Categories
How Fuel Price Shocks Rattled a Remote New Zealand Village
How Fuel Price Shocks Rattled a Remote New Zealand Village
The prices of diesel and gasoline soared after the Iran war started, piling more hardship on people in Ruatahuna, one of New Zealand’s most remote villages.
The prices of diesel and gasoline soared after the Iran war started, piling more hardship on people in Ruatahuna, one of New Zealand’s most remote villages.
A public bus runs once a week between Ruatahuna and the city of Rotorua. It is a cheaper option for the villagers who cannot afford to drive because of high fuel prices.Credit...Tatsiana Chypsanava for The New York Times
Supported by
SKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen · 5:28 minTatsiana Chypsanava reported from Ruatahuna, New Zealand.
It took just one week for the economic shock wave from the war in Iran to travel about 9,000 miles to Ruatahuna, one of New Zealand’s most remote villages, where life was already tough before fuel prices shot up in March.
“We were told right there and then to fill everything up because our prices were going up,” said Huirangi Law, 34, who lives in Ruatahuna with her four children.
The village is in Te Urewera, a mountainous rainforest in the ancestral land of the Indigenous Tuhoe people on New Zealand’s North Island. Ruatahuna has no supermarkets or pharmacies and sits more than an hour from nearest towns on narrow, often unpaved roads.
With hardly any public transport, cars are essential and 4x4s are preferred. Fuel is a major household budget item.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
By John Yoon and Tatsiana Chypsanava
Visuals by Tatsiana Chypsanava
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT