Cyclone Gabrielle: Telco companies work to reconnect Far North residents

Steve White and Nikki Platt, of Ferment Cafe and Bar in Kerikeri, did a brisk trade in coffee thanks to a manual Eftpos terminal. Photo / Peter de Graaf

While the first dawn after Cyclone Gabrielle brought many Northlanders relief, some Far North residents encountered chaos as cellphone and internet reception was non-existent.

Urgent efforts to revive connectivity saw most back online in the early afternoon but it followed a morning of havoc as calls to 111 were unable to be logged and banking and Eftpos services were hampered.

Telecommunication companies 2degrees, Spark, Vodafone and Chorus say power cuts from Cyclone Gabrielle have resulted in widespread cell site outages. Spark has 48 cell sites offline in Northland due to power cuts, and Vodafone has 43.

Almost all areas north of Hukerenui, 30km northwest of Whangārei, are affected and the four telco companies were working to get people connected, often in difficult conditions.

Vodafone chief executive Jason Paris said the weather event and the resulting power outages have had a “significant impact” on the network.

“Our network teams are doing everything possible to get these sites back up and running where safe to do so, including deploying generators and even arranging cargo planes and helicopters to aid in the fixes required,” Paris said.

“This is difficult work in challenging environments, so may take some time to complete.”

The telecommunication companies were delivering batteries and generators to accessible mobile sites while working with lines companies Top Energy and Northpower to restore electricity.

Fortunately, emergency services were able to use alternative messaging means such as radio telephones and paging networks, but Coastguard reported multiple VHF sites were offline in Kaipara, North Kaipara, Hokianga, and Whangaroa.

Police and fire brigades could communicate with each other within Northland, but not with their main communications centres in Auckland.

People in affected areas were also reportedly unable to call 111 during the outage.

Instead of relying on pagers and cellphones, many fire brigades based some of their members in the station where they could at least monitor their radio systems and stay in contact with police.

The Kaitāia police station was able to establish limited external communications thanks to a microwave link, while in Paihia, senior station officer Michael Fayne set up satellite internet using a mobile Starlink unit owned by his network cabling business.

Cell sites have been impacted across the country. Photo / Bevan Conley

Fayne said he realised something was seriously wrong when the brigade was called out to a false alarm in Ōpua round 4.30am and was unable to get a radio message through to the communications centre in Auckland.

He then tried a landline and a cellphone from various locations - including a hilltop near Kawakawa - but found they were all dead.

The Starlink unit meant the brigade could use make phone calls via the internet, he said.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) national manager communication centres Gavin Travers said several sites were back in service as technicians worked to restore all services.

Hato Hone St John district operations manager Northland Ben Lockie said cellphone coverage was restored to the Bay of Islands just after lunch yesterday.

“There have been some challenges with the 111 system and lifeline utilities are working on re-establishing this as an immediate priority,” Lockie said.

Spark and Health Alliance teams began work at 3am yesterday to resolve the telco glitch for Te Whatu Ora Northland.

In Kerikeri, the sun was shining and the streets were bustling but many shops were closed or had “cash only” signs by their doors.

Even McDonald’s were only doing cash sales. Banks and ATMs were also out of action. Supermarkets and some shops, however, switched to manual Eftpos systems - where the customer signs for the payment and the funds are withdrawn once the internet is restored - and were able to continue almost as normal.

They included Ferment Cafe and Bar, where Nikki Platt could barely keep up with coffee orders. The manual Eftpos terminal was the modern equivalent of the old zip-zap credit card machine that used to be dusted off during power cuts, but without the paperwork, she said.

Kerikeri Business Association chairwoman Sarah Curtis said it was “an interesting morning”.

Curtis said those with Starlink internet, a satellite internet constellation operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, could still get internet access, but everyone else was in the dark.

Micky, co-owner and manager of Bad Habits restaurant and bar in Paihia, said he didn’t know how customers were going to pay, and he couldn’t call staff to tell them what was going on.

Micky, co-owner and manager of Bad Habits, didn’t know how customers were going to pay when the internet and Eftpos went down on Wednesday morning. Photo / Jenny Ling

Richard Hult, owner of Cellini’s Gelateria and Espresso bar, was counting the cost of recent power cuts along with the current internet outage.

Hult lost several thousands of dollars worth of ice cream due to power outages caused by the cyclone on Sunday and Monday.

“All the refrigerated stock has perished.”

Steve from Russell popped into Paihia on the ferry with his wife for something to do after days of hunkering down from the cyclone.

He wasn’t fazed with the internet being down - he’d brought along some cash.

Westpac head of northern customer experience Andrew Twidle said the outages meant the bank had difficulty opening some branches and operating ATMs.

The Northland Westpac branches eventually managed to open yesterday except for Dargaville, which stayed shut.

The ANZ Bank said its Northland team were back in branches and encouraged people needing support to get in touch.

“Our ATM network across Northland is up and running with no current issues.”

New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (NZTF) chief executive Paul Brislen said on behalf of the four telcos that Northland and Coromandel remained areas of focus, largely affected by the loss of power.

Work continued to get generators and fuel to the locations most in need, Brislen said.

On Monday, the telecommunications sector activated its Telecommunications Emergency Forum to prepare for Cyclone Gabrielle.

The cyclone resulted in widespread cell site outages caused by power cuts right across the North Island, and Brislen said there was nothing the telcos could do to bring back power any sooner.

He said batteries lasted anywhere between four and eight hours, after which generators kicked into gear.

“However, getting fuel to where the generators are is largely road-dependent and that’s also a challenge, given that a number of roads are closed.

“Where there have been fibre cuts from bridges being washed away or landslides, Chorus and others are working to restore those connections where possible.”

Civil Defence Northland spokesman Zachary Woods said emergency services, councils and Civil Defence teams have kept in contact so far through various other means, such as Wi-Fi calling or messenger/teams in certain locations, as well as landlines and satellite phones in some instances.

“Our Far North team members have been able to send comms from the Kaitaia fire station and Kaikohe EOC - the Kaitāia hospital manager has also been able to keep in touch with us via these channels as well.”