Pokeno locals living life in the fast lane

Thursday, 3 September 2015

Life timers in the small settlement of Pokeno are watching daily as their little country village grows bigger by the day. 

Pokeno has become one of the fastest growing towns in New Zealand, and every time a Pokeno local opens up their curtains they see the land has had one more house added to it. 

Those locals have had to get used to change and fast.

They remember a small country village with no street lights, clean country air and going down to the local creek for fresh watercress and eels.

Anne Manukau remembers that time, she grew up in Pokeno, on Pokeno Rd, and remembers the village in all its guises. 

'I never saw my street at night until they put street lights in a few years back,' Manukau said. 

'That's one good thing about the developments, we are starting to get things we never had, like the footpath out there, that's new.' 

But times have changed and so has the landscape. 

Pokeno is growing three times faster than expected, largely due to the many Aucklanders locked out of property ownership in New Zealand's biggest city.

More Aucklanders are opting to live on the outskirts of Auckland, in Waikato territory where it is affordable. 

The new growth has seen Pokeno given an injection of new life, new blood, a new look and the difference between  

the new Pokeno and the old Pokeno is severe. 

The new Pokeno looks like the Hamilton suburb of Rototuna has been plonked in next to the old styled homes of yesteryear. 

In old Pokeno, for sale signs with the word sold splashed on it are dotted down the old streets.

Some locals are taking advantage of the Auckland invasion. 

'It's now a fight between real estate agents to try and get us oldtimers to sell up.' 

Manukau said that is something she and others had become aware of lately. 

'My mum, was approached by real estate agents to sell up, I hear,' Manukau said. 

'We get so much mail from real estate agents filling our letter boxes telling us to sell. We just bin them.'

Manukau is concerned her little piece of paradise is turning into a 'mini city.' 

Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson said a 30-year expansion plan for Pokeno has had to be condensed into 10 years due to the growth. 

It's a problem the council has had to weather after picking up Pokeno in the Auckland council reshuffle about five years ago.

But Sanson isn't complaining, it's a problem any mayor presiding over a growing district wants.

'It's an extremely exciting time.  It's probably more exciting because the project is happening faster than expected,' Sanson said. 

'That basically has put our organisation under a lot of pressure to provide services far ahead of time. We've put in footpaths that maybe haven't been programmed to be put in for a number of years. There are a whole raft of small projects happening like that.' 

Sanson said the council has been on the ball in terms of speeding up their plans. 

'We certainly don't want it to be stifled of slow down because we haven't been on our game.' 

The flow-on effect of the population increase is yet to be felt by local stores, but they are expecting it to hit soon. 

Pokeno Bacon shop assistant Kathleen Solomon said the growth has seen a minor bump in business. 

'I don't know if it has made a huge difference yet, because most of the new people either work in Auckland or Hamilton. We will probably see a big difference when they have all moved in and they start using Pokeno. I expect it will change quite a bit.'