It's drying time again at Napier's Life Pharmacy after it was flooded during torrential rain this week, with a seagull nest blocking a downpipe from the roof. Helping with the clean-up are Chem-Dry Hawke's Bay franchisee Roy Arbman (left) and pharmacists Gary Mellett and Peter Bailey. Photo / Doug Laing
It's drying time again at Napier's Life Pharmacy after it was flooded during torrential rain this week, with a seagull nest blocking a downpipe from the roof. Helping with the clean-up are Chem-Dry Hawke's Bay franchisee Roy Arbman (left) and pharmacists Gary Mellett and Peter Bailey. Photo / Doug Laing
A homemaking seagull and its nest of eggs could have been the last straw in 2025 for Napier’s only remaining inner-city pharmacy.
Staff found the floor flooded when they arrived on Tuesday morning after the avian miscreant’s obstruction left a downpipe unable to cope with the 58mm of rain thatfell on the CBD overnight.
Life Pharmacy, at the Emerson St entrance to Ocean Boulevard, was hit by three overnight smash-and-grab burglaries in 10 weeks earlier in the year.
As in the other calamities, the pharmacy that is one of the longest-surviving businesses in the Napier CBD continued operating on Tuesday and Wednesday.
However, shoppers had to step around 13 air movers and two dehumidifiers provided by Chem-Dry Hawke’s Bay.
Bailey and fellow pharmacist Gary Mellett said carrying on with business couldn’t have happened without the effort of Chem-Dry franchisees Roy and Jan Arbman and their staff (Jade Walding-Karaitiana and Corey Rees), H&O Plumbing and the pharmacy’s own staff.
“Try and find a tradie at Christmas,” Bailey said.
By midday on New Year’s Eve, with business bolstered by passengers from cruise liner the Norwegian Spirit, the dryers had been running for 24 hours. Arbman told Bailey they would possibly need to be kept on for another two to three days.
“They’ve all done a fantastic job,” said Bailey, who was supposed to be on holiday.
Arbman and co arrived by 8.30am on Tuesday, with customers queueing at the front door as his truck with its suction pumps started the first stage of the recovery.
He said it was one of six callouts his company had because of the rain on Monday and Tuesday, including one to Tamatea High School where several classrooms in one block were flooded.
Heavy rain was recorded throughout Hawke’s Bay, from Urewera country in the north to Porangahau in the south, with 24-hour falls of more than 70mm recorded across the region.
According to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s rain-gauge network, the most was 162mm at Waipoapoa, southeast of Hastings, a welcome relief for farmers after the hot and dry weather throughout December.
Not quite your summer cruise stop-off in Napier, with the Celebrity Edge at dock on Monday amid the rain that brought an early end to most passengers' day ashore. Photo / Doug Laing
Rainfalls of more than 100mm were also recorded at Kotemaori and Waipatiki, north of Napier, and at sites east of Hastings, including 126mm at Waimarama.
In northern Hawke’s Bay, the Wairoa River railway bridge gauge recorded over 80mm, with similar falls upstream in Te Urewera, and in central and southern Hawke’s Bay 91mm was recorded at Omakere and 83mm filled the gauge at Porangahau.
The region has since returned to mainly fine weather and temperatures above 25C to end 2025 and mainly fine conditions are forecast for the next week.
Doug Laing is a Napier-based reporter for Hawke’s Bay Today, with more than half a century in journalism and more than 40 years in the region.
