Cyclone Gabrielle-hit Wairoa had something to celebrate this week - with the northern Hawke’s Bay town home to New Zealand’s latest multimillionaire. Neil Reid talked to locals about the win, and the long recovery from the deadly storm.
Good things came in three for Wairoa last weekend.
First came fine weather, so needed by the hundreds of residents of the town still involved in the clean-up of their properties which were hammered by the severe flooding caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
The fine spell came on the first weekend of spring and with it the promise of a respite from the battering Wairoa has received in 2023; with the cyclone and a succession of storms compounding financial struggles many residents already faced.
Then last Saturday, shortly after 8pm, one local became an instant multimillionaire thanks to seven very lucky balls in the $10.3 million Lotto Powerball draw.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Lotto outlet at the sole supermarket that services the town of 8680 residents.
And when the Herald visited four days after the life-changing draw, a smile was firmly on the face of New World Wairoa owner and operator Jack Beaton, who stressed how important uplifting news was for locals after a “pretty tough” year.
“The flooding took away things from some people who didn’t have very much. It took away what little they did have,” Beaton said.
“And compounded with that, the economic conditions of New Zealand at the moment don’t make life any easier.
“So, even to have sunshine over the last few weeks has just been such a sign of relief for the town. Sunshine is a reason to celebrate itself.
“Then to have the Lotto win was just an awesome thing.”
You don’t have to travel too far in Wairoa to see the everyday reminders of the damage Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted on both the town and the wider district.
The route up SH2 from Napier used to take 90 minutes.
Now, after a succession of slips caused an estimated $200m damage to the roading network, it can take up to two and a half hours. The state highway is repeatedly down to just one lane, with the flow of motorists controlled by traffic lights.
Once in town, a drive over the Wairoa River bridge to the suburb of North Clyde highlights just how tough some are doing almost seven months on from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Wairoa mayor Craig Little said 130 homes in the town were still uninhabitable, with many in North Clyde.
Despite the damage suffered to one house, including having floorboards removed, one man told the Herald he was still living there as he had no other option. Overnight temperatures in winter had been so cold that some mornings when he woke up to cook eggs on a small gas cooker, the oil he was to use had iced over.
Piles of debris ripped from houses are still on the side of roads, or on empty sections, in North Clyde.
Portacabins have been moved on to some sections, providing temporary accommodation for those forced out of their homes. Another local spoken to has younger relatives staying in a tent on their property.
Two of North Clyde’s most well-known businesses remain closed since the cyclone.
About 100 metres back towards the riverbank, the bars in the historic Ferry Hotel - one of the town’s oldest buildings - remain closed after it was flooded.
The blackboard outside the hotel refers, tongue-in-cheek, to the premises as “The Silt Bar”.
Like many spoken to by the Herald, Ferry Hotel accommodation manager Mahara Foley said she hoped the Lotto winner might be a North Clyde resident.
She joked that locals would be on the lookout for anyone they knew who suddenly became the owner of “flash new vehicles”.
A Wairoa resident for the past four years, she said it had been “devastating” to hear stories from hotel locals who had their existences ripped apart by Cyclone Gabrielle. That included many who couldn’t afford insurance.
“I’m hoping that somebody who has lost everything... is the winner,” she said.
The New Zealand Lotteries Commission released a statement on behalf of the winner - who the Herald understands is a solo mother - on Wednesday morning. She said life had been a “blur” since Saturday night.
It had been a year filled with “challenges”, so the family were “thankful for this prize and looking forward to the future”.
Some of the winnings would be used to help their whānau.
“I love this place” - but cyclone damage is “heartbreaking”
Wairoa retailer Robbie Gemmell has had a lot of experience helping others.
Gemmell - who has lived in Wairoa all his life - owns Angus Gemmell Ltd, the town’s hardware, camping and bike shop.
The name Gemmell is an institution in the town’s tight-knit business community.
Gemmell runs the store that carries his late father’s name. His father and three of his uncles also used to own a jewellers and two clothing shops as well as the hardware shop on Wairoa’s main shopping street.
He described the events of Cyclone Gabrielle as “major”, adding “half of North Clyde just got wiped out”.
“It’s just sad. It’s heartbreaking,” Gemmell said.
“There are still some people struggling that haven’t had insurance [payouts].”
But he had been impressed by how many in the community had pulled together to help out those impacted.
Gemmell himself has put human kindness before profits when it comes to customers.
“We have done quite a bit of help through the shop,” he said. “Just giving people that I know have been affected personally good discounts and helping them out, putting them at the top of the list for windows locks and all that kind of thing.
“I love this place.”
After this year’s trauma, the Lotto win was something that had made many locals happy, he said.
“Everyone’s running around happy, and wanting to know who the hell it is.
“I haven’t heard who won but it’s very good for the Wairoa community. Especially if they look after people that they know, help them out and stuff.”
One of Gemmell’s customers is the mayor of Wairoa District, Craig Little, now into his fourth term.
Little said about 130 Wairoa homes remained uninhabitable almost seven months on from Cyclone Gabrielle.
The Wairoa District Council had been helping as much as it could - including via its Mayoral Relief Fund - giving much-needed payments to help uninsured residents get back on their feet.
“Some people may say, ‘Oh they should have been insured,’” Little said.
“But it’s not as easy as that. They struggle just to live in their house, day-to-day, with food, so they can’t afford insurance.
“We’ve been working hard, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
One of the big issues facing the community was housing.
There was a housing shortage in Wairoa well before the cyclone which had worsened due to storm damage.
Little also feared the state of SH2 - more than doubling the time of a trip to Napier at times - would also result in lost business productivity.
“A disadvantaged community”
Wairoa Financial Literacy Service manager Ngaio Bell says Wairoa was a “disadvantaged community” well before Cyclone Gabrielle.
And some of the key statistics around financial health don’t lie when comparing Wairoa against other towns and cities.
Wairoa has a median income of $21,500 compared to the national figure of $31,800. Less than 30 per cent of combined household earnings topped $70,000.
The average house price in 2022 was $362,000 compared to the national average of just over $1m.
Wairoa also has an unemployment rate of 7.2 per cent; twice the national average.
Set up in the aftermath of 1988′s devastating Cyclone Bola, the Wairoa Financial Literacy Service has been flat-out helping clients since the latest cyclone.
“We have a contract that commenced on July 1 and we’re obligated to meet 848 clients [over 12 months],” Bell said.
“Well, by August 31, we’d already completed in that short timeframe, 226. So that’s the volume.”
Recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle was a slow process, Bell said.
“We’ve got a vulnerable population, we’ve got high unemployment, low literacy and very low gross income for the average household,” she said.
“We’ve always been a disadvantaged community.”
She estimated the rebuild process could take up to two years.
And she feared for some families who couldn’t afford insurance and had lost everything would be unable to “get back to a viable and healthy living situation”.
The Lotto win was a “positive” amid the hard times for the community.
“And if it’s a family in need, well, that’s even better,” she said. “If it generates warm fuzzies for the town, that’s fantastic.”
Bell said she hoped the lucky local would take heed of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission’s message to all big winners to seek independent and specialist financial advice.
Little - who said it was “pretty hard” to keep a secret in Wairoa - also urged the winner to seek out an independent financial specialist.
After winning so much money he said “you’d make a lot of friends very quickly.
“I just hope they’re strong and, you know, at the end of the day they have no obligation to anybody.”
Down by the river
As the media reported the words from the anonymous winner on Wednesday morning - and locals along Wairoa’s main street talked about who it could be - North Clyde resident Henare Dury was setting up his whitebaiting stand off the banks of the Wairoa River.
His stand - accessible down a steep bank damaged in Cyclone Gabrielle, and made out of pallets and wood sourced from the local hardware store - is a peaceful sanctuary.
His property was damaged and some belongings destroyed in the flooding.
But he says, thankfully, due to his house being raised on its section, the damage was nowhere near as bad as that suffered by many other locals.
“Some people are still finding it hard, trying to get things back to normal,” he said as he waited for a hoped-for shoal of whitebait to near his net.
“It’s gonna take a while because we’re a small place and getting people and materials needed up here is tough.
“People are pulling together... but you still get frustration that things are not happening when you think they should be.”
The Lotto win was the best news to come out of the region for a long time, Henare said.
Echoing the sentiments of many others, he was relieved that the ticket was purchased by a local.
“That is pretty awesome,” he said.
He was also happy that the winner said they wanted to help family members.
His one wish now was that they sought sound financial advice to protect their overnight fortune.
“It’s a lot of money and there’s always going to be people [who] want to put their fingers in the pie,” he said.
“So, you have got to be alert and get some good advice, especially if you’re not used to money. It’s a lot of money. Good luck to them.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He extensively covered Cyclone Gabrielle at the time of the tragedy. Neil joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
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