A year in Scuttlebutt
We got a new bat-considerate bridge. The Maaori king died the day before it opened. His daughter Nga Wai Hono i te po Paki was named as the new Queen. The new, non-binary Hamiltonian Green MP Benjamin Doyle is from here!
Friends, in the second quarter of 2024, the Waikato’s snorted more cocaine in three months than we have in the last three years, outstripping that of Wellington in the same time period. I think that means we’ve made it - we’re not a provincial town anymore, we’re a big city with big city drug habits (insert that montage from Scarface here, if you like).
If Hamilton were Monopoly, we’re about to get some new high end hotels. Hello, staycations by the pool with cocktails. The Templeton Group announced a 10-story riverside CBD hotel in March, while a Pullman was announced in June (opening in 2026), and the Templeton Group have announced one riverside.
For a long time, it looked from the outside like not much was going on for the regional theatre build. Then it seemed to really pick up pace and you can read this update, including the river view from what will be the foyer.
Richard Swainson wrote this diabolic column.
The Listener, written by friend of the pod Richard Betts, deemed us cool now.
Apart from people who really insist on taking public transport when they buy sex toys, did anyone even really notice that the Anglesea bus stop is right next to a Peaches and Cream store until someone made a fuss?
Te Huia had a smoother ride than many expected this year. Many were worried that it would get prematurely canned at its review in June, ending what was always intended to be a five-year trial, especially given our own transport minister incorrectly stated it is the most heavily subsidised public transport service in the country. Happily, its trial is ongoing.
What started as a private joke in the Draft one-room office (in our house) became a real thing: Roundabout news! Which is essentially the same thing as raised crossing news, and cyclelane news.
We had a local by-election, and boy, it was bleak. The voter turnout was 22.05%*. The booklet was striking for how many candidates seemed to hate local government. Hamilton has really flourished in recent years, one of the things that inspired this local newsletter. And so to see so many people visibly grumping and voting against their own self interest by shrinking their own representation to council is, to our eye, a shame. We’re also aware that this year really worn down many councillors who are doing a great job advocating for this city - the other side of the same coin. Go away everyone, have a good Christmas and a lie down. Come back to 2025 refreshed, to what we hope will be a more engaged, more informed local election.
Thank you to the reader who emailed about the earlier, incorrect number we published (18.6%), a number that came reporting from the day before voting closed. The same reader also correctly pinged us on the fact that we had not just a local byelection. “We had *two* by-elections this year: Hamilton East and the Kirikiriroa Maaori Ward,” they wrote. “The turn-outs for these were 22.05% (more than the 18.something% you reported on) and 11.34% (oof).” Quite right, and thank you for writing in. We love all correspondance, especially if we have something wrong, at hello@thewaikatodraft.com
The year in Local Ratbags
Was it art? The baffling saga of David and Barbara Yzendoorn’s shipping container installation piece, came to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion when the Environment Court ruled that it is. Then they wanted to install a public toilet. After neighbours objected to their application to build a multistorey duplex, the Yzendoorns installed the piece (or, shipping container, if you prefer) last year to symbolise their frustrations with the resource consent process. As you can imagine, opinions in the neighbourhood were mixed. Was it a triumph of lawfare over NIMBYism? Is it just IRL trolling? I started this paragraph thinking it wasn’t art, but now I kind of feel like it is - art provokes, after all.
The following paragraph has been fact-checked to death. We got the final instalment in the Cherry Festival/Stuff/Gary Farrow defamation saga - with the journalist and his then employer receiving $54,970 from the litigious organisers and couple Cherry Anne Cao and Paul Oulton. They are selling the property with this bananas promotional video, which as we said in June makes them look at Dr Who villains. Update: the property looks like it’s still on the market.
At the beginning of the year in march, Geoff Taylor and Andrew Bydder made a remark about a private contest they have to rack up the most complaints. Perhaps an off handed comment, a joke, but Stephen Ward at the Waikato Times looked into it, in March - and ratepayers had at that time shelled out $16,000 to litigate code of conducts complaints since 2022. Well, that was before Andrew Bydder*… Well, you probably know the rest of the story. In June, the news broke that Cr Bydder had submitted an ongoing submission vis-a-vis that was so expletive laden, the redacted version barely had any text left. Like, it wouldn’t have even been fit for a google review of a commercial cleaning company. The council censured him, and he didn’t care, and it wasn’t taken any further. And the figure is much more than $16,000 now.
Local maniac, loudmouth, and disgraced owner of the now defunct Hamilton EV Nicholas Down had a busy year. In January, the self proclaimed “EV Evangelist'' was caught and fined for dumping a trailer-load (!) of rubbish after being denied his request of free entry to the Lincoln Street tip. But the real schadenfreude came the following month, when he filed for liquidation in February, as EV sales around the country plummeted after the incoming government (of whom during Covid he was very critical of) scrapped clean car subsidies. His liquidators hired a PI to track him down, although the Hamilton reddit was also on the case. Is he in Dubai? Is he driving around Frankton? Is he squatting somewhere in the jungle, a Colonel Kurtz figure? Is he ruining the vibe in some nutcase anti-vax Discord server? Nobody knew. Mike Mathers asked: “He’s Nicholas Down, but is he out?” Update: his Instagram last updated November - he is indeed in Dubai. We’ll leave you to read it yourselves.
*who actually lives in Cambridge.
The year in Hospo
We thought it would be cute to do this series on our favourite Hamilton spots, during off-peak hours. Not to depict them as dead, but because all bars have their slower moments; it's when you get to really know them, and supporting hospitality on days other than Friday and Saturday can make all the difference to their financial sustainability. Well, we started with Ernest, and we really liked the result, but no sooner had we published it and they had gone under. We’re not deluded enough to think we had anything to do with it, but the piece read differently afterwards, and we canned the series shortly thereafter.
Jesse Mulligan anointed Mr Pickles - raved about it, in fact. Neat opened, which we were almost going to call a graduation from Wonder Horse, but you know, apples and oranges are suited for different occasions. Karl Martin-Boulton of The Green and Cambridge’s Alpino picked up hats in this year’s Cuisine Good Food Awards.
Raglan roast has bought into the little two-story enclave on Victoria (alongside Tongkun and Tatsuta), that’s always been a favourite nook of ours in town, with a vision to bring a late-night coffee house to town; think Wellington’s Midnight Expression. Which is exciting - given the new theatre, and the proximity to browsers.
Two very big names on Hamilton East’s main drag, Bird on a Wire and Lord of the Fries, exited the game. And they have made way for local shoots of new growth - Salam Afghan Food, and Jasmines Thai. We need to support them.
Here’s to us
Given your Draft editorial team are all elder millennials, and we’ve always gone for a magazine-in-your-inbox vibe, rather than that of the prevailing influencer. Other than trying to be pithy, we ourselves try and be as invisible as possible, a conduit straight to the story. We’ve tried to prioritise lots of info, well and irreverently written.
So allow us a rare moment of self-promotion. We turned one this year! And we reached a milestone in terms readers - many of which elect not to get it in their inbox but read it on the website. (Cool, we get it, whatever suits you.) If you can recommend us to your friends we’d be very grateful.
