2020 Whanganui River Annual

It was a strange year, with the Covid 19 pandemic causing a lock-down early on that stopped all activity in the country for a month, and our borders have been closed to anyone from overseas without them undergoing a quarantine session on arrival.

This state of affairs will continue for the foreseeable future, at least until the virus is no longer a threat to the country and we are all vaccinated against the virus. The lack of overseas tourists has hit our tourism industry hard, and Kiwis are being urged to fill the gap by visiting their own country’s scenic highlights, and it appears that they are doing so. When I was a kid, we were urged to see our own country first before travelling overseas. It still is good advice.

How else can you judge other countries if you don’t know what yours is like’ Mind you, it was a for harder to go overseas then, as mass air travel was unknown and if you went by sea, it took about four days to get to Australia and a month to get to the UK and Europe.

So with government encouragement, the tourist industry has been given a shot in the arm. The Great Walk that is the Whanganui River, has been very well patronised by Kiwis, as has also been the Mountains to the Sea Cycleway. Jet boat operators have been flat out ferrying cyclists from the Mangapurua Landing to Pipiriki.

I can think of only one other occasion in my lifetime when Kiwis were exhorted to do something to save an industry due to overseas events, and that was during 1941 when there was a glut of apples due to WWII shipping.