New Mainstreet Whanganui chairwoman has found her ‘forever home’

Nikki Oesterle has taken up a new role as chairwoman of Maintreet Whanganui. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

Ever since stumbling across her newly found “forever home” in Whanganui, Nikki Oesterle has had the desire to immerse herself into the community – and now she’s been appointed as Mainstreet Whanganui’s new chairwoman.

Three years ago, Oesterle and her partner Adrian took a chance on an open home in Whanganui while they were in the area visiting Adrian’s mother.

Upon finding out the house had around 400 pear trees that hadn’t been incorporated into an orchard in over a decade, they started to research what could be made with pears – then had the idea of producing gin.

After a long set-up period, the Papaiti Gin distillery was formed.

“It was not the first thought, but it was a question of what we could do with all the pears – we thought, ‘This can be something that we talk about for 10 years and never do, or it can be something that we actually do’,” Oesterle said.

After moving around a lot in her home country of Germany, Oesterle feels settled in Whanganui.

“This is the first time in my life where I’m putting down roots; this is my chosen home, this is where I’m going to raise my child, this is where we’ve found our forever home,” she said.

She joined Mainstreet Whanganui’s board in 2022 after feeling a desire to give something to the city that made her feel at home.

Mainstreet Whanganui is a town centre management organisation representing the Whanganui CBD.

“Similarly to the distillery, we wanted to contribute. We wanted to be a part of the Whanganui community and figure out [how we could] contribute in different ways. When the opportunity came along to join the Mainstreet board, I thought, ‘Yeah, this is right up my alley’.”

She then took on the role of chairwoman at Mainstreet Whanganui after Mark Dyhrberg stepped down in October.

“He asked me if I was keen to step up and I said, ‘Yeah, sure, why not?’”

Oesterle has an extensive background in brands and marketing, and has tested herself in various parts of the world.

She said the unique set of skills she’ll bring to her new role will contribute to the vision of Mainstreet Whanganui.

“I am passionate about Whanganui – I know all these things that small business owners are worried about.

“I’ve had a lot of experience across very different areas of expertise and complexity, all super-interesting, and it makes me kind of a generalist in terms of sales and marketing. Since I run my own business, I know the struggles business owners are facing; it’s an entire different ball game.”

Now, as chairwoman, her focus for the short term is to set up and support the yet-to-be-appointed general manager before setting her sights on bigger targets.

“We are at a point where we can really think about changing things up and implement our strategic vision, [which] was decided on in August.

“We need to figure out how we can move that on with the new general manager and new members of the board,” Oesterle said.

Oesterle expects the new general manager to begin in their fulltime role in February 2025.

Her overarching goal is to continue to promote Whanganui as the place to be.

“I really love this place. I think it is a beautiful town and one of the most underrated towns in New Zealand – we need to be shouting this from the rooftops,” she said.