Taking Motueka to a new high: time to stir the pot

BY ALASTAIR PAULIN

Inspired by the 18th-century satirist Jonathan Swift, Motropolis has a proposal for Motueka.

The town ... has nothing to acknowledge it as a destination.

Motropolis is a fan of the adage that beauty is only skin deep. Perhaps it is a reporter's tendency to look beyond the surface, but it is a helpful trait, because my enthusiasm for Motueka couldn't survive based on looks alone.

Motueka has beautiful approaches and lousy entrances.

The beauty of the Moutere Inlet is fingered by police as a possible factor in head-on crashes on the causeway through Mariri, and the drive down the Motueka Valley is simply stunning.

From the north, the views over the town and Tasman Bay from Takaka Hill are glorious, and even the much-maligned bridge over the Motueka River affords pleasant views of the river.

But then you hit the town itself.

Mot is strung out along the highway, and from the roundabout at the southern entrance, it is two kilometres before you hit the main retail strip (to call it a CBD, as Nelsonians seem to refer to their downtown, would be over-reaching).

From the west, visitors coming from the West Coast or Arthur's Pass are faced with a kilometre-long drive down one of the town's bleakest streets, King Edward St, home to truck yards, industrial buildings and the crumbling remains of tobacco warehouses that look as if they haven't been touched since the end of the tobacco era 30 years ago.

Even when they reach High St at the clock tower, they still face another kilometre before hitting the retail strip – which announces itself with a McDonald's, a KFC and a Warehouse red shed, all next to each other.

The town that is the gateway to some of the most beautiful places in the country, and for which tourism is a major driver of the economy, has nothing to acknowledge it as a destination.

Although much of the beauty of Motueka is just beyond its borders – outside the town limits but still part of Motropolis – even the town's scenic waterfront, its most attractive part, is hidden away, with nothing to point tourists to it.

That's why I was heartened by the news that the town's business-boosting group, Our Town Motueka, has revived a decade-old plan to place a sign at the town's southern entrance.

The eight-metre-long sign is supposed to be in place by the end of April, and will say "Motueka" on a riverstone background, supported by two two-metre-high wooden pillars, on which carvings will represent two local iwi, Te Atiawa and Ngati Rarua.

Something is better than nothing, but is stating the obvious enough?

To careful observers, I suppose the sign will indicate that the river is important to the town and that we are proud of our cultural heritage.

But couldn't the same be said of almost any New Zealand town?

If I wanted to make an impression when I met a stranger, I probably wouldn't settle for, "Hi, my name's Alastair".

"Hi, my name's Alastair and, as you can see, I'm a greying 40-something Pakeha" wouldn't be much better. But "Hi, I'm Alastair and I can juggle" might make me stick in their mind, even if it is barely true (and yes, darling, it has been 20 years since I've wanted to make an impression on an attractive stranger).

So how does Motueka differentiate itself? Have we even considered that staple of small-town boosters everywhere, the giant icon?

The Motueka River is rated as one of the world's finest for trout fishing but Gore has beaten us to that sculpture.

Rakaia has a giant salmon, Te Puke the giant kiwifruit, Ohakune the giant carrot, and Taihape its gumboot.

Giant stonefruit loom over Cromwell, Kaikoura is nipped by its crayfish, and Tirau in Waikato apparently has a giant corrugated iron sheepdog, which goes the fibreglass food one better by embracing the Kiwi architectural vernacular.

Since the harvest is on, the obvious candidate is a giant apple.

But which apple? Braeburns are being replaced by new varieties such as envy and jazz, but the high dollar and the global recession mean that even these sexy fruit can't guarantee the long-term future of the local apple industry.

Horticultural trends come and go, after all. Motueka was long known as New Zealand's centre of the tobacco industry but after that ended, hops, apples, grapes and even green tea have been touted as the new defining crop of the region.

But through it all, one high-value crop has remained.

It is immune to the fluctuations of the kiwi dollar, grows in remote locations all over the region, is the subject of front-page newspaper stories and makes our small, law-abiding town famous throughout the land.

So here is my modest proposal for Motueka's entranceway: a giant cannabis leaf.

alastairp@nelsonmail.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News