Tairua's Christmas box

By PATRICK GOWER

It was just another bank machine in an ordinary little town. But when Thys Polstra walked up and withdrew $40, he threw his hands in the air and shouted, "It works!"

His was the first official withdrawal from Tairua's brand-spanking-new WestpacTrust automatic teller machine (ATM), and it marked the end of a four-year battle to get banking services into the tiny Coromandel township.

Hundreds of locals turned out to celebrate the first withdrawals from the machine.

Tairua's hoteliers and shopkeepers have been fighting for the machine since their "little bank" - a BNZ service branch which opened twice a week for four hours a day - closed in 1996.

"This is a great Christmas present for Tairua," said Mr Polstra.

"We are expecting nearly 20,000 people through here over summer and up till now they've had to bring their own cash or go elsewhere."

Locals and holidaymakers alike have had to visit banks up to 50km away in Whitianga, Whangamata or Thames to get cash.

Mr Polstra said Tairua residents had spent the past four years lobbying all the main banks for an ATM.

Further up the peninsula, Coromandel town has begun a similar campaign to get an ATM in its main street.

WestpacTrust's Coromandel regional manager, Kevin Atkinson, acknowledged that community pressure had been as important as the "numbers game" in getting the machine put in the wall of the Tairua Four Square store.

"It's a fair hike to the other machines, but I didn't expect this," he said of the celebration.

Equally surprised were Phil and Natalie Gagado, French cycle tourists who have spent the past four years travelling the world on their bikes.

They rode into town to find the street party in full swing, with the three-piece band playing Bad Moon Rising underneath the hardware store's canopy.

"It is a funny thing," said Mr Gagado. "I don't understand everything, but it is another funny story for us."

Although Mr Polstra made the first official withdrawal from the hole-in-the-wall bank, the ceremony had been upstaged earlier in the day by local security guard Kelvin Spence.

He used the machine to withdraw $20 as soon as it went online. Mr Spence tucked the note into his pocket. But he promised not to spend it.

Instead, he intends to auction the crisp new note at the Tairua School wine and food festival next month.