From heaven to hell and back again Rebuilding a forgotten timber town We were taught respect, to have good manners, and old-school values ... — Lea Thompson

• Published date: 06 May 2023
• Publication title: Daily Post, The (Rotorua, New Zealand)

Nestled in 2900 square kilometres of pine trees — one of the largest man-made forests in the Southern Hemisphere — the small Bay of Plenty township was once the beating heart of New Zealand’s forestry industry

In the early 1960s, Kaingaroa’s forest service employed about 5000 people, and hundreds of forestry students trained at its headquarters at the town’s entrance.

There were sporting facilities: basketball and tennis courts, rugby fields, and a nine-hole golf course. Santa parades were held, school galas staged, and homes were all well-maintained.

Older residents say those days were “heaven”.

Then, everything changed.

In the mid-1980s, the Forest Service was disestablished and restructured and thousands of village workers lost their jobs. The logging rights to Kaingaroa Forest were sold and there was a threat the land would be sold, too. Its residents fought to retain their village and won but they say they were then left to fend for themselves.

Kaingaroa Village, 45km from Rotorua, on the way to Murupara, was not expected to last more than five to 10 years.

It became a forgotten town.

But the staunch, tight-knit community which was left with the heavy financial burden of maintaining the village’s assets, including housing, has been fighting for survival ever since. However, hopes are high several government-funded building projects will herald the start of a new and prosperous era.

Dust now rises between the trees of the Kaingaroa Processing Plant — one of the village’s main employers.

A $2 million new building is taking shape within the pines, as the village makeover — under way for the past few years — continues.

The first plantings of Kaingaroa Forest were at Waiotapu in the early 1900s.

Now owned by Kaingaroa Timberlands, a partnership of investors, the plantation has grown to be one of the oldest and largest in the world, producing up to 4 million cubic metres of logs each year.

Tall pines dominate the highway north to Rotorua, marking the Kaingaroa Village territory. The small, isolated village is home to about 470 people; nearly 90 per cent are Māori.

Some of the houses are well-maintained. A handful are freshly painted. The front yards are freshly mown and flowers bloom in gardens.

Other homes appear abandoned.

Broken glass hangs in windows, overgrown grass creeps up the walls, corrugated iron is nailed to windowpanes. The charred wooden framing of a burned roof is exposed to the elements. The paint is cracked and discoloured.

Lydia Thompson’s home is one of the tidy ones.

Her single-storey whare was one of hundreds left in urgent need of repair post-restructuring in the 1980s.

It was once cold and damp without electricity or running water. A large hole in the roof where a tree fell has been patched up and the guttering, downpipes and electricals repaired.

The kuia says she is now in a warm, dry home after funding announced for the village in 2019 did a “world of good”.

“It has helped our marae, our roading, and it has helped our lives. I embrace it, gee I feel lucky,” she says. “It was like a beautiful gift.”

Thompson’s daughter, Lea Thompson, invites us in.

The kuia, wrapped in her bright red jumper, is rocking in her armchair.

She sticks to the notes she has written on a piece of paper until she starts chatting about Kaingaroa — the place she has loved for more than 60 years.

The 85-year-old’s face lights up and she hugs the air as she remembers the glory days of the village. She arrived in 1961 and says the village was beautiful then.

“The fresh air, the people, the different nationalities ... Oh man, it was a wonderful, wonderful place to live.

“It was a village complete with happiness and joy.”

Kaingaroa Forest School was thriving and there was no crime. Residents could sleep with their windows open. You didn’t need to lock your door.

Thompson pauses and slumps back into her chair. She sighs and says she wishes she could have those golden years back.

“It is like a dream. Did I dream it, or did I not? But it did exist in my life, it really did exist.”

Lives changed in the village when thousands of employees lost their jobs in 1987.

“That is when the hardship started.”

Thompson says working families had to adjust to being “on the dole”.

“We had to survive from payment to payment.”

She remembers the shame she felt lining up for a benefit cheque each week.

“You felt so low.

“Those years were difficult seeing the decline of our village that was seemingly going backward, which was very sad.”

Thompson’s daughter, Lea Thompson, was born and raised in Kaingaroa.

The 49-year-old says children enjoyed a sense of freedom growing up in the village.

“We were taught respect, to have good manners and old school values.

“The house was immaculate. We took pride in our homes.”

Cam Laing remembers the same sense of freedom.

Sitting in his black-and-gold decorated Rotorua office, he says growing up in the huge forest taught him to dream big.

Big thinking has seen the “bush boy” become an architectural designer.

Laing, 39, was raised in Kaingaroa by his parents, John and Barbara Laing. John Laing was Kaingaroa Forest School’s deputy principal.

In the early 2000s, aged 18, Cam left the forest to study at Auckland University, an experience he describes as a “big culture shock”.

Growing up in Kaingaroa was “amazing”, he says.

“I wouldn’t swap it for anything. The friendships there were everlasting.

“We called ourselves the bush boys.”

He spent afternoons with his mates, hatchets in hand, building huts in the forest.

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