Richmond
Richmond is the administrative seat of New Zealand's Tasman District, a town of roughly 20,000 people that functions as the commercial hub for the Waimea Plains — one of the country's most productive horticultural regions. The town sits 13 kilometres south of Nelson at the head of Tasman Bay, receiving over 2,700 hours of sunshine annually, more than any other settlement in New Zealand. That sunshine is not a tourism slogan; it is a competitive advantage locked into geography. The hours of solar radiation determine which crops ripen, which grape varieties reach sugar concentration, and which orchards produce export-grade fruit. Richmond's economy exists because the Waimea Plains produce, and the plains produce because the climate permits what other regions cannot match.
The relationship between Richmond and its hinterland is source-sink dynamics at municipal scale. The farms, orchards, and vineyards of the Waimea Plains generate the agricultural output; Richmond absorbs the processing, storage, retail, and administrative demand that output creates. The wider Nelson region supplies over half the world's boysenberries. Boutique wineries on the stony alluvial soils produce wines that attract cycling tourists along the Great Taste Trail. The Tasman District Council governs from Richmond, making it the seat of both economic and administrative authority for a region whose productive land far exceeds its urban footprint. Richmond's population has grown sharply in recent years — not because the town itself generates new industry, but because the surrounding agricultural economy generates enough wealth to attract service workers, retirees, and lifestyle migrants.
The sunshine advantage is path-dependent. Once vineyards are planted, irrigation infrastructure built, and wine tourism marketed around a climate brand, the region cannot easily pivot to a different economic identity. The stony alluvial soils that suit grape growing are difficult to convert to other crops. The cycling trails that attract tourists follow routes between wineries that took decades to establish. Richmond is locked into a virtuous cycle where climate attracts agriculture, agriculture attracts tourism, and tourism attracts residents — a self-reinforcing niche that works precisely because the geographic input (sunshine hours) is not replicable elsewhere in New Zealand.