KEY POINTS:
Two floods in one year nearly destroyed Jan Gerritsen-Molloy's business and left her with a bill in the hundreds of thousands - but she still considers herself lucky.
Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy's Haruru Falls Resort, which when the Herald visited was full of holidaymakers swimming, enjoying barbecues, setting up tents,
playing backyard cricket or just lounging in the glorious weather, is a postcard setting of everything that is great about summer.
But rewind to March last year and it's hard to believe that the same grounds were swallowed by a rushing mass of mud and debris, after a one-in-150 year weather phenomenon wrought destruction in the Far North and The Bay of Islands causing the Waitangi River to burst its banks.
The resort's wharf was washed away as one tonne logs bashed their way downstream, nearly all of its 21 rooms were ruined by floodwaters and silt and pieces of the boats the resort hired out were later found as far away as Moturoa Island.
Worse was to follow when a 1100-cubic metre landslide wiped out the home Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy shared with husband Henry Gerritsen.
The cost: Three months out of business and at least $750,000 and counting.
"It was just totally devastating and extremely heartbreaking and we had to work so hard to get things back on track," said Mrs Gerritsen-Molly.
Forward to July with three months of back-breaking work, and the couple were about to board a plane to Brisbane for a well-earned break and to see a terminally ill friend.
"But we got a call from our security people saying our alarms had gone off. So we called our staff and they told us the river was rising again and that they had had to evacuate the place - we couldn't believe it," said Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy. "We were absolutely gutted," said Mr Gerritsen.
"We worked night and day to get the place back into shape and thought we might have a break when the place was besieged again," he said.
"Our staff told us we needed a break and didn't want us to come back - we couldn't anyway because the roads were closed."
Fortunately, the Haruru Falls Resort was spared as the rising water levels receded overnight, although their landscaping efforts, which were uninsured, had been washed away.
Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy said without the help of local tradespeople, many of whom provided free services and the local community who kept the staff fed, they would not have opened in time for the busy Christmas period.
"If we had known how hard it actually was, we might have turned our backs on all of this.
"But we actually know of people and businesses who suffered a far worse fate than we did, so we are very grateful to the community," she said.
But Mr Gerritsen says the legacy of the two floods were hurting local businesses today and he blames them for an unusually slow turnover at what is traditionally their busiest time of year.
He said there was a perception that businesses in the Far North and Bay of Islands were still affected by the floods.
"In 10 days these grounds will be empty, things have been a bit slower than normal but I can assure you things are fine.
"There are few nicer places to be than the Bay of Islands."
Northland Tourism Development Group chairman, David Perks, said despite a lull in visitors following the floods, people were starting to return.
"It was fairly significant for many businesses at the time but it was a matter of getting on top of things and I think most have managed to do that," he said.
