Free for campers

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 262, 8 November 1988, Page 4

Free for campers

When Councillors Griffiths & Trebilcock have finished upgrading the Ruatiti Domain I am sure they could find another area to develop if overcrowding continues. This will of course please the freedom campers, but it sure aint going to please the business operators of Ohakune a n d Raetihi. Freedom camping is a way of life for some. Some counties ban it, others barely tolerate it, but we could be the only place in the country that actively promotes it. I would agree that the area needs some facilities, but only to cater for day trippers. Encourage people to holiday in the two towns and let them do day trips to Ruatiti, Pipiriki, up the mountain or to Waiouru Army Museum etc. It is difficult enough for a business to survive in this area, and some have not survived. But for elected councillors to encourage people visiting our area to holiday away from the two towns has got to be crass stupidity. So when you are developing the Domain and I visit it and find one of you 10 foot down a hole finishing off a new long drop I may just sit down and right on your head. While the actions of the council are well intention I feel it is a stab in the back of the business community. ^We could well have ^people in Wellington ijsaying "the Ruatiti jjDomain is looking jgood," but since it's a 44km round trip to the shops and hotel we

will stock up with a week's supply of stores so we don't have to come into town. The local shopkeepefs are going to love you and your five or six new helpers. On the other hand I may have got it all wrong and the actions of Griffiths and Trebilcock may be going to promote more turnover for the Waimarino business community so I will now apologise profusely and wait till you climb out of the new long drop. Short Drop Roadworks As a road user of the Tohunga road from

Ohakune to Mangarewa turnoff since 1961, the repair of a little pothole on the hill climb below Lilburn farm must of cost a lot. There were two metal trucks, plus a ute and frontend loader with a blade on it filling it in and when they left there is a crevasse across the road filled with metal. So much money for automation, whereas I can mend that hole with a bucket of tar and a barrow of chips, and leave a level surface in less than a half hour, whereas those chaps took all day, at what cost?

J. J

. Waerea