Matt Cooper runs the cafe at the CoOp on 1980 Pakowhai Rd. Photo / Warren Buckland
Demolished homes, LandSAR rescue markings and abandoned orchards are all still familiar sights on Hawke’s Bay’s Pākōwhai Rd, more than a year after Cyclone Gabrielle.
Many residents in the area have moved, and others continue to navigate the complex land categorisation system or multiple insurance claims.
But the community is celebrating a milestone, with the three arms of the cherished Coop premises and its team proving positivity and hope continue to thrive in the settlement. Mitchell Hageman reports.
ArchInt and Coop Pākōwhai owner Melissa Burne said she probably made the “best scones she’d ever made” the morning Cyclone Gabrielle’s floodwaters tore through her 1-year-old work building, cafe and family home last year.
However, only about six customers had the opportunity to buy them.
Hours later, after evacuating multiple flooded locations, Burne and hundreds of others were rescued by boat from the second-storey window of the old Enliven Centre further down the road. A broken window is still visible today as you drive down Pākōwhai Rd.
The water at her 1980 Pākōwhai Rd premises and nearby house reached “about a metre and a half”, and the water at the Enliven Centre had reached up to 3m.
Now, nearly 17 months after the flooding, some of those once-lifeless buildings on one of Hawke’s Bay’s hardest-hit roads have finally begun to see the hum of customers and clients again, a testament to the resilience of its staff and community.
One of them is the Coop, a three-winged co-op with a new cafe and tenants working together as the final touches on the workspaces begin to come to fruition.
Burne returned to her home last May and, after a brief stint of working at a shared space in Ahuriri, continued to get the co-op back to its former glory while navigating insurance claims.
Local consultant Mat Arcus and cafe operator Matt Cooper have added to the business hum as things progress.
“It feels good to have the coffee shop open; that’s a big milestone, and we needed to get it back up and running,” Burne said.
Getting to this point hasn’t been easy, as the tight community of orchardists, businesses, and homeowners grappled with complicated insurance issues and land categorisation information.
“I got involved with the whole categorisation and rebuilding and I think a lot of people misunderstood or got misinformation about insurance and what to do with their houses,” Burne said.
“There’s quite a few they think need to be demolished that can be fixed.”
She believed that probably 70% of the community had vacated, with houses still being demolished to this day.
“We were probably about the third people back in Pākōwhai in May, and then we bought the business back in July. A lot of people retracted because they felt like they didn’t know what to do.”
Burne’s mother, Roxanne Magon, a former Pākōwhai Rd resident, also played a significant role in helping to get the business back up.
She said it “felt like home again” being back on the premises, but she also felt for those who continued to struggle or could not move back.
“We were allowed to fix it; a lot of Pākōwhai couldn’t, which was a real shame.”
She said she was also in the process of helping another local business, the Pākōwhai Store, get back on track with their rebuild.
“You don’t know these things until you’ve done it or been in the middle of it. Then you understand more what it actually means and the resources available.”
While there is hope on the horizon, a question remains as to how many orchards will remain part of the business community in the area.
“I’m not sure how many orchards are going to be re-established because orcharding is sort of a 10-year plan to make any money. The orchards b[r]ought a lot of community as well.”
But for now, she’s grateful to see people return to the settlement and see things getting back to normal.
“Matt’s doing some amazing food, which is really good. It’s like the vision for the property I’ve had has finally come back.”
Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2023. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.