The pulling power of a river city
Vervoort is an immigrant of sorts himself. He moved with his family in 2012 from northwest Auckland, as their Kumeu area was bracing for growth, another 2500 houses to go in and no more infrastructure.
Hamilton suits them. That said, they live on a six-hectare block in Whatawhata. “We’re an equestrian family. So obviously, moving south into the Waikato was a real boon because my wife and daughters have been riding horses at a reasonably high level for a long time.
“And I’m quite sporty. I like riding bikes as well. I like going out in my boat fishing. I like walking. But we like restaurants, you know, we wanted good shops.”
On all those fronts, Hamilton made sense, and the newcomers found it had strong communities of interest.
“I call it a fantastic small, big city,” Vervoort says. “It’s got everything you need, but it’s not too big, so you don’t become anonymous.”
You’re not a number, like you are in Auckland. Of those who arrived in Hamilton last year, Vervoort says some were Auckland overflow, people who turned up in the City of Sails and couldn’t find a job or got hammered by the cost of housing.
“They’ve come to Hamilton and hopefully found better opportunities around those two different things.”
Hamilton has a strong economy, he says, based around agriculture and agritech, along with manufacturing, logistics – including the emerging hub at Ruakura – and education. “We’ve always had job growth, even in times of minor or moderate recession.”
Growth is expensive, though, and its pace presents Hamilton’s biggest challenge. On that front, the drive through the city takes in Peacocke, with its roading infrastructure rapidly taking shape in preparation for thousands of homes.
Further growth challenges have arrived since Covid, thanks to cost escalations and the see-sawing ride of interest rates.
Obviously, change is also coming with a new Government. Public-private partnerships can be a dirty word to some, Vervoort says. “But if you get those right, then there can be a whole lot of efficiencies and savings.”
It doesn’t hurt Vervoort’s case for Hamilton that autumn is colouring the city, trees seemingly everywhere you look. If you’re going to show off Hamilton to visitors, do it now.
For all their beauty and amenity, it’s trees that probably prompt the most complaints to the council, Vervoort says. It might be a recency effect, but Vervoort says No 1 is probably blocked drains from autumn leaves. Pot holes and trip hazards also figure.
Less predictably, so does paspalum. Vervoort calls it the stalk season. People start seeing paspalum stalks in the Christmas run-up and the council’s phones go crazy.
“We just say, ‘just relax and it’ll be mowed in a few weeks’ time’. They generally go on holiday, and then come back after the holiday and forget about it.”
The main compliment, meanwhile, is about staff at facilities like the libraries and zoo, and those on the call centre, he says.
Vervoort is an affable soul, and on a mild autumn Tuesday morning, Hamilton, easy to get around in, comes across as a highly affable city.
For her part, recent arrival Echo Lee loves Hamilton Lake, which is a short walk from the unit she shares with her welder husband Joontak and their nearly 2-year-old daughter Clara.
Weather permitting, there’s a daily visit to the destination playground there for Clara and her mum or grandmother, Aixiang Zhang, who stays six months of the year with the family. Weather not permitting, the library or Exscite at the museum take the playground’s place.
In August, Echo’s mum will return to Wuhan, in China, and her dad will come out to take her place. Their support is crucial, with Echo setting out on her nursing masters at the University of Waikato.
But she’s very aware of the sacrifice they are making. Last weekend, in a supremely Kiwi moment, she bowled up to the prime minister at the Running of the Sheep in Te Kuiti to ask him if there was an update on the five-year parent visa touted by National.
He sympathised with her situation and told her it will take time.
It has been eight years since Lee arrived in New Zealand and a lot has happened during that time.
She came in July 2016 to study at the Manukau Institute of Technology. A year later, she decided to switch to a bachelor in construction economics at Unitec.
Just before moving out of her dormitory, she opened the door and saw a Korean student on his second day in New Zealand. She thought, “wow, handsome boy”. That handsome boy was Joontak, and they have been married five years.
Once Echo got her degree, she worked as a quantity surveyor with an Auckland garden design firm. But the couple realised their pathway to a skilled worker visa – and therefore to residency – would be helped if they left Auckland, because that would give them another 30 points towards the target of 160.
Joontak got a job in Hamilton, where the couple shifted in November 2021. By the time Echo gave birth to Clara she had residency.
The C-section birth helped trigger her change of career – she had what she describes as a very good experience in Waikato Hospital, though it came with near disaster. She lost consciousness the day after the birth, probably because of blood loss.
“When I woke up, my husband was yelling my name, and I was surrounded by at least 10, like, doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals.”
Lee remembers there was the chance of a transfer by helicopter to Auckland. But the crisis passed. “I recovered very fast and lost my chance to take helicopter,” she laughs.
“And that experience made me think maybe I want to do some job related to medical care.”
When the couple secured residency, their Auckland friends called them to say, why didn’t they move back?
“We say, no, we really love Hamilton, we don’t want to move to anywhere,” Echo says. “I think this quiet city is very suitable for a young family like us.”
The neighbours in their modest concrete-block row of two-storey flats are great, the lake is nearby, the traffic is vastly better and she bikes to university.
“I really feel like right here is my home,” she says.
“Maybe you are local and you lived here for a long time, so it’s just a normal day and like a normal town. But for me, it’s like the beginning of a new life. Actually, every day. I’m very cheerful. I’m very happy I’m here.”
Hamilton. New Zealand’s fastestgrowing city. Good for just about everything.