Diane Hume-Green has commented on the future of the Historic Village from a parking availability perspective. (I’ve also commented on the parking, or lack of it, outside the Tauranga Art Gallery). A visitor to the Historic Village during the Jazz Festival saw the complex through her international eyes and noted how sad it was the Village buildings weren’t filled with art and art craft. I also heard someone interviewed on National Radio commenting on the lack of available isite information about Pukehinahina/Gate Pa and Te Ranga and how a visitor could locate them and travel to them.
There are a range of things we as a community could do – one is to put the information about the Historic Village and the Gate Pa area on all the locally focussed websites. We could also have some simple published information available in isites around the region. We could have storyboards similar to those in the Omokoroa Peninsular Reserve with simple information. We could have a signboard map on the Council Building wall by the main Downtown bus stop area with a map showing where these features are and the bus to catch. We could eventually have one or two specially painted and signwritten buses doing at least an hourly loop from Downtown to features further away from town. Now might be a good time for some of the Councillors from Tauranga and Western Bays to go down to Whakatane and look at the Exhibition Centre with its boutique museum. It seems we have everything here in Tauranga but we’re either not presenting it appropriately or presenting it in a way that appeals to locals and visitors.
