When asked how he was feeling about the price rises, he said he didn\u2019t know. Why? because he doesn\u2019t look at them.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever have, not for years, as soon as it went over $2, it was a waste of time looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said no point fighting what you can\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
In small town Eket\u0101huna, there is just one gas station, owned by the same people as the Four Square, a bookstore, a couple of op shops and an information centre.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s at least 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store.<\/p>\n
One local said having a car was essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are going to have to look at car-sharing, or going without a car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have to be extra careful, probably only go into Masterton for essentials, maybe once a fortnight rather than once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even doing that creates a difficulty: trying to pay for two weeks\u2019 worth of groceries in a bid to save fuel costs, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not great, it\u2019s pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also no public transport in Eket\u0101huna to alleviate the stress, something Kevin Ashwell from Woodville knows all about.<\/p>\n
He owns Woodville Mart and said the situation was dire: the main road is closed for roadworks on top of a fuel crisis, keeping people away.<\/p>\n
Kevin Ashwell’s shop. Photo \/ Charlotte Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cruel, it puts the price of everything up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen so many people short of money, they are now \u2018do I pay the insurance?\u2019, \u2018No, I won\u2019t because I can\u2019t afford it\u2019, and that\u2019s not going to get any better with a fuel price increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no alternative, we have to drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone uses fuel, we don\u2019t have public transport, no trains, buses, we can\u2019t get a taxi.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Paihiatua, Kevin Laskey was seeing a different side of the crisis. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s owned Laskey\u2019s Auto and petrol station for 26 years and said the last two weeks had been very interesting.<\/p>\n
Kevin Laskey has owned Laskey’s Auto and petrol station for 26 years. Photo \/ Charlotte Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cRecord sales on some days and then not much sales the next days when the fuel prices jump, I\u2019ve never seen it jump 30 odd cents before in one hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said supply had been ok, but he was astonished by how differently people were purchasing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the supermarket fuel dockets, 8 cents a litre off at New World, and that\u2019s doubled, everyone is using them if they can to save a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are sorta hearing that there is going to be a price increase and all of a sudden the sales goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucky for Laskey, he also sells bike parts, which are also coming in handy.<\/p>\n
Prices rise at Laskeys Auto Service. Photo \/ Charlotte Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cI just had a customer come in and buy a bike seat to get the old bike going so he can ride out to Fonterra, so that\u2019s going to happen potentially more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Masterton, one man said he was just trying to keep his vehicle going, well, cause he had to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put $25 in, and it\u2019s not even showing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotta keep the bloody thing going, can\u2019t do much about the situation … I\u2019ve got to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed as he said he can\u2019t cry about it, as that wouldn\u2019t help either.<\/p>\n
Wellingtonian Dean Tredray was in Greytown with his 1946 Chevrolet pickup. He said the fuel prices didn\u2019t bother him.<\/p>\n
Dean Treadray in Greytown with his 1946 Chevrolet. Photo \/ Charlotte Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be happy to pay double to stop them, to stop the Iranians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tredray also had no plans of changing his habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cFuel is like beer, you have to have it\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the same story for Aimee. She\u2019s become a frequent flyer at the Foxton Waitomo, trying to keep her tank as full as possible for the cheapest price.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve sort of got a plan right now, if my lever or metre goes down just one line, I\u2019ll fill it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of buying some snacks for my kids, I have to cut down, and that really breaks my heart because I want to feed them more; that\u2019s their joy, the food.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was worried about what she would have to cut next if the prices continued to rise.<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked how he was feeling about the price rises, he said he didn\u2019t know. Why? because he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4911,39200,4194,537,51049,2678,117,111,43,139,69,14725,3175,7235,6699,102,80],"class_list":["post-347510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alternative","tag-charlotte","tag-cook","tag-crisis","tag-few","tag-fuel","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-options","tag-rural","tag-struggle","tag-towns","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}