Australasia > New Zealand > South Island > Twizel > Articles > Surviving Twizel

Thank god I don’t come from Twizel. Because if I did it’d be a hell of a thing to live down.

People still laugh, muttered the last 23-year-old left in Twizel. It’s the name (sounds like a character in a children’s book, foreigners rhyme it with swizzle); it’s the history (ugly hydroelectric town) and it’s the location (smack dab in the middle of bloody nowhere).

Twizel was always a joke. Back when it started it was the equivalent of being sentenced to a forced labour camp. Gulag Twizel. Ticky-tacky boxes slapped onto a cold windswept desert. Horrid noisy machines. A town full of poor bastards with nowhere else to go. Being brand new and already doomed didn’t help. Born in 1968, due to expire in 1984 when the Upper Waitaki Power Development was finished.

Only it didn’t. Like the black stilt, it’s survived the project - slightly better in fact. Project engineer Max Smith bequeathed the town a world-class rowing course on Lake Ruataniwha and thus ensured its future as well as sealing his own fate since it wasn’t done with Wellington’s approval. He lost his job but who cares now? Max is a life member of the South Island Rowing Association and the lake regularly hosts national rowing championships as well as secondary school championships.

So Twizel lives. But what as exactly? Even Twizel’s not sure. Some want to resurrect its history. Bung a piece of hydroelectric machinery at the front gate.

Others want to forget all that. Go eco-tourist with a giant black stilt beckoning visitors in. Wouldn’t that be nicer?

I’m a story person myself. I love the town’s history and can hardly wait for the hall of memories to be built. Forget all the big boy toys, it’s the social history which grabs me. I love it that Twizel once had no trees, no birds and no worms but the largest primary school in New Zealand and 90 clubs -- 90, for god’s sake. Twizel was once New Zealand’s biggest inland town. I love the stories about the single men and the married women, the parties, the prejudice, the way the décor and size of the houses were regulated by the Ministry of Works. Rank got you an extra bedroom, a verandah or sliding doors.

Then - and here’s the story’s clincher - boom, overnight it was all gone. Finito. Practically everyone left. The school shrunk. The clubs struggled. The party was over.

Visiting it now I love the visual reminders of that past. The samey houses made different by the inhabitants, the tourist accommodation in the former maternity home and single men’s hostel, the toy-town layout of the place and the single entrance and exit which makes it feels so enclosed, so separate, a world unto itself.

I love the souvenirs - the tiny painted wooden houses and The Taste of Twizel cookbook full of Twizel pics, information about the clubs and recipes like rowanberry jelly and bottled spaghetti and tomato.

Twizel’s stories are highly coloured and immoderate, both sweet and sour. And the locals love to tell them. Some ply a not-so-profitable trade just for the joy of chatting to outsiders. The couple who ties trout flies for a living, for instance; some accommodation providers where value outstrips cost; and Al Shearer of the heli-biking operation. His helicopter up/mountain bike downhill trips must only cover costs. But Al wants to keep it affordable for Kiwis. Watching us enjoy our country gives him a buzz.

He must have passed out with joy then, seeing me survive the experience. Fear is not my natural home. But the bigger-than-IMAX view back over Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel and Mt Cook with everything sparkling and crisp in the clear sunshiny air shoots enough endorphins through the system to keep you going past the initial moment of terror. It passes. Very quickly actually. And bumpily. Like riding over corrugated iron. And it gets better. I make like a 13-year-old BMX rider, leaning back and standing on the pedals. Can’t lift the wheel up to avoid the streams but I fall in instead. Everything feels fantastic at the bottom and I believe Al when he tells me he’s had under 10’s and over 70’s ripping downhill.

Al’s a black stilt man. The only black stilt colony in the world numbered up to 300 before the project wiped out half of the region’s braided rivers. Now the breeding programme just manages to keep numbers at around 40. Imagine a nice leggy bird at the entrance, he says. Wouldn’t that be more attractive than a rusting bit of old machinery?

I’ll think about it, I say, in the tone children know precedes disappointment.

You could, I suppose, put an angler at the gate. Foreign infidels come from all over to clutter up the rivers here and ignore unwritten rules about never setting up upstream from an existing angler.

Mind you, it’s outsiders who have saved Twizel. Outsiders have invested here and overseas visitors don’t have a problem with the place. To them it’s a convenient pit stop on a tour of Mt Cook, Tekapo or Lake Ohau. A great base for fishing or hiking.

So what if they can’t say the name? If they stay at a B&B they get the cheapest, biggest and tastiest breakfast they’re likely to get in New Zealand.

You could change its name. Twizel was named after the Twizel River which itself was named after a spot in England. I’ve seen the pictures. Looks nothing like it. But a name change would be a bit like the black stilt argument - obliterating its history. Twizel is its funny name.

And Twizel’s a triumph really. It’s still here. It looks better than ever. It’s got trees everywhere. It feels better (thanks to the trees). It’s pulling the punters (the population doubles in summer) and, what’s more, people care enough to argue about what it stands for.

Plus it’s got one thing most of New Zealand lost a long time ago - a champagne lifestyle on a peasant’s income.

Top Sleeps Aoraki Lodge -- pretty garden, fun generous hosts with extensive knowledge of the area, esp. fishing. Bed & big excellent breakfast. Three-course dinner by prior arrangement. 32 Mackenzie Drive, Tel: +64 03 4350300, email: mtdb@mtcook.org.nz

Heartland Lodge -- elegant and roomy. Bed & delicious breakfast. Three course dinner available, 19 North West Arch, +64 03 4350008, email; european@xtra.co.nz.

Holiday Homes -- range from smart new to rumpty but authentic ex-hydro-worker’s house. Contact Twizel Promotions & Development Tel: +64 03 4350066 or ask a local. Many are looking after houses for friends out-of-town.

Top Eats Hunters Café Bar -- the smartest place in town. Food is big and tasty and host Cheryl Tessier is a terrific sort. Hot smoked salmon on potato rosti with a honey herb dressing is a sure thing. 2 Market Place, Tel: +64 03 4350303

Top Hut Café & Bar -- décor’s nothing special but the food is good value. The Korner Kafe -- locals complain it keeps unpredictable hours and the quality is uneven but it boasts an interesting menu ranging from Caesar salad to pork saltimbocca. Best Buys Mount Cook Salmon -- bred in the clean icy Tekapo canal with views of Mt Cook. Feed the fish and watch them jump. Follow the Heritage Trail that takes travellers from Lake Tekapo to Lake Pukaki. Tel: +64 025 370038.

Trout flies -- made by Garry and Mary Payne of The Fly Hatchery. Watch them at work in the shed behind their house and tell them what you want. Their range is extensive. 94 MacKenzie Drive, Tel: 03 4350685

To Do Heli-bike - helicopter up, mountain bike down. A range of tracks is available to suit all comers. Cheaper than a sightseeing tour and more fun. Alternatively walk down on a heli-hike. Tel: NZ 0800 435 424, email: al@helibike.com, www.helibike.com

Kaki Black Stilt Tours - One hour guided tour offer commentary on the management programme of this endangered bird. Three km south of Twizel. Contact Debra Shedden, DOC, Market Place, Tel: +64 03 435 0802, email kakivisitorhide@doc.govt.nz Water sports on Lake Ruataniwha -- waterski, jetboat, jetski, kayak.

Fishing – the best rainbow and brown trout fishing in the world is to be found in the rivers around Twizel boast the locals. If you need a guide contact Steve Carey at +64 03 4350300.

Walks in the Temple Valley -- an hour’s drive from Twizel on the Lake Ohau Rd. Quiet, magical mountain and silver beech forest alive with birdsong and cheeky fantails. Visit Lake Ohau Lodge on the way back for a cappuccino overlooking the lake. Pick up a brochure on walks in the Mackenzie Basin and Waitaki Valley at the Twizel Information Centre, Market Place.

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