Summer with the Mayors: Rehette Stoltz

Just under a year ago, sunny Gisborne were gearing up for a good summer when the cyclone hit. 

The region has since been recovering, desperately trying to get tourists back - and they have plenty to offer. 

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz joins to discuss the year that's been. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Now we head to sunny Gisbone. Close to this time
last year, they were gearing up for a good summer
and then the cyclone hit. The region has since been recovering,
obviously wanting to get the tourists back, and Gizzie has
plenty offer its known for wineries, beautiful surf beaches, its
lookouts in the Tyrafty New Museum and to tell us more,
the Mayor of Gisbane, Ri Stoltz is with me. Now,

(00:38):
good morning, good morning, How are you not too bad?
How's Gisbin looking? Because you've had a hell of a
year with cyclones and cleanups and things.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
We have had such a tough time, but I'm incredibly
proud in the last eighteen months of the recovery work.
We have done, bridges being rebuilt, road and reinstated, and
with this great weather we are experiencing, we have night
teams working, so overall the n of twenty twenty four,

(01:09):
the start of twenty twenty five looked great for Gismon.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
How have events like that defined your role as mayor?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I sometimes feel like I became the mayor just before
COVID and then my second term started just before the cyclone.
So it feels to me in the last four years
since I've been the mayor there has been a lot
of crisis control, but I'm naturally a calm person. It
takes a lot to unsettle me. So I've felt like
as a community it really brought us together as well

(01:41):
being calm, being collected and looking at how we look
after each other. It's worked really well for us here
in the titarsity.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And how has how's tourism looking.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Today? It's a balmi twenty nine in Gisbon. We have
seen a lot of visitors come our way. You can
come here, you can drive here, you can fly, We
even have cruise visitors. So we have seen a real
uplift after the very bad twenty twenty three we have had,
and as always we welcome visitors with such a lovely

(02:13):
bunch of people here in our region. When people do
come here, they really love it.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Where does most of your tourism activity come from? Is
it domestically with Kiwi's or have you got quite an
heavy international sort of contingent as well?

Speaker 3 (02:26):
I would say the vast majority would be Kiwi's. We
see a big influx for R and V as well,
and then we have a lot of people over the
summer coming to visit family and friends. We do have
international visitors as well. We often have international cruise ships
coming here, so it's a bit of a balance, but
I would say the vast majority would be Kiwi's coming

(02:48):
back to have a bit of the bami tyrosity sun
on them.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Difficult to play favorites, but I'm going to ask you
to in a way because if somebody hasn't really visited
Gisbon for a while and they want to come over
and have a few days or a week or whatever,
what are you going to What are you going to recommend?

Speaker 3 (03:05):
It's very easy. We have so much to do here.
You can go to the National Arboretum, Eastward Hill, you
can feed the sting rays out at Tatapoi. There are
heaps of wineries. You can go down the Verver Rock Slide.
We've got a fabulous new Kiwa Pool complex with indoor pools,

(03:27):
and as always, we've got white beaches just like the islands,
so please come and take a look. So heaps and
heaps to do. We've got the beautiful Piraphity Museum. Come
and buy some fresh kai from our farmer's market on
Saturday mornings. We've got the Dome Cinema. We have so
much on so there's something for everyone.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
What's your secret little spot you like to give yourself
a treat out.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I love to go to the Dome Cinema with my husband.
They have bean bags in this beautiful historic building. They
serve you pizzas and wine while you watch your movie,
and it's a whole process for you to settle into
the bean bags. So it is actually a love the
experience to have. So if you haven't done it before,
the Dome Cinema is always a tree.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Are you a kind of nostalgic film buff or do
you like to go for the latest hot releases.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
I love the latest hot releases, but I also won't
say no to something that's a little bit more historically.
I like the Art nouveau as well, so I do
love the odd movie with subscripts or a little bit
more intrigue to them.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
What about your favorite beach.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Oh, there's only one beach, and it's why can I
Winu and Makarori? So that's three, three different beaches, white sand, beautiful,
warm water. You can't ask for anything else.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
What are your hopes for twenty twenty five? Obviously after
a turbulent time, probably some nice calm weather over the
next few months would be great, wouldn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
So we really do need warm weather. Even one event
can really upset the work that we can do on
our roads, because after the cyclands and the whole of
twenty twenty three, with those two cyclones and seven extreme
weather events, the water table stayed high for so long
that you cannot do proper roadworks. You can only plug potholes.

(05:18):
So now in the last couple of months where we
have seen the beautiful hot weather, we can really get
in there and do the need of the work needed.
So for me for twenty twenty five, I'm asking and
praying and hoping for a lovely, dry summer, the type
of summer we usually see in the tidearity. And if
I'm looking at today with the sun baking people out

(05:39):
and about, it really looks like it's coming our way.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Excellent. Look, I wish you all the best for twenty
twenty five. Yet, thanks so much for your time, and
we'll look forward to talking again sometime.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Many thanks, thank you for your time.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
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