Tokoroa
Town in the North Island, New ZealandWikipedia
68
MENTIONS
29
EPISODES
23
PODCASTS
Search complete. 68 mentions across 29 episodes found for "Tokoroa".
Nov 1, 2026
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
As an economist, I often get asked the same questions.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
How can struggling communities like Tokoroa become prosperous? How can more people get off welfare and into work? And what will stop the grandkids from moving to Australia? Whoever asks, I tell them the same thing.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
Small towns need to play to their strengths, encourage innovation, value their movers and shakers, promote better partnerships with local government, and welcome new migrants.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
I want you to meet Eva Hakansson.
Eva HakanssonGUEST
So I made my own, designed my own, and 3D printed it from recycled plastic.
Eva HakanssonGUEST
And it's about $40 worth of material.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
Eva is one of my local heroes in Tokoroa.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
And by the way, she holds the world land speed record for the fastest three-wheeler electric motorbike ever.
Peter BaleHOST
How much, when you did your zombie town tour, your recent zombie town tour, was health a factor in that? Is it, as Bernard says, the number one electoral issue, the number one issue of concern to people?
Shamubeel EaqubGUEST
Yeah, so the documentary was about two towns, Tokoroa and Balclutha, and both really amazing places.
Shamubeel EaqubGUEST
Neither places I had spent much time in.
Shamubeel EaqubGUEST
And having spent a number of days and weeks in those places, what was really fascinating was they have the same concerns as the rest of us.
Nik LewisGUEST
we're 25 minutes on a good day depending on traffic.
Nik LewisGUEST
We are 40 minutes from Tokoroa and we pull from all sorts We have a young girl that comes from Taumaranui.
Nik LewisGUEST
We've had a young girl come across from Tauranga.
Nik LewisGUEST
So that's like, yeah, two and a half hours away.
Pat SpellmanGUEST
I was born in Rotorua.
Pat SpellmanGUEST
I grew up in a small town called Tokoroa, which is home.
Pat SpellmanGUEST
People say, where are you from? I close my eyes, I think of where I'm happiest, and that's Tokoroa.
Pat SpellmanGUEST
Oh, man.
Pat SpellmanGUEST
That's home for me.
Jon BroughGUEST
And Phil Stevens, the chairman, is my partner in a company called Biochar Energy and Environment Limited.
Jon BroughGUEST
And we're currently working with a very large site at Tokoroa, previously behind Kinleith, and working on a plan to develop a biochar production unit there.
Jon BroughGUEST
And I am working with some engineering companies up here to design a small scale biochar unit that will make the capability available for the individual farmer to produce sufficient biochar for up to a thousand animals on farm.
Jon BroughGUEST
So that very quickly is my biochar story, Dylan.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
That's what is going to reanimate zombie towns everywhere.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
Next time, for the final episode, I'm back in South Waikato, looking at whether the lessons I've learned in Balclutha can be applied to Tokoroa.
speaker_15SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Most businesses go under in the first year.
speaker_15SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We have been in the business for five years, we're still here, the lights are still on, and we're in the black.
Matt HeathHOST
since he's a Kiwi.
G LaneHOST
Came from Tokoroa.
Matt HeathHOST
Tokoroa.
Matt HeathHOST
He's just a battler that's made good in his life.
Matt HeathHOST
Yeah, correct.
Lisa OwenHOST
And finally, 19-year-old Toriakori Ford-Takeri is a first-year student at Vic University.
Lisa OwenHOST
She's enrolled in the Māori electorate of Te Tai Hauauru on the west coast of the North Island, and it takes in her hometown of Tokoroa.
Lisa OwenHOST
Kia ora, Toriakori.
Lisa OwenHOST
Kia ora nā.
19 MINS LATER
Toriakori Ford-TakereGUEST
They haven't really... talked one-on-one or not even one-on-one, but within a group or participating in an event that, you know, youth will be at or that youth will thrive in.
Toriakori Ford-TakereGUEST
But there is somebody who I want to, you know, throw in a special mention to, and that is Tamatha Paul.
Toriakori Ford-TakereGUEST
She's also from Tokoroa, which is very special.
Toriakori Ford-TakereGUEST
You know, seeing somebody who also came to Vic and was also from my small town.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
In South Waikato, the unemployment rate is 10%, twice the national rate.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
During my last visit to Tokoroa, I met Marco Leary at his timber plant.
Mark O'LearyGUEST
When we are trying to employ, we get very few people come through the door.
Mark O'LearyGUEST
Yet there are huge statistics that say that Tokoroa has many unemployed people.
Mark O'LearyGUEST
But we offer jobs and the people don't come to get them.
Shamubeel EaqubHOST
So, Tokoro has a problem.
Memphis RangiwhakawaGUEST
are.
Memphis RangiwhakawaGUEST
My nan, my dad's mother, her name was Aileen Rangifakawa-Mills, and she was probably the best grandparent you could ever ask for.
Roihana NuriGUEST
Um, he's stronger in the south of the electorate, but it's such a big electorate with so many iwi.
Roihana NuriGUEST
It also spans up to the King Country and to Ngāti Raukawa in Tokoroa.
Mihingarangi ForbesHOST
Uh, Deb Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader, boots on the ground, high profile.
Claudette HauitiGUEST
She had boots on the ground.
19 more episodes mention Tokoroa.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.