Sister town

Ruapehu Bulletin, 1 September 1992, Page 4

Sister town

BY

MARNIE

WOODD

A proposal to make Ohakune the sister town of Hidaka in Japan could result in increased tourism and trade for the Ruapehu area. Ruapehu mayor Garrick Workman entertained two people from Hidaka' s equivalent to our council planning department earlier this month. "It was an informal dinner initiated by them to establish a friendship with us," he said. The Hikada visitors want to bring 30-40 representatives from their town to Ohakune next year. Hikada is hosting a festival in 1994 with a focus very much on New Zealand and they are looking to establish a relationship with a New Zealand town similar to their own. Mr Workman said he believed the New Zealand

embassy in Japan recommended Ohakune. "We are hopeful of establishing tourist and commercial relations with Hidaka and promoting Ohakune at their festival," he said. Given that the owners of the Grand Chateau are Singaporean Mr 'Workman thinks every opportunity to promote this area to Japan and Asia should be taken. Hidaka is located in a mountainous area about 400 miles west of Tokyo and 100 miles north of Osaka. It's population is 19,000 but about 800,000 people per year visit the nearby Mt. Kannabe skifield which is the largest in west Japan. Carrots, trout, rice, Chinese cabbage and tobacco are produced in the area, which has one high school and a postgraduate nursing school.