WORLD FAMOUS IN WAIROA
Things could have gone badly wrong the first time Rugged met Wylde.
Zach Stark, a freelance sound engineer whose father comes from Alabama, was already feeling a little twitchy. He and his girlfriend had moved to Wairoa in 2015, overnighting in Napier before they headed up the coast. “You’re going to Wairoa?” said the manager of the restaurant where they stopped in for dinner. “If you’re still alive in a month, I’ll give you a free bottle of wine.”
Born in New Jersey and raised in South Africa, Morocco, the UK, the US and Hong Kong, Stark had bounced around some interesting parts of the world, but was clueless about Wairoa’s reputation as a notorious gang town. “Holy shit,” he thought, picturing the street violence and drive-by shootings of LA’s badlands. “We’re going into Compton!”
Instead, he found himself loving the East Coast vibe and began putting down roots in the small riverside community. He and his father had come over from Hong Kong to install a sound system they’d designed at Wairoa’s Gaiety Theatre, which also happened to need a new manager. Stark took the job, making popcorn for moviegoers and holding live music nights.
