Best of 2019: Inaugural Whanganui Welcome Tour for new residents

Residents Jacqueline Brand-Holt and Katy Newton flank newcomers Karl Burns and Ronnie Pockinghorne, before showing them around town. Photo / Stuart Munro

This summer the Chronicle is bringing you another look at some of the best content of 2019. This story originally ran on March 04, 2019

With 700 new residents in the district there's a need to give them a proper welcome and show them what's here, Multicultural Council of Rangitīkei/Whanganui president Vijeshwar Prasad says.

He has a special concern for people new to New Zealand.

"We would like to show people places they can use. Most of them only know Kowhai Park. There are lots of other interesting places in Whanganui."

He organised the first Whanganui Welcome Tour to happen on March 2 - but only two people registered so it was pared back from a full day to half a day.

Jacqueline Brand-Holt and Katy Newton - both members of the Welcoming Communities advisory group - led the two newcomers. They were a Northland couple who moved to Whanganui late last year.

They each got a bag of information about the district, with events and services as diverse as the film society and Plunket. Walking uptown they were told about layout, landmarks and key services.

If there had been a full-day tour, it would have included lunch at Kowhai Park and a look at Peat and Springvale parks and the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre.

The tours are a good idea, Brand-Holt said, both to share useful information and as a chance for newcomers to meet each other.

If they continue, she's not sure how to get notice about them out to a diverse group that could include refugees and new migrants, as well as people moving from elsewhere in New Zealand.