Twyford Phil: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Twyford Phil: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:664;Page:11777] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 I start with a brief commercial for the joys and delights of Rakiura because I do not think any of the speakers so far have quite done justice to that remarkable place—and not just so that I can share with the House what I did in my holidays. I think that the fantastic qualities of Stewart Island are worth recounting simply because they explain why so many people go to this very remote part of New Zealand and create demand on the infrastructure and a burden on what is a very small population to fund that infrastructure. 
My wife and I and friends rented a crib in Oban last summer and had a fantastic couple of weeks. We fished for blue cod and in fact we had the experience which Rahui Katene described of chucking a line with three hooks on it over the edge of the boat and seconds later—seconds later—pulling up three large blue cod. We did this time and time again for a whole morning and ended up with more blue cod than we knew what to do with. 
The air in Oban and around Half Moon Bay is thick with kaka and kereru. It is unbelievable. Walking around and seeing a flock of a dozen kaka wheeling around the little township is like walking around a primeval Aotearoa. In fact every day a couple of times a day a flock of kaka would land on the deck of our little crib and spend time playing there and it was really quite extraordinary. Not only as Rahui Katene says can one pick beautiful fat kina by wading out in knee-deep water but in Paterson Inlet one can actually pick paua knee-deep in the water and cook oneself a feed of fresh blue cod fresh paua and kina and that is an extraordinary experience—and one that people cannot have almost anywhere else in New Zealand actually. Enjoying the hospitality at the Oban pub or fish and chips at the pie-cart in Oban just adds to the whole experience. 
So it is no surprise to me that 36000 visitors go to this remarkable corner of New Zealand every year. But I have to say that I thought the quality of the infrastructure was pretty good. The wharf the roads all the public infrastructure I thought were pretty good. Nevertheless I think that it is right that Eric Roy should be congratulated as the local member on sponsoring this local bill. The numbers I think say it all. There are 36000-odd visitors every year to a tiny community of I think 361 ratepayers who are trying to fund infrastructure for the island. 
The points have been well traversed already. From our side there is a concern. It is not that a small levy would kill the goose that lays the golden egg on Rakiura but that this could have some precedent value that might not be helpful and it needs to be considered in the wider context of how we fund infrastructure in the areas of New Zealand that attract large numbers of tourists. 
It is also worth mentioning that in isolated communities like Stewart Island there are extra expenses. Rahui Katene pointed out that electricity is expensive on the island—that is true. The cost of freighting in all the goods that people need to run their businesses and to go about their daily lives also adds to the difficulties of living in such a remote location. 
There was one experience that I did not mention before that I think is a classic Stewart Island experience and explains why so many people go there. We walked across to Mason Bay which is one of the premier activities that visitors to the island do and spent an hour with wild kiwi in the middle of the day on the walk to Mason Bay. If any members have not had that experience I recommend it. I think it encapsulates why that part of the country is so magical.