Published on : Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Just off the main road into Waimate, 72-year-old Gwen Dempster-Schouten controls a wallaby park, a unique approach in New Zealand.
She was keen to attract more tourists in town.
“I feel if we don’t get onto it right now, we are going to lose it,” she said.
“We need better entrances to the town, more signage… The council needs to put more money into advertising Waimate.”
On the Waimate’s main street, Trevor Joyce operates a collectable model car museum, accommodating 40,000 model vehicles.
“There is certainly a lot more people passing through here, [especially] in campervans,” he said.
The community required to exploit the growing number of tourists it had witnessed.
The Waimate 50 is one of the key events that take place every year, a street race that attracts people across the world. At last year’s event, local accommodation almost booked out.
Organizer Robert Aikman explained that the yearly event cost about $200,000 to put on however pumped about $1 million to the local economy. He considered it could grow even further.
“I think it really puts Waimate on the map and is something really special for the town that no one else has in the country.”
“People will come to visit this town to see what it is about and that is what I’m trying to do – build a bit more of a future.”