Taihape, Gumboot Capital - Roadside Stories

A Manatū Taonga audio guide to Taihape. Check out the Ministry for Culture and Heritage's audio guide in the image carousel above.

Gumboots -- black rubber Wellington boots -- were celebrated by satirist John Clarke in his comic persona as laconic farmer Fred Dagg, who sang the boots' praises in the 1970s. In the 1980s, suffering from job losses and a rural economic downturn, the small town of Taihape rebranded itself as the world's gumboot capital. Today it still hosts an annual Gumboot Day.

Taihape district,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/whanganui-places/9

Taihape gumboot,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/whanganui-places/9/2/1

Rural clothing: hats, footwear and oilskins,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/rural-clothing/3

Fred Dagg,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/rural-media/3/4

Archival audio sourced from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives, http://www.soundarchives.co.nz/. Sound files may not be reused without permission from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives (Reference number 06/095/318).

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Roadside Stories are a series of audio guides to places of interest on major road trips in New Zealand. Each guide tells the story of an attraction along the way -- its people, its history, its cultural and natural significance. For more information about Roadside Stories visit http://www.mch.govt.nz/roadside/