Often described as the “golden hour” by painters and photographers, it is an atmosphere embraced by artists with eagerness and passion. 

The protracted spell of warm airs and timely rainfall our region has enjoyed these past few
months delivered almost as many reasons to smile as there are people living along our Country Road. Pastures flourished. Gardens abundant. Cameras clicked. And dust swirled over the often inadequately-graded tables of Rangiwahia’s Main South Road.

As it has done so these past 125 years.

Then something stirred, a moment more auspicious, more hoped-for even than the warmth and colour of summer past. People power drove to town, carrying its cinema to Manawatu District Council and with it, the people’s vision for an end to the dust of ages past along the remaining unsealed stretch of the Country Road!

It would have been a very brave person attending that July meeting in the Apiti Tavern less than twenty-four months ago who would have wagered that the dust clouds of Main South Road could ever be blown away; yet anyone present just four weeks back when Council experienced Mary and husband Steve Bielski’s movie and passionate presentation to the LTCCP and witnessed the impact it had upon Council members, would have certainly come to discover what people power is all about. And feel good because of it.

Great people with the strength of their community behind them, delivering a strong, well illustrated vision, demonstrated just how colourful and enjoyable the nation’s most undiscovered country drive can be. And of course the courage too, to stand up and make good on Martin Luther King’s words, “l look and see not what is, but rather what might be!” Congratulations are due to MDC too, for buying in to the vision.

That is what makes people power something to embrace and cherish. The power to see, and make things better as the story unfolds. I have to say we will not be waiting for the tar-seal to be laid before returning, but do very much look forward now to being able to give all our visitors from town, beyond and overseas, a more enjoyable venture once the dust has settled on Main South Road. Finally.

Waz in Woodz