By Glen Prentice & Peter de Graaf
A motelier whose business was destroyed by flooding says she and her husband are determined to be back in business as soon as possible.
Jan Gerritsen-Molloy and her husband Hendrickus were devastated on Thursday as they watched floodwaters lay waste to their Haruru Falls resort
and motor camp - but yesterday they were more upbeat.
A massive slip behind the motel destroyed several units and many others were severely damaged when the Waitangi River swamped the park.
Ms Gerritsen-Molloy said she would travel to Auckland today for new carpets and planned to have four units open within a couple of weeks.
She hoped most units would be open within the next month.
However, she said it would be much longer before the family units, which were damaged by the slip, would be ready.
Just how soon the complex will open may depend on the long-term stability of the bank behind the motel.
Firefighters and police were on hand to survey the damaged yesterday and evacuated the park as a precaution.
Paihia's chief fire officer Shane Schrafft said he was concerned about the stability of a water tank on the hill above the motel.
Ms Gerritsen-Molloy said that, despite the damage, she was just grateful the flood had not ended worse.
"Nobody's lost their lives, nobody got hurt, what more could you ask for?"
The devastation at the campground was not the only drama in Haruru Falls on Thursday - a Bay of Islands woman had to be hoisted up a cliff after becoming trapped in the floodwaters.
The woman, an employee of Paihia's Coastal Kayakers, had been camping at the falls.
Paihia fire station officer "Biff" Vowles said the woman was trying to move kayaks to higher ground when she was sucked into the swollen Waitangi River.
"There was massive turbulence, she wasn't to know that - it was just a washing machine, a big whirlpool.
"She went round and round until she could grab onto the cliff, and she just hung on in the water for about 10 minutes until we arrived," Mr Vowles said.
Volunteer firefighters dropped a rope to her about 35m down the cliff. She tied it around herself - "it was all sign language, you couldn't hear a thing" - and got up with a combination of abseiling and lifting.
"She was happy as ... she just climbed up and thanked us," he said.
