Martinborough Business Association

Its that time of the year again when the daylight hours start to shorten, the weather a little cooler and the colours a little more dynamic. This season this is happening against a backdrop of NZ and Martinbotough opening up to international visitors and the dropping off of some of the public health rules and orders.

One of the big  problems we experienced  during the pandemic was getting labour for the many hospo jobs that our members had.

With the appetite of our Wellington area friends to get away for the day/weekend, our retail, hospitality and accommodation businesses were running red hot. Hiring labour during  the pandemic was a real problem and provided a real insight into the dependence many sectors have on migrant labour. This problem flys in the face of many people being classified as work ready and receiving job seekers allowance from the state. Setting aside suitability it doesn’t seem right does it ?

We undertook some local initiatives working with Work and Income and the Mayoral Jobs Task Force in an effort to activate this pool of potential job candidates . This work is ongoing with mild success to date. Resourcing jobs will not be resolved overnight as there are accommodation and transport issues facing these workers as well.

The borders opening up will provide an additional spring in our step at what could have been a time to slow down. In the meantime the pandemic lives on as we must do to. The Association encourages all people to play and keep it safe in every thing that they do.

We do however look forward to the opportunity of Easter to bring back some much loved events to Martinborough.

It is exciting to see the Balloon Festival return this year and Martinborough is hosting the Easter Sunday meander, so fingers crossed for a fine day and the chance to come out and take in the stunning scenes of hot air balloons over the square.

We are also hosting the kids Easter trail again this year after it being a huge success last year, so grab a form form the Waihinga centre and participating shops to hunt down the easter art in shop windows to go in the draw to win an Easter treat.

Plus the Under the Stars Easter Space Race hosted on Easter Sunday means Martinbroough really is the place to be celebrating this year!

Enjoy and love local. Allan Hogg – Chair, Charlotte Harding – Secretary