Taumarunui has been slowly losing population and house values have sagged. The locals put their hopes in tourism for a revival.

Taumarunui was once a booming rail and timber hub but when the work dried up, the people left. Donna-Lee Biddle and Christel Yardley met the locals for Stuff's One in Five Million project.

Orphaned houses line the streets of Taumarunui.

Most have been without a family since the end of the railway and timber boom in the 1990s.



Businesses started leaving, taking jobs and people with them.



The timeline of the town's history reads like the will of a terminally ill patient, preparing for his end of life.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF This is the story of Taumarunui.

In 2006, the Taumarunui Milk Co-op closed, then in 2009 the meatworks shut. In 2012 the Northern Explorer cut Taumarunui from its stop list - no longer would passengers have to stop-off in the forgotten town.

Last year, the district lost Kakahi School, a century-old building that could cater for 75 students. The roll went from nine students in 2015 to none in 2016.

And earlier this year the Taumarunui Lions Club shut its doors.

But the residents haven't given up and they don't want your pity; quite the opposite, actually.

Central King Country Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP) manager Jenny Gawith says Taumarunui is the town of choice.

It's where she and a growing number of out-of-towners are choosing to shift to and raise families.

Gawith moved to Taumarunui from Sydney, 16 years ago.

Taumarunui is her late husband Terry's hometown and it's where they chose to raise their son Conor, now 20.

"My husband passed away suddenly but I chose to stay," Gawith says.

"Terry had an epiphany that he wanted to come home. He was a teenager when he left home to do the OE thing so he was away for 25-odd years.

"We literally sold our house and put everything in a container. We rocked up here with only whanau and nowhere to live.

"It is the place that we chose to raise our son and the place we chose to spend what ended up being the last years of his life."

Gawith still has her Aussie twang, but her sentences are suffused with te reo Māori.

Her pronunciation is natural and fluid.

Among the things she loves about Taumarunui, the people top the list.

"They are the friendliest of people here. You would never walk past somebody without saying hello to them," Gawith says.

"You tend to know most people, it's that whole whanau feeling."

In the city you're quite swallowed up, she says.

"There's a real opportunity for us to be contributing members of the community which you don't get a lot of in the city.

"You get the philanthropists who can make big contributions. But here, you can contribute without having money, that's not an issue down here because none of us have any money."

Average property values in the rural town dropped from $142,600 in 2008 to $106,400 in 2016.

As well as the declining house values, the population is shrinking. At its prime, Taumarunui was home to more than 6000 people.

Now, the population sits around 3500.

There is no town centre in Taumarunui, more a line of shops on the main strip - Hakiaha Street.

It has all the necessities: a supermarket, a converted railway carriage that now acts as a cafe, a primary school, the local district council office, a motel and a boutique clothing shop.

But on the other side of the town, the sight is not so pleasant.

Dozens of abandoned trains litter the trackside of Hakiaha Street.

The site is an eyesore, and a dumping ground for Auckland Transport. There are 104 SA/SD carriages and 6 SX carriages, property of Auckland Transport.

The SA/SD carriages were originally built for British Rail in the early 1970s but they were exported to New Zealand in the mid 1990s and refurbished before they began operating on Auckland's rail system.

The carriages closest to the tunnel have graffiti - they've been out of action since 2014.

The government service has sold 31 of the carriages to Mozambique where they will used for passenger travel around the capital city of Maputo.

There is some interest in the remaining 79 carriages, says group manager of metro operations, Brendon Main.

But for now, the trains sit.

Around the corner on Reu Street, Jerome Ratahi does wheelies on his red BMX.

The 13-year-old moved to Taumarunui from Kawerau with his mum and siblings: an older brother who is 14, and a younger sister, who is 11.

The family live in a white weatherboard home, an old state house.

A few houses down, 40 Reu St is on the market.

For $179,000, one can buy a four bedroom home, with a double garage and a tonne of space on two leasehold sections.

Further down at Matai St, Ngarau and Herewini Tarawa sit on the porch of the yellow weatherboard homestead, a place they've called home for 55 years.

The pair raised their 11 children in Taumarunui.

Nine of the children went to boarding school. They would get to and from school (St Joseph's Maori Girls College in Napier and Hato Petera in Auckland) on the train.

Herewini worked on the train tracks and received free ride passes every year.

Ngarau loves Taumarunui, although she and Herewini do not whakapapa from there, they've both lived in Taumarunui for more than 60 years.

"There's a solid group of people here, of whanau," Ngarau says.

"We've got 12 marae, it's not an easy thing to leave your marae behind.

"So when the word comes - no job - we've got to go out. That's happening for our young people. I'm pleased they get jobs but I'd be more pleased if they could stay.

Ngarau believes eco tourism may be the key.

"That's where my focus is at the moment," she says.

"What do we have right now? It's our history, it's our whenua. And there's stories that come from the central North Island and we're sitting in the middle of it.

"Taumarunui is in a prime position to start creating jobs in eco tourism. It's already planted here."

Ruapehu District mayor Don Cameron says there are a lot of people struggling.

But, like Ngarau, he agrees that the way forward is tourism.

He says outdoor living is a big attraction; there's great hunting, fishing and shooting as well as winter sports such as skiing.

Cycling and walking is the biggest growth at the moment.



Ruapehu District Mayor Don Cameron

Ten years ago, when the government released money for cycling, the district received $4 million. There are now two cycleways over 45km long.

Within the next three to five years, Cameron expects tourism in the district will result in 500-600 people in direct employment.

There is also a new business, he says, around animal food which will offer 70 jobs for those specifically in Taumarunui.

He says there's a criticism that it's a low wage industry but it doesn't have to be, especially with locals owning many of the businesses.

And although tourism is the way forward, there are still many residents struggling.

"We're looking at some social policies to ensure that whatever we decide to do around growth, it must have a social impact to ensure that people that live here can afford to do so.

"It's now hard to buy a house for a family, they've been snapped up, generally speaking, usually by older people buying to retire."

At Christmas, Cameron met two couples from Australia who sold up and moved to Taumarunui.

And the attraction wasn't just the price, it was the community.

"In Australia, the couple lived next to their neighbour for eight years and spoke to them once," Cameron says.

"When they looked at the place for sale, the neighbour come over and says to let him know if they were going buy it, so he could open it up for them.

"They decided that they would purchase it and when they arrived, there was a meal and flowers on the table."



Tracey Leahy has raised her grandsons Jaylen Leahy, 8, Laikyn Leahy, 5 and Zion Leahy, 6, for over five years. Tracey Leahy has raised her grandsons Jaylen Leahy, 8, Laikyn Leahy, 5 and Zion Leahy, 6, for over five years.

The sense of community was - surprisingly - the reason grandmother Tracey Leahy considered moving out of Taumarunui.

She has raised her grandsons Jaylen, 8, Zion, 6 and Laikyn, 5, since Laikyn was a newborn.

"I wanted to move to the city for a better life for them and it took me a little while to realise that actually, this is a good, stable lifestyle for them.

"I have a strong network here and lots of support and now that the little one is at school, I'm looking at a part-time job.

REAP families coordinator Aroha Rudkin, who is originally from Hawke's Bay, moved to the town 43 years ago.

She and her Christchurch-raised husband chose Taumarunui as it was as close to the central high country in the South Island that you could get.

"It was a very cluttered old town, it's actually got the most beautiful garden and it's a pretty town to live in," Rudkin says.

"There is a loving and close knit community. They really awhi [embrace] you and that's not easy when there are four iwi."

She says the town has social problems with youth, drugs, alcohol and violence just like any other town, but it's taken out of context in a national sense.

Rudkin says it's the same as everyone else, except everyone knows your business.

Many of the homes up for rent are in poor condition because once the people moved out, the homes weren't maintained.

"Whare Ora has been providing homes with insulation, with new bedding and blinds and drapes, to hopefully lessen the respiratory illnesses.

"What you see in the city is mirrored in our communities - but worse because we haven't had investment in our infrastructure. You can see that there has been very little financial investment in maintaining the buildings.

"Taumarunui has survived and will continue to do so."



Aroha Rudkin Aroha Rudkin

Rudkin says there's been a huge development in dairy and timber. Tourism was always difficult to get into, but that's changed now, she says.

"I do my shopping here, there's a nice little boutique shop in town with good prices. I bought two tops for $90 the other day and when I looked at the tags, they were nearly $500.

"There's a vibrant energy here. In the last ten months we have seen positives. There's lots of beautiful homes here and if you live in Auckland, it's a bloody long way to anywhere."

Cameron lives 45 minutes from the town centre.

The view in the morning solidifies his belief that Taumarunui is the place to be.

His drive takes him under the flanks of Turoa, he circles Mt Ruapehu, where he glimpses Whakapapa, then Ngauruhoe then Tongariro.

And then, Piriaka Hill - and on a good day, it's glorious.

The only traffic are Friesians and Ayrshires, and every once in a while he has to overtake a tanker truck.

"Why would you give this up, to sit in traffic for hours on end? No thanks."