Ngāruawāhia's Kay Kahui calls his birthplace a "gutsy little town", and that's exactly what presenter Gary McCormick finds in this Heartland. When Horotiu Freezing Works closed and factory jobs dried up, unemployment soared and youth crime increased. McCormick meets teens setting a hāngī for Te Pua Waitanga transition programme, and sees cooperation in action. Older locals recall Ngāruawāhia as a "working man's town", and Tainui Trust leader Hare Puke expresses the deep pain of the Waikato land confiscations. At Ngāruawāhia Primary School's reunion, cabaret star Debbie Dorday sets old wrongs to right.
Get a job and make the bucks!– A teenage girl on Ngāruawāhia High School's transition programme Te Pua Waitanga is asked for her plans after leaving school
Anson Grieve Productions
Bruce Morrison
Log in
×