Cafes reopen outside the Mount Maunganui landslip area as recovery efforts continue. Photo / Corey Fleming
A business within the Mount Maugnanui landslide cordon says it has lost up to $60,000 while closed for the past week.
The owner of the Coffee Club Mount Maunganui has spoken out as Marine Parade cafes reopened on Wednesday after being closed since last Thursday’s deadly slip at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.
The victims of the landslide were named as Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.
The cordoned area was reduced yesterday morning, allowing businesses to reopen.
Mount Maunganui was previously cordoned off at Commons Ave/Marine Parade, Leinster Ave/Maunganui Rd, and Leinster Ave/The Mall intersections.
But the area, as far as Adams Ave, would now be open to pedestrians.
However, Coffee Club Mount Maunganui owner Janet Kim told the Bay of Plenty Times “it’s not going to be a proper business opening”.
“It’s going to be limited.”
She said reopening costs her business a lot of money.
Kim had fixed costs such as having staff on, but a lower customer count and the resulting cash flow would not cover expenses.
“We cannot survive like this.”
The business turned over thousands of dollars daily.
Kim estimated her business lost $50,000-60,000.
“January and February are the biggest income source times of the year for us.”
Kim said the Government and Tauranga City Council had to first look after the victims and their families.
But they also needed to look after the surrounding businesses, especially young hospitality staff, she said.
“They don’t have a lot of income. They’re living on weekly wages.
“These people need money.”
Kim encouraged the Government and council to “move fast for hospitality workers”.
She suggested wage subsidies similar to the relief provided during Covid-19.
The cafe had offered tables, chairs, coffee and muffins to first responders, but they already had plenty at the scene.
Beach Hut Cafe and Lital Cafe owner Michelle Richardson said if the community could do one thing for everybody, it would be to keep the Marine Parade cafes going.
“It’s not just these businesses that need support; by supporting these cafes, you’re supporting our suppliers.
“You’re supporting more than just us.”
Richardson’s suppliers include local businesses.
“My suppliers have lost a whole week of sales from me.”
Richardson said she recently employed two young Kiwis as kitchen staff who need wages to pay their rent.
“People who work in hospitality live week-to-week with their cheques.”
She said her businesses had taken a hit.
“These two middle weeks of January pay my rent in August and September.”
But Richardson was already running the cafe as if it were August.
“I don’t know if we’ll survive this.”
She said she would be approaching different groups for help where possible.
“That’s going to look like asking for some rent relief and asking the council for some help with marketing.”
A Tuesday meeting with Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale went “very good”, and Richardson was able to get assurances around cordon movement.
Richardson said it was “really important we recognise the people who come here because of their connection with Mauao”.
“Even if people aren’t tangata whenua, they’re still feeling what the iwi and the hapū are feeling.
“All the people who come here whose lives are enriched by Mauao have now lost that.”
Mount Break Cafe owner Jana Puri said a group of regular customers hugged each other when they reunited at her cafe – their local spot.
Puri said she felt heartbroken about the Mauao landslide and the families who had lost their loved ones.
“We’re thinking of them, but it’s quite tough as a business owner.
“We’re just so grateful to have our business community around helping each other, cheering each other, and supporting each other.”
Mount Break regular customer and local resident Graeme Sterne said Mauao was “the heart of things here”.
“It’s a taonga [treasure]. It’s precious ... It’s a loss of something that’s really precious to a lot of people.
“On top of that, you’ve got the people who have passed away, then watching the trucks coming and going, the ambulances and service people walking around with lanyards – it’s a heavy feeling for all of us to carry."
He and his friends, who meet every morning at Mount Break and sit at the same table, needed to process the tragedy together.
And now, with the cafes reopening, “it feels like a shaft of light has come back”.
Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.