'A warning shot' on the east coast

Sharon Brettkelly visits Ōpōtiki and Te Araroa to see how the towns are faring after the devastating January floods

The ancestral mountain of Te Araroa on the East Cape is still moving nearly two weeks after a devastating storm brought slips crashing onto roads and homes.

"Scary? I wouldn't say scary, no," says Robin Hapeta, whose family home is in the shadow of the towering Whetumatarau.

"I go back to that saying of the old people, 'I am the land and the land is me'. If the land is moving it's telling a story, really.

"It's a warning shot, that's what I reckon. It's moving because there's problems."

The Detail is speaking to Hapeta after landing at the Te Araroa airstrip for a brief visit. He has pulled up on his ride-on lawn mower outside the mānuka factory as a convoy of work vehicles drive past.

The group have been clearing up at nearby Punaruku, where a family with small children were trapped on the roof of their home for several hours as flood waters and debris rushed past.

Everyone in this settlement is part of the clean-up, he says.

The main road to Gisborne, State Highway 35, is now open, though Waka Kotahi says the area is still fragile and it may need to close at short notice for safety reasons. But whānau are still cut off on the other side of Te Araroa, around Hicks Bay and Onepoto, due to several slips. Many homes in the neighbouring settlements have been red-stickered.

Hapeta says he's "devastated for our whānau over the hill. But in saying that, they're pretty strong, pretty hundy out there."

Families have also been stranded on the road to the East Cape Lighthouse after two big slips blew out culverts.

"They can swim around at low tide or get a boat and some of the younger ones have got their four wheelers.

"But it's still dangerous, the mountain is still moving."

A pop-up kura has been set up at a marae in Te Araroa, catering for children of all ages, some of whom can't attend school in Hicks Bay.

Tani Atkins-Waitoa has just pulled up in her ATV, and says she's grateful that her three children can attend the school while she delivers 60 lunch packs to people "contributing mahi towards the cause".

"We're the road workers, plumbers, septic cleaners and we go round dropping off all their lunches," she says.

More than 160 kilometres along the East Coast in Ōpōtiki, the town is undamaged but it has been hit hard by the closure of two main roads to Gisborne, SH35 and Waioweka Gorge, from two separate storms.

Waka Kotahi says Waioweka will stay shut for several weeks as it works to clear 40 slips.

"The Waioweka is a lifeline for Gisborne, products going to Port of Tauranga, our products, businesses from both sides, families affected. You have the commercial pressure that's coming on but I'm comfortable that Waka Kotahi have done a very good job," says Ōpōtiki mayor David Moore.

Moore says nothing can future proof the steep and winding gorge which is prone to slips.

"We need to mitigate these long term closures. We are very lucky in Ōpōtiki and Tai Rāwhiti, we have some very experienced roading companies [and] earth works companies based in Ōpōtiki. We cannot afford to lose them, those are the guys that are going to open this.

"That's one of the reasons I'm not a big believer in centralisation and [that] big is better.

"With the ministers involved, I'm confident they realise the seriousness of this. They want to get us back on track, well they need a track to get back on track and I think you have to have local voices standing up and pushing that if we don't see it."

Listen to The Detail to hear Moore explaining the impact of the road closures on his town's economy, the need for government support for projects like the planned marina and the financial troubles of Whakatōhea Mussels, an open ocean farm and factory.

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