The Clifton Motor Camp is inaccessible to the public, a week after its abrupt evacuation due to landslide risk. Photo / Jack Riddell
The marine club at a coastal Hawke’s Bay campground evacuated due to landslide risk says it is confident the site will soon be safe for boaties to return.
But the Hastings District Council is making no promises, and says its focus is on helping those removed from their long-term homes at Clifton Motor Camp to pack up the stuff they still have.
It’s been a sleepless week for some 18 long-term residents and other regular holidaygoers at the council-owned campground, on the edge of Hawke’s Bay’s famous Cape Kidnappers.
On Thursday evening last week, less than a month after a deadly landslide at a campground at Mount Maunganui, residents of the Clifton Motor Camp’s number one campground received a letter informing them they had just 24 hours to pack up their things and vacate the area.
The letter said an independent geotechnical report had found a high risk of landslides affecting “much, and possibly all of the campground”, and it would likely take millions of dollars of major engineering and drainage work to make the area safe.
“Because of the seriousness and immediacy of the risk, council has advised that all occupants vacate the campground within 24 hours,” the letter read.
No disturbance of the land was reported during the orange heavy rain warning that followed the evacuation over the weekend.
A council spokesperson said residents were still in the process of gathering their belongings and vacating the area.
The council was supporting the motor camp with security to ensure fixed assets and former occupants’ possessions were protected.
However, the spokesperson said there’s no plan yet on the future use of the land, because of the urgency to clear the area.
“It is likely that council will revert to managing it through the reserve management plan for this area,” the council spokesperson said.
“The main criteria is to not have people living/sleeping on the site.”
Clifton Motor Camp manager Robyn Wellwood directed all questions to the Hastings District Council.
Kyle Sykes had owned a bach at the number one campground for only a year when he found out he would have to leave the place he purchased as his wife’s “sanctuary” after she was diagnosed with cancer.
He said the past week had been filled with sleepless nights.
He hadn’t been back to his bach site since last Friday, mainly because of work commitments and daily life, but he was also coming to terms with the fact that they had lost a place they loved.
“I‘m that hurt. I don’t even want to go up there and look at the place at the moment because there’s just so much money involved and just so many memories.
“We just started to get it how we wanted it.
“What the hell are we going to do?”
Despite the heartache, Sykes said he could see things from the council’s side.
“If the hill came down last weekend – we’d be going ‘holy Jesus, thank you council’.
“Got to give them that, but it’s just a s*** situation.”
Clifton Marine Club has been based at the camp since 1960.
Club president Graeme Johnson said he met with council representatives and members of the Hawke’s Bay Coastguard on Thursday about the club’s future at the site.
He told Hawke’s Bay Today he expected the boat ramp at the campsite would continue to be used by the Coastguard as a “safety mechanism for the southern end of Hawke’s Bay” and that from March 3, the club would have access to their area once again.
But Johnson said it would be a different model from the past.
Before last week, he said, club members felt relatively safe leaving their boats by the club because of the security that full-time residents and staff provided.
Now that they were no longer there, Johnson said, the club would have to create some security fencing to readjust and use what was already there.
“It’s just going to be the new normal.”
Johnson said the key message he wanted people to know was that the club would have access to its ramp and people would be able to use it again soon.
“We can continue on the legacy and keep going. So it’s great.”
However, the council’s manager for strategic projects, Dean Ferguson, said it was working with the Clifton Marine Club to understand what the club’s access would look like from now on.
The council’s priority at the moment was campers and ensuring a smooth transition for them to move their possessions, Ferguson said.
“As discussed with the club members, if they want to use the boat ramp to collect any gear, they can co-ordinate with the motor camp to gain access.
“We won’t be able to confirm full reopening until we see the risk report.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Britain, Germany, and New Zealand.