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In our line of business we are often asked about the Hawke's Bay region, the employment market and the general opportunity that exists within region. I answer this as best I can, and it tends to follow a consistent formula, based on commentary around climate, infrastructure & then the opportunity itself.
This really is a beautiful part of New Zealand, encompassing rich alluvial plains, rugged mountain ranges, dominant water courses, stacks of quality wineries, an ever improving cafe & restaurant culture, international golf courses, and a long reaching coastline (great for diving, okay for fishing - tap into some good local knowledge on this).
I remember when being interviewed by an American journalist one day they referred to our region as the "South Pacific Tuscany". A pretty good (if slightly liberal) analogy, which does reflect the strong draw to the region for a lot of people originating out of Western Europe, as well as closer to home.
We enjoy a fantastic lifestyle here, balanced with fantastic schooling options for those with younger families. We also enjoy a great infrastructure (i.e. roading, transport nodes, power, ICT - which is getting a lot of attention at present).
One of the challenges has always been around the opportunity itself - lifestyle can often mean big compromise in terms of career and business. With increasing globalisation and advances in technology we are seeing a steady increase in the development of new opportunities within region.
A lot of people telework and commute out of region, while others are developing some really neat local success stories.
One of the key challenges still seems to be in terms of attracting more high tech investment into the region, leveraging our already strong primary production & export base (a pet hate of mine is our continued persistence in exporting low value commodities, when we have capability to convert this into a superior product offering).
What has been your experience of Hawke's Bay - the people, the place, the opportunity, what we need more of?
22:29, 08.09.2009
Promotion!!
I think there needs to be a concerted effort made by the councils, by ‘Venture Hawke’s Bay’, by the MP’s etc to promote Hawke’s Bay as a viable place to live and work/own a business.
Fruitbowl is a good start, but we should all push for more visability.
18:22, 24.09.2009
Any promotion of H/Bay in recent times has tended to focus on lifestyle and climate. That might be a bit shallow as there is much more depth than that. Whilst the Bay is certainly a great place to live and play I often get the feeling, when dealing with big city business, that they don’t really take the provinces seriously as being capable of developing leading business. We need to promote great Bay people (champions) and great Bay businesses (success stories) alongside what everyone knows we already have (great lifestyle and climate).
17:57, 10.10.2009
If you don’t know New Zealand you probably haven’t even heard of Hawke’s Bay; we moved here in Januay to Havelock North to start a new B&B business Havelock House – when we told firends where we were moving to New Zealand from Yorkshire we had to say Napier and the North Island of New Zealand – On many maps Hawke’s Bay isn’t even mentioned so there is a lot of work to do!
21:02, 11.10.2009
Climate was certainly a big draw card for me personally. I came over here from Taranaki (which the locals refer to as Taradise) and immediately fell in love with the place. I was supposed to be here for 3 months and it’s only been 5 years so far. What a GREAT place to settle down to! Lots of my immediate family have ended up here too – my folks and my brother and sister-in-law. It’s just such a great place to live. Beautiful climate, huuuuuuge selection of wineries and just plain fun stuff to do and see. I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home now.