The pulling power of a river city
Hamilton has claimed the crown of New Zealand’s fastest-growing city. Why are so many people choosing to live here?
Depending on which entrance you take, there’s a good chance Andrei Reviakin will be the first person you see at Hamilton’s shiny new, uber-chic, big-city-style Made Market.
How cosmopolitan is this, a Muscovite bringing chocolate-covered pastries, including croissants and croons, to Hamilton, along with an enticing array of beautifully packaged chocolate bars.
The croons, cromboloni, whichever you call them, are round croissants, and Reviakin thinks Fruney is the only producer of them in Hamilton.
So far, so decadent.
This is a very Hamilton kind of cosmopolitanism, however. In this version, a ninth-storey apartment in Moscow has given way to a suburban house, and world-leading museums have been replaced by kid-perfect parks with playgrounds. For that matter, there’s a dearth of the ride-share cars that were common in his home city.
Reviakin and his wife, Julia Reviakina, crossed the world in 2018, with Reviakin enrolling in a strategic management course at Waikato University.
The couple, both engineers, had done their homework. Reviakin says New Zealand at that time had the clearest immigration policy, and as part of the process he needed to enrol in education. “One of the best business schools was at Waikato University. That’s why we chose Hamilton.”
Since then, they have started a business and had three children. They’ve also seen the city change, with lots of new businesses opening. “So we like how it develops.”
That development comes on the back of rapid growth, with Hamilton recently overtaking Tauranga as New Zealand’s fastest-growing city.
Stats NZ data shows that, in the year to June 30, 2023, Hamilton grew 3.4% while Tauranga grew 2.5%. More and more people are arriving in the city, drawn by education and work.
Even so, Hamilton, population 185,300, is tiny in relation to Reviakin’s native Moscow, population more than 12 million.
How does it compare? The weather is definitely better, especially when you have three children to raise, he says. There are no traffic jams, it’s easier to get places.
What else? Reviakin poses the question himself, taps the counter, pauses, laughs.
It’s hard to compare Hamilton with any large city, he says. He misses the cultural aspects, but the family have playgrounds conveniently within walking distance of home, and he goes cycling with his kids.
When they have a day off at the weekend they might head to Auckland, to the cafes and museums and sometimes to Devonport. “The kids, they like the ferries.” The near-deserted Raglan beach is also good during a rare weekday visit.
What’s his favourite place back in Hamilton?
Bootleg Brewery is up there, mainly because it’s a good cycle ride, 17.5k each way, from his home. When he had more flexibility a few months ago he would pedal out on a Thursday and have a beer.
Bootleg is in Matangi, which strictly speaking isn’t Hamilton, but near enough.
“What else?” He poses the question again himself, wondering about another favourite. “Um.” He pauses, the silence grows longer. He laughs.
It’s okay, he was asked for only one.
For Todd Charteris, it has to be the riverbank. The Rabobank chief executive, whose broadshouldered accent comes straight from the Otago sheep and beef farm of his upbringing, walks along the riverbank with mates if he’s in town on a Saturday morning.
It’s a brisk 50 minutes across Anzac Bridge and back via Cobham Bridge, finishing up with coffee in Hamilton East. “I think that river corridor we have is
fantastic,” he says. “When I’m in Hamilton, there’s not many days where I don’t go for a walk, and often it’s around the river.”
Hamilton’s been good for him and his wife, along with their three children, now 16, 18 and 20. They moved from Wellington three years ago when specialist food and agri-bank Rabobank shifted its headquarters from the capital to Union Square, making it part of Hamilton’s growth story.
Here’s Charteris’ pitch, straight off the bat, one that would warm the cockles of any mayor’s heart. “Moving to the Waikato was really ideal strategically. It’s the heart of New Zealand’s dairy sector, it’s close to the major hort’ region of the Bay of Plenty. And we have a number of New Zealand’s largest processors and exporters here in Hamilton or close by.”
He says the businesses Rabobank dealt with during the shift to the newly built Union Square in Anglesea St were “fantastic” with their willingness to get things done.
“I think that’s the attitude of the city, it feels like to me. Get on and get into it.”
Charteris, who is speaking to the Waikato Times on the phone from Sydney, is frequently out of town on business, but when he is around, he’s keen to support their children’s sport. They also have a place in Taupō, where he perhaps does less fly fishing than he would like. “Being in Hamilton, we’re just so accessible to a lot of things, which is good.”
Momentarily, Charteris can’t recall the name of the cafe he and his mates go to, but he’s true to his promise to google it and email it through afterwards.
“Great to chat, we walk to/from ‘Coffee since yesterday’ on Grey Street,” he writes. “The walking group includes some old mates from my days at Otago University and as I am from the deep south we have been known to end up at the Speight’s Ale House for a debrief later in the day. Can recommend that for your readers also!”
Further recommendations come from Hamilton City Council chief executive Lance Vervoort. Stop-offs on a tour of the city in his hybrid SUV include the lake domain and the zoo cafe, all the while Vervoort talking about the city’s charms.
Those include an international cricket ground, easily accessible rugby stadium, Claudelands events centre – all part of what Vervoort calls “the kit”.
Then there are its tertiary education institutions and the hospital. You are reminded that we really do have one of everything, or at least will once the new theatre is built.
There’s also Hamilton Gardens, the city’s main tourist attraction, though Vervoort says the zoo has been getting record visitor numbers since its redesign.
He is a guy for a partnership. The drive takes in the four-court indoor rec centre at Rototuna High, by way of example. It is available to the public as well as the school.
The council put in half the money and pays an annual operating grant of $90,000. It’s run by a trust, and operates from 7am till 10pm. “It’s about 80% occupancy, so it’s pretty good.”
Another partnership is the new accessible playground at Claudelands, funded 50-50 by the council and the Magical Bridge Trust. On a mild autumn morning, the extensive playground looks great, fringed by trees whose colour is turning, and it’s being used by a healthy smattering of mums, dads and kids.
“Especially in times of recession, people want to do things that are free, so council facilities become quite important,” Vervoort says. “Libraries, parks, open-space areas, skating rinks, those sorts of things.”
Meanwhile, a more than healthy smattering of people are using Hamilton Lake Domain. There must be a function on because car parks close to the Verandah are full. Joggers run past, parents walk with kids, the dog walkers are out and about. So are the pesky Canada geese honking on the water. Vervoort reckons they’ll empty out after duck shooting season.
He’s big on the domain’s merits, the 4km lake circuit walk, the cafe and function facilities, the trees and spaces, the two playgrounds – it’s world class in his view, even if friends from Auckland don’t know it exists.