# ‘We’re fairly different’: life in New Zealand’s remote self-declared ‘republic’

The tiny town of Whangamōmona on the North Island maintains some eccentric traditions – past ‘presidents’ have included a goat and a poodle

The tiny town of Whangamōmona on the North Island maintains some eccentric traditions – past ‘presidents’ have included a goat and a poodle. The ‘elections’ are openly rigged, and past winners include a goat and a poodle. The winner is presented with a presidential chain fashioned by beer bottle tops and boar’s tusks.

## President John Herlihy

Whangamōmona has a handful of buildings including a pub, arts and crafts shop and a small school. But there are challenges as the eccentric town sees growing numbers of tourists and pressure to upgrade its internet availability, which some residents would prefer to live without.

Whangamōmona lies on the narrow State Highway 43, known as the Forgotten World highway, one of the most remote roads in the country. Along the road the land transitions from rich dairy pastures to rolling hills, to steep cattle country, and thickets of native bush that enclose the tiny settlement of Whangamōmona. Its borders are delineated by signage.

Parts of The Forgotten World Highway have only recently been sealed. The road was dug out by early European settlers, who laid rail to transport goods, cattle and passengers through ravines and once bustling towns and tunnels cut into the earth from the region’s coal mining days. When the passenger train made its final stop in the early 1980s, an economic lifeline disappeared, along with the population.

Today, Whangamōmona and the surrounds are home to an estimated 150 residents, but it’s difficult to get an accurate figure as some locals resist filling out the census. There’s no store for basic supplies like bread and internet connection is marginal.

Locals tried to fight the installation of mobile phone coverage, Volzke says.

“There’s some real characters. Some are four, five generations-deep farmers, others are contractors doing things like fencing. There are transients, others are seeking to escape the system and authority who can live off-grid in alternative lifestyles,” he says.

## The Whangamōmona Hotel

Tourism has created some tension in the town between needing tourist dollars to keep the place alive and maintaining their independent way of life. Herlihy laments the sealing of the old road.

“I wanted it left as it was. But there was a push for tourism by the council,” he says.

Herlihy says there’s a cult status to the place, especially with international visitors.

“During summer, it’s becoming impossible to find a table at the hotel.”

At the Whangamōmona Hotel, visitors can buy Whangamōmona passports, or receive a formal stamp in their own, which provides the township NZ$15,000 annually and contributes to upkeep of the handful of buildings.

Vicki Pratt has owned the hotel for 11 years, and it’s now for sale. Pratt says the hotel is “iconic” and “warm” and notes there’s never been a fight in the bar. Recently, the hotel got mobile coverage, but is still mostly without wifi, with some pockets available outside.

“Before, everyone had to mix and mingle, like the old days. If I had my way I’d block all internet in this area”.

The hotel operated as a hospital during the 1918 influenza. Guests have reported ghost sightings, including road worker Joseph Lewandowski, born in 1879 and whose portrait Pratt commissioned to depict the hardship faced by early residents.

“It’s an iconic and warm hotel,” Pratt says. “You don’t hear the word ‘out of town’ in the bar. We’re all fairly different and staunch. This place represents the freedom to do what I want.”

## Local Residents

It takes a certain kind of person to live here, agrees local arts and crafts proprietor Tracey Haskell. Even after 20 odd years she isn’t considered a local.

“People are welcomed, but you’ve got to show you have something to contribute.”

“I love the remoteness – I could have been born in another century. I like that you have to make an effort to do your shopping.” Haskell lives 19km down the highway and says Whangamōmona is now too busy for her.

“It’s a tight knit community, though in different ways. We’re all fairly different and staunch. This place represents the freedom to do what I want.”
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