BROOK SABIN
It s a place so special, you can still see entire moa skeletons lying in a 35 million-year-old cave system.
New Zealand-wide, there are towns that proudly proclaim their (sometimes sole) claim to fame: “The carrot capital” of New Zealand, the “gumboot capital of the world”. And then there are those that seem to be so lacking in self-confidence all they can do is direct others elsewhere. Desperate for a unique selling point, many towns have taken to selling themselves as “the gateway” to somewhere else – often the wider region, but sometimes just to a better-known landmark. Sometimes you can see why, but others are underselling themselves, perhaps not fully realising – or having the funds to promote – the hidden gems in their backyard.