Whitestone geopark trustee, Helen Jansen, explains the ideas behind Waitaki Whitestone Geopark - a podcast by Whitestone Geopark

Co-chair Helen Jansen was on Real Radio 104 and talked about what a Geopark is and its great opportunities for the community. Missed it? No problem, you can listen to it here.

Transcript:

Host:Right, time to talk about Geopark. And we are joined by Helen Jansen, one of the trustees of the Whitestone Waitaki Geopark project. How are you doing? 

Helen: Absolutely splendid. It's a great day. Absolutely. Thank you for coming in. It's an opportunity for Waitaki to take advantage of a framework. That is a globally recognized framework based on the geology of the areas. It’s got to be unique. And in Waitaki we've got unique geology. We tell a story about incredibly ancient Geo-tectonic movements right through to the present. It is about telling the story of the people, of the animals and the plants that have taken advantage of this sort of geology right up to the present day and going into the future because the land that we live and work in sculpts the things that have happened and that do happen and can happen in the future. 

Host:What’s the potential as far as tourism is concerned here? 

Helen:If we have a Geopark in the world that has increased their visitor numbers and increased their local economy many times, so it's an opportunity which we have had scoped which shows that there will be enormous benefits to the district, depending, of course, on what level of investment you prepare to put into it. 

Host:There's been a lot of talk about the money that goes into it but the amount that we are investing as far as Waitaki district is concerned versus the amount of potential investment from external forces that we're only putting in a small portion, potentially, aren’t we? 

Helen:Absolutely. And we broke it down into small stages so at the district plan has ongoing support for it for ten years. We’ve taken the annual amounts for the last couple of years and we have just being granted money from the surplus of this year by the council in order to get us to the point where the UNESCO Geopark application can be completed and assessed. And we are in a very good space to be accredited as a Geopark. We cannot count our chickens, but we will in a very good place to do that. 

Host:So why should people get behind the idea of a Geopark?

Helen:Because it's going to unify the district. It's going to give opportunity to all sorts of, initially tourists opportunities from flags worn through  the east coast and up through Oamaru and right up through Ohau. We've already seen excitement through the culinary world and the producers of food in the Geogastronomy group that just started. They are championing at the bit to get this going so this would be really a great opportunity. We've got investors lined up already ready to sign contracts now that we've got this assurance that we can get this through to June. We will have those investors joining up so it's a huge opportunities for this district and for every man. That it depends very much on the energy and enthusiasm the district generates as to how much investment we will be able to bring .

Host:Thanks, Helen. We’ll catch up again soon. 

Helen:Thanks very much!

Further episodes of Geo Radio - Waitaki Whitestone Geopark

Further podcasts by Whitestone Geopark

Website of Whitestone Geopark