National Park
Various transport issues were mentioned in terms of accessing health and education, with participants noting that both the school and health buses were…
"… not buses for normal people, for everyday use. Even if there was a twice weekly service that left here at nine, went into Taumarunui, a twice weekly service that left here at nine, went into Taumarunui, came back at lunchtime once you’ve done your shopping or been to see the doctor, then it brings you back here. It could be a community service rather than a commercial operation."
"One of the biggest problems is that there is no bus service connecting us with State Highway One. Even though it's 50km you've got to go all the way up or down and then come in on another service. They bus services looked at it and it wasn’t viable. It needs to be subsidised in order to bring people in, a bit of a loss leader. But that's, to me, the biggest transportation catch we've got."
"The travel is what I hate about living here, and the rising costs associated with that. It’s just hard work getting health care, travelling for the kids, shopping. Everything about living here becomes really expensive."
Further, the roads were particularly dangerous in wintertime, which sometimes restricted accessibility:
"You’ve got to be confident driving on icy roads as well and all as that that comes with it. My (redacted) goes to Taumarunui and sometimes they’re nervous to leave here at 6:30 in the morning because of the roads. When it’s dark it could be icy. "
"I’ve had some frights driving home at night."
In 2020, internet service was considered variable, especially in the Raurimu area, and in some cases not good enough to conduct business. This problem continued now:
"In Raurimu it can be a little bit painful, it’s slow as. Slow especially in busy times."
Residents of National Park however, were very satisfied with internet accessibility.
'It’s awesome."
"All of the jobs I’ve had I’ve been able to work from home because the broadband here is so good."
"We do have fibre right through the whole village."
Cell phone coverage was considered, “pretty good” in National Park with improvements occurring over time:
"It used to be, it was, everybody when they came off the mountain, or if it was closed and everyone was refreshing their phones to see if the road was open and that was enough to collapse the cell phones. The local towers, and all of a sudden, the Eftpos would go down but not so much now. I think it’s largely solved now. I think at Whakapapa Village it sometimes still happens now."
However, one participant noted that they thought in terms of cell phone reception and service:
"… our standards are lower. There are huge holes in service everywhere. As soon as you leave here. Erua, the viaduct, Horopito."
"There is meant to be an initiative to fill in the black spots on the state highways for obvious reasons. And some of them are quite big and if you have an accident or come across something three are not many farmhouses to go and knock on."
