Efforts to restore power to thousands of North Island households continued today with those able to switch on after days in the dark saying it was a huge relief.
Lines company Powerco said it was working to connect 1687 of the 35,000 customers who lost power as a result of Cyclone Dovi on Sunday and its aftermath.
In the Bay of Plenty region, 534 customers were without power. It did not provide a breakdown for Tauranga and the Western Bay, but its website said at 5.20pm there were 73 customers without power in those areas.
Powerco said it also had customers in Taranaki, Coromandel, Thames, Waihi and South Waikato awaiting reconnection.
The mother of an Omanawa resident, who asked not to be named, said her son's family of five, including three young children, had to rely on whanau and friends to bathe.
"Because rural water pumps don't work, flushing the toilet means using buckets and also buying bottled water to drink, while freezers full of food, including a recently killed beast, have all been defrosting... and the list goes on."
Electric fences to keep stock in were also a big issue, she said.
"My son and his neighbours can't even charge their mobile phones. They have had to hire generators so that at least they have some lights and can cook meals."
The woman said the upside was her grandchildren were spending more time outside playing instead of watching TV.
Damage at a Woodland Rd avocado orchard in Katikati. Photo / Supplied
Parkvale resident Beverly, who asked that her surname not be used, said her power finally came back on at about 9.10am today , which was a "huge relief" after being without power since 11.30am on Sunday.
She worked from home and the extended power cut had impacted her ability to carry out her job properly, she said.
"One of my biggest issues has been the lack of communication, not only from Powerco but from my power supplier. Every time you ring you get a different response."
Beverly said she could understand having power off for a few hours or even up 24 hours, but nearly four days was "totally unsatisfactory".
"I have a massive chest freezer full of food but fortunately I was able to run a really long extension cord to my neighbour's property, plus I have a gas hob. Our neighbours have been worse off as they had to cope with cold washes.
"Bizarrely, there's a power pole at the front of our house which had electricity to run the street lights, yet we have had no power until it came back on this morning."
She said power companies have a responsibility to keep their clients updated with power outages and not just post generic messages of when the power is likely to be on.
The cherry on top was an email notifying her that her power bill was overdue, which she said did not match her records.
"What a cheek to send me this email when we haven't even had any power supplied for almost four days."
Pāpāmoa resident Hayley Toa entered her fourth day without power today and said families and kaumatua in her community were using Tamapahore Marae for access to showers and cooking facilities. Her power was restored this afternoon.
"It's bringing our elderly out of their house just to be able to eat and have a light on."
Toa said it was "very hard" for them because they were "all homely people".
"We're just lucky that we have the marae here that is able to cater to not just our elderly but everyone, the families."
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen. Photo / NZME
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen said there were still some dairy farmers without power in the Western Bay, including some in Katikati and the upper hills of the Lower Kaimai range.
Jensen, who farms in Paengaroa, said he was also still without power.
"It's a 20-minute walk daily to take my 275 cows to my neighbour's so I use their milk shed."
Jensen said while Federated Farmers was able to assist with getting emergency generators to some farmers in certain areas, the real issue was the time it was taking to get power re-connected.
He said he could appreciate Powerco had to deal with widespread outages and multiple faults, but the biggest frustration was the lack of specific information for dairy farmers.
Jensen said it was vital that Powerco needed to proactively give its customers detail during unplanned outages so that people could make plans.
Katikati-Waihi Beach community board chairman Ben Warren. Photo / NZME
Katikati-Waihi Beach community board chairman Ben Warren said he lived in rural Katikati and power was restored on Tuesday night.
He was aware that there may still be a few issues for some properties in Katikati after power lines came down and ended up in the river, such as in Pine Ridge Lane.
"I'm not aware of any dairy farmers in the Waihi area having problems milking their cows."
Warren praised Powerco for the company's efforts to restore power to so many communities.
"Unfortunately, this was a one-off freak weather incident that caused widespread damage, it wasn't just isolated to one or two areas.
"I think Powerco has done a pretty remarkable job to get power up and running as quickly as it has, given the scale of the damage and multiple faults it's had to cope with.
"Being without power for three days just pales in comparison to the massive impacts we are going through because of the Omicron outbreak."
Powerco network operations manager Scott Horniblow said Powerco had postponed all planned maintenance work on Wednesday and Thursday to focus solely on its recovery effort and working to understand how best to support those without power since Sunday.
"Our crews continue to work as quickly and safely as they can, but the location and complexity of the remaining faults, particularly in rural and more remote areas, means we're still unable to give accurate restoration times, which we appreciate is frustrating.
"We know that being without power for this long is a blow to our customers and we're working hard to reconnect them. We have crews visiting our rural communities today to prioritise farms and understand their situation.
"We'd like to extend our continued thanks and appreciation to those who are still without power for their patience and understanding – we can't say it enough."
