Darrin Walsh: It's hard finding something to say

Darrin Walsh

There is a lot to say about an Easter weekend in Rotorua. In fact the hardest part is finding something to say about it that hasn't been said before.

This year's Easter weekend was a very busy weekend for accommodation providers and restaurants - I remember us saying exactly the same last year in fact I probably wrote an article on it. Retailers no doubt had a good weekend, too, and I am sure I read that last year as well.

Rotorua is no doubt the number one destination to head to for those that want to get out of Auckland - now I know I said that in an article last year, too.

So why don't we do something about easing the rules to allow business owners the right to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday? Oops, that's been said before, too, at least the past two years - and again I wrote an article on it.

Rotorua was simply humming last weekend as it always does at Easter. Supermarkets and liquor stores went absolutely crazy on Thursday and Saturday night and then the place is like a ghost town Friday and Sunday. You don't even have to be a holidaymaker to share the frustrations.

I spent Friday out in the garden and judging by the stream of cars dumping green waste at the landfill I would suggest it was a very popular day for gardening. Garden centres know for a fact that Good Friday is a day where they just can't turn the trade away and many of them open and pay the $1000 fine for doing so.

So why then after years of complaining about these laws haven't we done something about it? Oops, sorry we are doing something about it - it is just nothing is happening.

I understand it is a complex thing to get a bill before parliament and I understand it has been up before and declined every time - I get that.

What I don't get is why Queenstown and Taupo have relaxed rules on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so why then can't we have some of that?

I would really love to sit down next Easter and write an article on how great the Easter trading rules were - now there's something that hasn't been said before.

- Darrin Walsh is chief executive of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce.