“No place more I’d like to bring you …”

Langholm Hotel (now apparently closed), Mangaweka, New Zealand. Image: Su Leslie 2019

No place more I’d like to bring you than
this one-pub town
approached in low gear down
the gorges through the hills.

Now they’ve built the bypass
the drinkers left are locals
& odd commercial travellers.
Quiet afternoons like this you hear the falls.

On the post office corner
a blue flag floats. I bought
a hot meat pie at the store
a new harmonica.

A public bar drinker
tells me what I want to hear.
I play for him later
songs on my harmonica.

We know each other now
I buy my round of beers,
I catch up on the news
in small-town public bars.

They ask me why I travel
and never settle down
I lose two games of pool
and hitchhike out of town.

A Mangaweka Road Song — Sam Hunt (1971)

Mangaweka is a tiny place, home to around two hundred people these days. There is a school, a post office, an art gallery and a cafe, but seldom have these been open as I’ve travelled through.

State Highway One runs parallel to the main street (Broadway). The buildings are old; mostly single-storey timber shops and service buildings. Husks of a once thriving town.

Main street, Mangaweka. Image: Su Leslie 2019

Main street, Mangaweka. Image: Su Leslie 2019

It is a strangely beautiful place; a little slice of the New Zealand Sam Hunt was writing about in 1971, and which I remember from a road-trip in about 1980. Our reason for going was to see the old Mangaweka Viaduct before it was pulled down; having been replaced with a new section of rail line through slightly less unstable land.

Even then, it was as if Mangaweka was defined by loss.

Post Office, hairdresser and perhaps a shop. I’m not sure as it never seems to be open. Image: Su Leslie 2019

Two years after Hunt’s poem was published his friend, artist Robin White, painted one of the town’s buildings.

Robin White, Mangaweka, 1973. Image: Christchurch Art Gallery.

It remains:

Image: Su Leslie 2019.

Every now and then, buildings in Mangaweka come up for sale. The latest is the old Bank of New Zealand. I mentioned it to the Big T and we looked at the online real estate listing. He was excited. I wish I could be, but I’m struggling to share his optimism that the town’s fortunes will turn (at least in a time-frame that would work for us).

That’s because last week I drove through a lot of small New Zealand towns that are struggling; unable to provide sufficient jobs for young people or compete with online retailers and the chain stores in larger towns. Throw in a raft of government regulations requiring expensive earthquake strengthening of many older buildings, and the outlook seems a bit grim.

Bank of New Zealand building, Mangaweka, NZ. Image: Su Leslie 2019

For such a tiny place, Mangaweka has captured the imagination of many; including me. Each time I set off to visit my dad, I secretly hope for signs of new life in the town; a reason to stop and do more than feel nostalgic for a New Zealand that I fear will disappear.

Ragtag Daily Prompt | nostalgia