Tractors still rattle down the main street. They slow trucks laden with winter hay and mud-splattered Prados, Pajeros and Pathfinder 4WDs.
Grizzled farmers in woollen bushshirts, with upturned collars and white gumboots, yarn outside the multitude of agricultural supply stores; Ashburton's equivalent to pipe-jeaned hipsters smoking roll-ups outside coffee shops on Wellington's Cuba St.
But the Mid Canterbury farming hub has undergone a major facelift in recent times. Perhaps nowhere else in the country does a town hold up a mirror to the changing face of a nation.
For 'Ash Vegas', with its picture postcard backdrop of the Southern Alps, has always been a stereotypically traditional and conservative sheep, crop, grain and seed farming town.
And while sheep has been transplanted by dairy, it still is an agricultural powerhouse. It's just that it's gone beyond the local population to help keep it running.
Migrant workers have flooded to the area over the last decade.
The Ashburton district - total population of around 32,000 - now has a 3000- strong Filipino community, another 1000 or more Pasifika people.
In town, there are still KFC and McDonalds fast food outlets, along with a Speight's Ale House and Robbie's Bar and Bistro, but there's also Filipino, Thai, Japanese, and Indian restaurants. Basketball, rugby, and soccer teams are no longer predominantly Pakeha.
So what does the inhabitants of this staunch, heartland New Zealand community make of it all?
Those spoken to during this series by the Herald, say while the town has its issues - unemployment from meat works closures, heavy reliance on the dairy industry, the scourge of methamphetamine and gang rivalries - consensus seems to be that the place is all the richer for the increased diversity and multiculturalism.
They've embraced the town's slogan: 'Whatever it takes'.
"When we came here, it was evident, really early on, that this was a very progressive place," says Sally Rhodes.
"For anybody moving here, there are plenty of opportunities. There's lots to do and hard-working larger companies and employers who are big supporters of the town's services and trades.
Motel-owners Sally and Harvey Rhodes say most of the town is doing well. Photo / Kurt Bayer
"The [civic] leaders of 20-30 years ago really gave the town a solid base, which is why the organisation and infrastructure here is very strong, and thankfully most of the town are doing really well."
After decades in the hospitality sector, in North Canterbury and Marlborough, Sally and her husband Harvey Rhodes, now pensioners in their mid-60s, bought the Ashburton Motor Lodge at the northern edge of town, in the winter of 2013.
They've had to use all of their experience to combat the challenges faced over the last four years.
Their arrival coincided with a downturn in the dairy industry and an eventual return of Canterbury earthquake refugees.
And in November last year, the giant magnitude 7.8 earthquake that smashed Kaikoura and North Canterbury, and which has closed State Highway One ever since, dried up much of their road custom.
None of that has deterred the Rhodes though. In fact, they've never been more confident of the New Zealand that lies in store for their grandchildren.
"It's an amazing country to live in," Sally says.
"You still have to go out and help yourself, you do have to work hard, but I believe there are still plenty of incentives around."
It's those incentives available to hard-working folk that enticed Gian Paulo and his family to the district.
Paulo, 38, emigrated from the Philippines in 2008, following a university friend's suggestion that he could go far here.
Dairy farm supervisor Gian Paulo says hard work is rewarded in Ashburton. Photo / Kurt Bayer
A trained veterinarian, and poultry breeding expert, he found work on dairy farms in Mid Canterbury, North Otago, and Gore, before finally settling in Ashburton in 2011 - just after the killer February 22 quake - when he was offered a second-in-charge role.
Life for Paulo and his wife Bituin, 38, who works at a Subway sandwich store in town, and their two daughters Paris, 12, and 5-year-old Gianne, is going well.
While they live in a nice, modern family home on the large dairy farm where Gian works, the Paulos are also planning to buy their own home, as well as saving for their daughters' education, and aiming at securing New Zealand residency.
"We've set up our lives here now. We enjoy the life here," Paulo says.
He's seen how Ashburton has evolved over the last decade.
"People nowadays accept migrants much more as they have seen how progress can be linked to them," Paulo says.
"Because people now see the potential of migrants, there are more and more of them, not just in dairy, but there are a lot of us in hospitality, healthcare and construction too."
He's also noticed changing attitudes of Government. It has changed from "Kiwi-first policies", Paulo believes, to policies that benefit everybody.
Being able to qualify for a work residence visa after five years has been "very good for a lot of us", Paulo says, but plans to introduce one-year or three-year visas which will require a one-year stand-down period at their completion, will be "significant negative affects" on the dairy industry.
"We can spend a year training staff and bringing them up to speed with how we operate, but this would mean we'd have to start again," he said.
He speaks despairingly of corruption and disorder back in his homeland - a stark contrast to the peace and transparency he's found in New Zealand.
While he says Ashburton has its "naughty kids running around town", it's nothing compared to problems experienced in big cities or overseas.
For people who work hard, they can get ahead in a place like Ashburton.
