Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Power outage restored after hitting Napier CBD as thousands of cruise passengers arrived

By Gary Hamilton-Irvine & James Pocock
Hawkes Bay Today·
14 Jan, 2024 10:43 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Kolachi cafe on Emerson St lost most its power on Monday and was forced to close temporarily at a peak time. Pictured are owner Jaz Singh (left), along with his staff team. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

Kolachi cafe on Emerson St lost most its power on Monday and was forced to close temporarily at a peak time. Pictured are owner Jaz Singh (left), along with his staff team. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

A power outage took out supply to a chunk of Napier’s central business district during a busy retail period with passengers from two cruise ships in town.

The unscheduled outage hit late morning on Monday and was caused by a suspected cable fault, according to Unison.

The outage started at 10.41am and power began to return to some businesses by 11.15am, but power supply continued to fluctuate in the city for the next 45 minutes.

The outage affected about 200 properties on Dickens St, Dalton St, Station St, Emerson St, Hastings St and Marine Parade, among others.

Some shops and eateries were without power for over an hour. All properties had power returned by noon.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The outage hit as passengers from two cruise ships, the 3100-passenger cruise ship Grand Princess and the 2770-passenger Resilient Lady, were in town.

The owner of Kolachi cafe on Emerson St, Jaz Singh, said it was tough timing, and they were forced to close while the power was out and eventually opted not to reopen for the day as it was one of the last areas to have power restored.

“We have no other option than to close at this point because we don’t know when power is returning,” Singh said during the outage, which hit his cafe for more than an hour.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He said it would have been an extremely busy period, given the influx of foot traffic from the visiting cruises.

“We are only open until 2pm so this is pretty much peak hours of operation,” Singh said.

“It would have been out the gate [busy].”

A power outage took out supply to a large chunk of Napier’s central business district. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A power outage took out supply to a large chunk of Napier’s central business district. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

Cool Toys, in the Napier CBD, had its power back on sooner, but worker Garrett Chan said they had just opened the store when the power went out.

He said with cruise ships visiting the city, it was bad timing to have the outage.

Chan said they could only do cash sales during the outage. Thousands of tourists were strolling around the city at the time.

A Unison statement said the cause of the power outage was a “suspected cable fault”.

“We will know more once we have excavated and examined the cable.”

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

NZ receives 1500 refugees each year but Hawke’s Bay doesn’t settle any. Why?

Central Hawke's Bay Mail

From Flaxmere to Florence: Rising opera star's Italian journey

Hawkes Bay Today

Napier-Wairoa road: Tenders set to open for Waikare Gorge highway project


Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Premium
NZ receives 1500 refugees each year but Hawke’s Bay doesn’t settle any. Why?
Hawkes Bay Today

NZ receives 1500 refugees each year but Hawke’s Bay doesn’t settle any. Why?

Hawke's Bay would need more services and support to start taking refugees, an expert says.

09 Aug 06:00 PM
From Flaxmere to Florence: Rising opera star's Italian journey
Central Hawke's Bay Mail

From Flaxmere to Florence: Rising opera star's Italian journey

09 Aug 03:59 AM
Napier-Wairoa road: Tenders set to open for Waikare Gorge highway project
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier-Wairoa road: Tenders set to open for Waikare Gorge highway project

08 Aug 06:00 PM


Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’
Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

04 Aug 11:37 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP