A year after a fire destroyed the home and business of Northlanders Sukhmeet Singh and Manjeet Kaur, things are starting to move forward for the family of five.
Kaihu community members banded together after an electrical fault triggered a blaze that razed their home and business on July 4 last year.
Located 30 minutes from Dargaville in Kaipara, Kaihu has the only fuel source for at least 30km on either side, and residents were forced to find alternative arrangements such as carpooling or filling up fuel containers.
But the inconvenience was nothing compared with the emotional and financial toll on the family, who were forced to adjust to a new way of life.
Thanks to the kindness of residents, they had a roof over their heads and donations of furniture, clothing and food to get them through.
Fast-forward to now, and curious community members are spotting new buildings appearing on the turf — a sign of things to come.
Singh and Kaur told the Advocate the hope is to have their business up and running within the next couple of months.
A shop building has already appeared, and Singh is hoping with the electrics completed soon, an opening is on the horizon.
The family have been renting next to the building while the works continue because they wanted to see the process unfold.
“[It’s] a big excitement for us, we can visibly see our dream coming true,” an emotional Kaur said.
The pair said they are attached to Kaihu and have not wanted to leave despite the trauma of last year’s events.
Their children attend local daycare and schools, and the family have become an integral part of the community.
“The community is supporting us still at the moment. We [often] see their faces when they’re passing through and they’re waving their hands and sometimes they stop,” Kaur said.
“[It’s] filled my heart, they are encouraging us to go ahead and don’t stop.”
They are determined to soon have their own source of income, but it has been a waiting game getting works completed and insurance on board.
“I really want the builders to go ahead quickly [because] we really want to start as soon as possible,” Kaur said.
Her three children said they want to see their mother back at work and “happy”.
She reflected upon the fact that one day you can have “everything” and within a night it “disappears”.
But the family are not ones to dwell and instead have taken strides forward.
“This is my new start and I’m ready to start again,” Kaur said.
The family suffered no injuries after the blaze, which occurred four years after they relocated to Kaihu in search of a better life.
Their business, Kaihu Gas, two vehicles and home were all wrecked in the blaze.
At the time of the incident, fire investigator Craig Bain told the Advocate the fire would probably place stress on the community.
“This is a focal hub out in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
Waikaraka Marae chairman Munual Te Rore has been keenly following the family’s progress, after being one of the first on the scene that fateful night.
He said it had taken the community some adjustment, but the main thing was the “beautiful” family of five were unharmed.
“Once all the dust had settled, we looked at it and said, ‘okay, we don’t have a garage’. It was very frustrating. But hey, we had to cope.”
People started carpooling for their weekly shops and others were filling up containers with fuel.
“There was a big influx of people coming in and buying gasoline containers from The Warehouse,” he said.
Those who usually came into town two or three times instead chose to do it once, and school children were not affected thanks to local bus services.
Although the main inconvenience has been the absence of a local fuel station, the absence of a store was also felt.
“It was a convenient place to get milk and bread and sugar. Just those small things, you could just go down the road.”
There was now a palpable excitement among the community on seeing new buildings appear and workers on site, he said.
“You go to the tavern or the pub or the rugby and there’s talk among people.
They go “oh, have you seen the garage, there’s a bit of action’.”
The community and family hope to have a grand opening once all works are completed.
Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.