Cyclone-battered Pākōwhai Memorial Hall restored, reopened – only to find out it may have to move

Pākōwhai pictured during Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023. Photo / RNZ, Phil Pennington

By RNZ

A reopened Hawkes Bay community hall severely damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle may need to be relocated to make way for a flood-protection stopbank.

Ever since the cyclone left behind silt, damaged wiring and ruined walls, the Pākōwhai community and Hastings District Council has been in repair mode to get the Memorial Hall up to spec.

Three hundred thousand dollars later, on October 5, Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst attended the grand opening.

Hall secretary/treasurer John Reid said the council could not have been more supportive and the project would not have been completed if it was not for council money and staff overseeing the project.

“It was a very special event for the community,” Reid said.

But that enthusiasm was tempered by an email received from the Hawkes Bay Regional Council on August 1 saying it wanted to open a conversation about relocating the Pākōwhai Hall because it was exactly where a stopbank was needed to protect vulnerable homes.

“It’s fair to say we were not happy about it,” Reid said.

“It was their engineering solution which they thought would work best ... we didn’t slam the door on them, but it hasn’t gone down well.”

He added that theoretically the hall could be moved, as it had been moved before, but someone would need to “throw enough money at it” for that to happen.

An added issue was that, as these discussions were being conducted, the hall committee was accepting quotes for repairs to the carpark.

Money had come in from the Cyclone Gabrielle Appeal Trust and it needed to be spent by the end of September.

Pākōwhai from the air after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Luckily, that had been deferred for several months.

Reid said it was a matter of waiting for the next set of plans to come out and see if changes have been made.

He acknowledged nearby home owners needed more protection with a stopbank, but whether it needed to go through the middle of the hall was another issue altogether.

Those plans, deferred by a month, should be out in November.

Reid said for now, the community was happily booking the hall for social events and activities.

– RNZ