‘Happy to say haere rā to 2023’ — Mayor

Rehette Stoltz

The warm and dry start to 2024 was welcomed with open arms after the storm battering year that was 2023 by Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz when she spoke to  RNZ’s Summer Times programme yesterday morning.

The Mayor said she was “happy to say haere rā to 2023, and instead focus on a big year of recovery”.

“The sun is out, people are out and about; what we have experienced in the past couple of weeks is a real Tairāwhiti summer the way we know it.”

Mrs Stoltz said the dry spell was also good news for the huge volume of road repairs under way throughout the region.

Contractors had a well-deserved Christmas break after working non-stop for a year, and would be back on the tools next week, she said.

“While we have this dry weather it is the perfect time to fix up the roads.

“It was so tough during the last part of 2023 to fix roads, because the water tables were so unnaturally high that it was really difficult to do basic maintenance work.”

Local businesses had also enjoyed fantastic support this summer, Mrs Stoltz said.

“It is lovely to see our local residents going out.

“While the rest of the country picked up the pieces after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tairāwhiti dived straight into dealing with a series of extreme weather events.

“But businesses had a good attitude and were doing all they could to survive — spurred on by locals,” he said.

“I went into a shop yesterday and the lady said to me, she could see this Christmas that there was a concerted effort from locals to buy local gifts.

“So it is lovely to see our local residents going out, supporting our local businesses, to help them through this tough time.”

The Mayor was positive about the region’s relationship with the new government, acknowledging them for making the effort to visit before Christmas and understanding what needed to be done.

“I’m very confident that they will walk alongside us to bring Tairāwhiti back to the beautiful place it is.”