Good on the Te Puke Economic Development Group for running the well-publicised Te Puke Highway Song Contest to 'create a song that celebrates the Te Puke Highway”. I was excited to listen to the top entries at Jubilee Park, knowing one would be the winner.
There was a huge variety of local talent on show. How disappointing then that an unfinished song won the competition?
It is currently 'only one minute 56 seconds long at this stage so it needs a bit more work”, chief judge Simon Elton says. How could he judge an incomplete song as the winner?
Even winner, Robert Rakete was quoted as saying, 'Here are the revised lyrics – they will change as I'm probably going to record the song and make it longer.”
Surely the point of this competition was to find a complete song, a catchy anthem for Te Puke? How do Te Puke EDG possibly know what the finished product will sound like when the winning song has to be changed?
'I made a mess of my performance,” says Rakete in The Weekend Sun. He certainly did. I wait to hear the winning song... when it is finally finished.

E Church, Te Puke