Co-manager of Ruminate Jack Tarrant (left) and Alastair Nelson show the height of the floodwater during Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
Co-manager of Ruminate Jack Tarrant (left) and Alastair Nelson show the height of the floodwater during Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
Jack Tarrant is preparing to move back to the Awatoto business he co-manages after spending 10 months rent-free thanks to a generous offer from the tight-knit business community.
Agriculture company Ruminate was one of the many businesses on Waitangi Rd, south of Napier city, that bore the full brunt of Cyclone Gabrielle, which brought the once-thriving Awatoto industrial area to its knees on February 14.
“We’d built the current building about two years earlier. We were in here for just two weeks shy of two years. It was pretty devastating,” Tarrant told Hawke’s Bay Today.
“It took 10 days before we could get in. The first time had to get in by boat.”
There was mud and silt all the way through, and thousands of dollars in equipment and products were destroyed.
“You can see how deep it was,” he said, pointing to a watermark that was nearing nose height.
Damage to Ruminate in Awatoto saw the premises caked in silt and inundated by floodwaters during Cyclone Gabrielle.
With a business that relies so heavily on office and warehouse staff working together, not being able to use the premises was a devastating blow.
“We started clean-up and everyone was working from home. We still had a manufacturing site sending out product from down south, so we really needed a home base for the office.”
On a whim, the company posted on social media in the weeks after to see if any unaffected businesses were able to offer up working space to help with cohesion.
Enter FPG and former Hawke’s Bay businessperson of the year Robert Darroch.
Without a second thought, Darroch invited the Ruminate team to their offices in Onekawa where they resided for 10 months rent-free in a spare training room.
“It was completely out of the blue; the generosity was amazing,” Tarrant said.
“[He said] here’s the coffee machine, we’ve put some beers in the fridge so fill your boots.”
The Ruminate headquarters in Awatoto, Napier, before Cyclone Gabrielle.
For Darroch, it was a no brainer.
“We would’ve done it for anybody,” he said.
“Compared to what other people have done to help it’s a pretty minor thing.”
He said it was really just “being human” that prompted him to invite the company in.
“It was a pretty dramatic thing for Hawke’s Bay, and we wanted to help somehow.”
Surprisingly, Darroch and Tarrant were closer than they thought.
“There’s about two degrees of separation there as well. When I met Jack for the first time, he turned out to be my neighbour. I didn’t even realise it was his company.
“He’d helped us with some cattle on our farm, so I guess what goes around comes around.”
Tarrant said Awatoto post-cyclone had shown “the best and the worst” in people.
“That same day we got the offer of a room, the neighbour’s workshop got ripped off and thousands of dollars in tools were stolen.”
On the flip side, he said the kindness of strangers had made things much more bearable.
“One guy just rocked up one day when we were cleaning up with about 40 pizzas. The Apple Press also delivered free things as well.”
As construction on the Awatoto office space starts to wrap up, Tarrant said he expects to move in within the next couple of weeks.
“We can’t wait to all be together in the same area.”
Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
