The coastline dream of Mount Maunganui is an illusion – a mirage cultivated by the need to believe paradise exists somewhere in Godzone.

OPINION: I see myself today as a Hamilton refugee.

I left the city behind years ago to live the dream of all Hamiltonians by moving to the Bay of Plenty coast to walk the fields of gold.

Along with loving that chick at university, I think it was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in life.

Both life decisions were built on buying the seductive illusion of appearance. Dig a little deeper and the hidden fault lines emerge.

Today I think my life serves as a warning to Hamiltonians. The coastline dream of Mount Maunganui is an illusion – a mirage cultivated by the need to believe paradise exists somewhere in Godzone.

But they destroyed the place years ago. Too much growth, too much greed, too much development, too many subdivisions, too many people and not enough land.

The dream peaked here in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. That was the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty coastline's golden years.

Today Whangamata is sold as the "Paradise Coast", an unwanted importation of the toxic Australian culture of beach development and growth.

If you buy the Mount Maunganui marketing, it would seem you have it all. Beaches and weather, surf culture, blue sky and sun-drenched coastline for miles. Go biking, climbing, sky diving, horse riding while enjoying the sounds of nature at work in New Zealand's Malibu.

And you can do it all while waiting in the growing line with all the other recent immigrants, the Auckland pretty people who also bought the same myth of open space and room to move that you did.

DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF Property prices aren't as high as Auckland and there's the promise of a laid-back lifestyle

Meanwhile, the emphasis on development carries on, with local councils full of the growth mantra that has destroyed this beach town one subdivided property at a time.

As large councils increasingly see themselves as quasi-corporates rather than community gatekeepers of this once uncluttered land, the development and growth continues with little regard for the loss of lifestyle the busy roads and endless subdivisions bring with them.

Still, the sight of the beaches stretching into the distance remains alluring. It is the stuff of dreams in mid-winter Hamilton when the fog is low and the damp is rising.

Mount Maunganui is marketed as the place to be, the place to go; our California refuge. We have Auckland celebs and newsreaders as locals. We can walk down the street and bump into All Blacks and TV stars drinking coffee.

It is the last resort for Hamiltonians seeking the good life under the stars with the smell of salt on the air as the sea breeze kicks in from the north.

It is an intoxicating and seductive illusion where "the old world shadows hang heavy in the air".

Property prices aren't as high as Auckland and there is the promise of a laid-back lifestyle with indoor-outdoor flow in the upmarket eateries where you can drink award-winning local wine on the site of the lost (and longed for) Oceanside Pub.

It is the paradise Hamiltonians were raised to aspire to. Mount Maunganui has its own natural feng shui. And it seduces people into moving and staying - and I bought it, hook, line and sinker.

DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF Americans arrive on ocean liners the size of small NZ towns and walk the streets in white shorts and sandals admiring the view of this coastal California-esque beach town.

It's so good Americans come here on ocean liners the size of small New Zealand towns and walk our streets in white walk shorts and sandals admiring the view of this coastal California-esque beach town. They're loud Americans and they love this place I call home.

But now, I can't wait to leave.

Locals are now leaving Mount Maunganui in their droves. Read their Facebook pages and see the deep regret from long timers despairing at the damage done to this beach town by elected officials who endorsed the urban growth mantra.

Development and growth has cluttered the local roads and beaches, and with every new development a bit of old-world New Zealand vanishes only to be remembered by those aged over 50 who long for the days when you could walk these Coromandel and Bay of Plenty beaches alone while waiting serenely for the tide and swells to change, with Bob Davie surfboard under the arm.

Like many others, I too am now grid-locked and ready to leave the coast. It took 50 minutes to get out of Mount Maunganui last week and, when I did, I saw the lines of traffic stretching and stalled for kilometres trying to get in.

How I wish I could go back in time and warn myself about this beach town and that university chick. I would tell myself to run – to get as far away as possible, to avoid the seduction of the artificial. There is a price to pay and it's bigger than you think.

Today, Mount Maunganui is the place where the growth experiment failed. It serves as a tipping point, an example to all councils of what has been lost along the way. It is an example of what not to do.

Mount Maunganui is the home of the great divide between the old way and the new.

And so today I look for a new frontier. A place where the rampant dogma of growth and development can be seen as the inherently destructive force it has always been.

I look for a place where councils protect the land and where those who enjoy the past uncluttered lifestyle of New Zealand fight to retain it.

The last resort is now to surrender, to leave and to start over in a new Eden.

But where is it?

"Who will provide the grand design,

What is yours and what is mine?

'Cause there is no more new frontier,

We have got to make it here



And you can see them there on Sunday morning

Stand up and sing about what it's like up there

They called it paradise,

I don't know why

You call some place paradise,

kiss it goodbye.."



The Last Resort – Hotel California – Eagles

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