say it's all talk, no action. But you can never make everyone happy, he says.

For him, it's all about attitude. He makes no apologies for the blatant rah-rah campaign to revitalise Waihi, something a handful of residents rail against and out-of-towners may snigger at.

"It's taken a while for some residents to realise that unless you get off your butts and do it yourself, no one else is going to do it. You've got to be proud of your home town."

And according to local real estate agent Russell Hunt, many newcomers are adopting Waihi as their home town. Vacant sections are in hot demand. Many buyers from seaside settlements such as Whangamata and Waihi Beachhave moved to Waihi to keep the laidback lifestyle without a mortgage.

The only grumble comes when the conversation turns to what Waihi offers for the younger set, apart from underage drinking and parties.

Supermarket employee Mark Aken, 16, and his mates have big plans to get out. Mark's off to Australia, and his rangy-haired friend Kazz Moody, 19, wants to turn his pipe-dream of going to Barcelona to skateboard into a reality.

Says Mark: "Waihi is a town you grow up in, not one you want to stick 'round in. There's not enough for young people to do here."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY