Murupara is a town not far from the city of Rotorua with a bunch of friendly heart warming locals and an unemployment rate of 90%.
But it hasn't always been this way, our guide tells us that she lived in this town during it's boom years, when people from all over the region came here to work for one of the biggest logging companies in the country who were milling the biggest man made forest in New Zealand.
When the government begant to sell off the state assets of New Zealand, the forestry industry was one of the first to take the axe blow. While some people were able to make the transition from employee to contractor, others were not given or able to take up the same opportunity.
But the town has survived and is looking to thrive into the foreseeable future, we spent a lovely afternoon with our home hosts in another garden party scenario before visiting the kura kaupapa school where children are taught in the language of the Maori (te Reo) as well as other languages such as Mandarin and Japanese.
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