E coli discovery causes well-known Auckland cafe to take the day off

Coffee machines heat water to 80-85 degrees, meaning they would need to be supplied with pre-boiled water. Photo / RNZ

By RNZ

Hillsborough’s Hill House Cafe was forced to close its doors on Tuesday after a boil-water notice was issued for the Auckland suburbs of Hillsborough, Mt Roskill, Royal Oak and Three Kings, after a routine water sample showed E coli contamination.

The notice covers about 7500 households and businesses, with tap water in the suburbs needing to be boiled for drinking, cleaning teeth, making ice, washing dishes, and preparing food until further notice.

Hill House Cafe co-owner Peter Matvos told Checkpoint it was the second time in two weeks his business has had to close because of water-related issues.

“We had to close two weeks ago as well because of Watercare. There was a water pipe burst on the Mount Albert Road. So it is like the second time in two weeks and it’s a little bit of a gut punch.”

Matvos said the decision to close was made on Monday night after receiving the boil-water notice at 10pm, to ensure the safety of customers.

“Our staff come in at 5am and we didn’t have things in place to prevent any kind of contamination.”

Matvos said the coffee machines only heat water to 80-85 degrees, and the cafe goes through 2000-3000 litres of water a day.

“The machines need to be supplied with pre-boiled water, but the majority of machines that cafes have are plumbed.”

With that quantity of water needing to be pre-boiled, Matvos said they would need around “3000 kettles” to do the job, and suggested the corresponding power bill wouldn’t make for good reading.

“So realistically for us, it just wasn’t an option today to open and boil 3000 litres of water.”

Matvos said it was “extremely hard” to get information from Watercare on the situation.

“We called Watercare and they said there’s going to be information coming out at 12pm. We said, ‘Well, we need a little bit more information for the businesses’ because they had information for households, but for businesses, it’s much different, right? We are working on a bigger scale.

“And then nothing came out at 12pm, it came out at 3pm that everything is now clear.”

The Auckland Council provided information for businesses at 11am, but Matvos said he was receiving different advice from different people about the situation.

Watercare has taken eight new samples within the boil-water zone and another 13 from nearby.

All showed no E. coli, it said on Tuesday afternoon.

Watercare said the most likely cause for the earlier positive result was an issue with one sample tap which had been replaced and would be tested again.

The notice will lift if that next sample is normal, with Watercare saying it would give another update on Wednesday morning.

Matvos said Hill House Cafe was prepared to open on Wednesday.

“We will see how it works because it’s a very changing environment, but we will try to adapt and do our best to serve our community tomorrow.”

Matvos has asked for better communication in the future, and said a hotline would help the community and businesses get advice instantly.

Watercare apologises

Watercare has apologised for the impacts of the boil-water notice.

Mark Bourne from Watercare told Checkpoint he understood the disruption the boil water notice caused, and he was “truly sorry”.

But, Bourne said, it was important to put public health protection first.

He said the sample tap appeared to be the smoking gun, but tests on Wednesday would confirm that.

The boil-water notice will be lifted if the test is normal.

– RNZ