Featherston: Once suffering from a bad rep, now experiencing a 'golden age'

New Zealand is riddled with those towns you only year about when the bad things happen.  Stuff has visited some of those towns to look for their heart and to see why people chose to call it home. Today is the Wairarapa town of Featherston.

 

Featherston's town square is a circle. It is not the only thing unexpected in this often-maligned town.

 

Real estate agent Erin Nesdale's office is swamped with sold signs.

 

A short train commute - comparable to the Kapiti Coast - means the trip to Wellington is only about an hour, and these days more people are working from home.

 

But the trend does have an unintended consequence - a woman had just been in to see Nesdale to discuss selling her house, but wouldn't be able to buy again in the town. She would have to move further north, somewhere cheaper. Somewhere like Dannevirke of Pahiatua.

 

That means more people with a vested interest in beautifying their homes.

 

But there was a downside - many people who had rented in the town for decades could no longer afford to live there. And then there is that wind.

 

I would like to suggest the wind is like a child's tantrum. We have horrific wind, then nothing.

 

At Everest Cafe on the main street, South Wairarapa Mayor Alex Beijen shakes off any criticism of the town. Crime is so low that his weekly crime report lowlights include such banality as a person who didn't lock the shed and thought something may be missing.