“Never say never” that’s the moral of this post

Pātea is famous for two things. One is world famous and the other, well, perhaps less famous outside Pātea.

Let’s start with the most famous thing – Poi E!—a groundbreaking Māori-language hit created in the early 1980s by the Pātea Māori Club. Written by Dalvanius Prime and performed by local community members, the song fused traditional Māori culture with contemporary pop and hip-hop influences at a time when te reo Māori was rarely heard in mainstream music. Its national success—topping the charts in 1984—helped revitalise pride in Māori language and identity, while also putting the small Taranaki town of Pātea firmly on the cultural map. Today, Poi E! remains an iconic symbol of grassroots creativity and cultural resurgence, and Pātea is closely associated with its enduring legacy.

Well that’s what everyone knows! What you might not know unless you live in Pātea is that for many years there has been no broadband capacity on the local cell tower. So much so that this has been Sue Kini’s reliable ‘go to’ place when explaining the ‘no coverage’ message that partners sometimes see when checking coverage for a Skinny Jump customer.

But last week this all changed and for the first time in many years the coverage checker returned this message for a Pātea address:

So of course the moral of this story is “never say never” when you have to say no to a potential Jump customer. Encourage them to check their address from time to time for coverage and they might receive a nice surprise. The address checker is updated every night, so things can change overnight, or as we have seen in Pātea, this can take some time.

PS for the Pātea LibraryPlus team: Can you remember the people you have had to turn down; perhaps let them know it might be worth checking their address again before the internet in Pātea becomes as popular as Poi e!