Karamea

Rata, let's start with your background.

You grew up partly in Karamea and then Gisborne.

What was that like?

Yeah, I was born in Westport, which is another town on the west coast of the South Island.

And then I spent most of my upbringing in Karamea.

It was just me, my brothers and then my parents.

And we lived a little bit out of town.

He's coming to us live from his maimai.

Not his maimai, his whitebait hut, or tent by the looks of it, in Karamea.

G'day, mate.

Welcome to the show.

So, hey, who knows? I might come back and give you a feed.

Oh, well, that would be fantastic.

By the way, so you are the chair of Environment Canterbury, but you're also a Karamea local as well.

You've got some farming interests up there.

But then you say, well, Buller and West Coast should combine.

Do you know how far it is from Karamea to Haast? It's virtually the length of the South Island.

Yeah.

I mean, look, even Northland.

Okay, so let's just put this in context, as you said.

When I was talking to Helen Lash a week or so ago, we talked about the SPR, Special Purposes Road, which was from Haas through to Jackson's Bay and actually at the other end of the West Coast from Westport up to Karamea.

That funding is secure.

There was some concerns that NZTA was going to cut that funding and potentially those roads were in jeopardy.

Exciting

... get to take the boys down to Karamea.

And then we get to jump on tours.

You boys getting water shoes.

We know that is a road to nowhere.

And the other road we discussed was the one from Westport up to Karamea in the Bullard District.

What's occurred? What's happened in the last few days?

Well, firstly, I wouldn't say it's a road to nowhere to Jackson Bay.