Alex Walker has been mayor of the Central Hawke’s Bay District since 2016.
Lives changed significantly in our district of Central Hawke’s Bay with the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle. Hundreds of households across the townships of Waipawa and Pōrangahau were flooded, devastated, and are now in the process of rebuilding. Thousands of hectares of our beautiful, highly productive food-producing land were destroyed by slips and flooding, and farm businesses are putting the pieces back one at a time.
Most people have no idea how widespread the impact of the cyclone was in the Hawke’s Bay region – from Wairoa in the north, through Napier and Hastings, and down to Central Hawke’s Bay. The stories of terrible devastation and courage within a 10-minute drive of the Napier airport quite rightly needed to be told. But if you head two hours to the south, pass through Waipawa and Waipukurau and then head down to Pōrangahau, through the heartland of Central Hawke’s Bay district, you will find their story of destruction and recovery continues in places less easy to reach.
As we closed out 2023, there were still 130 properties in the village of Pōrangahau in the very uncertain “Category 2a”, where it is still not clear what future flood protection works are possible. These whānau are living day-to-day with the future of their homes, businesses, and community in the hands of councils and government. Their beautiful mārae – Rongomaraeroa – still has its marakai facilities closed, and the kaumatua accommodation is sitting broken and empty.
But, wow, the people in my community are amazing! Their resilience, their grit, their spirit, and their determination are a sight to be seen and something out-of-this-world to experience. They evacuated themselves, have co-ordinated themselves with council support, and are now rebuilding themselves – hand in hand with the recovery teams of council and iwi. And they are all looking at the opportunities this experience brings us.
The collective leadership across the whole Hawke’s Bay region is adamant we must change the way we live and work. Too many times now, over more than 100 years, floods have affected our region, and we can’t carry on repeating the mistakes of the past.
With government support, we have investment coming into place to support the transition of communities like Pōrangahau, to make mokopuna decisions – decisions that will protect future generations. Investment in things like flood protection and roading recovery create opportunity for small places like the Central Hawke’s Bay district. We see jobs, we see investment in businesses, we see investment in housing, and we see opportunities to tell our stories to future generations.
In 2024, this optimism and community spirit will take us forward, through what is going to be a challenging economic chapter in our story, but one that is fixated on creating a thriving future. 2023 felt like it was coloured brown – the brown of silt, mud, landslide, broken buildings, and trauma etched in the faces of our families and friends. But in 2024, we will be returning to thrive in colour – replanting, rebuilding, growing, and investing.
We will have more housing, we will have safer neighbourhoods protected from flooding, we will have stronger communities who are connected and supporting each other, we will have new and diversified crops and businesses, our land will be re-covered in new growth, our rivers will clear, we will be proud and prosperous. This will be our story as we thrive in colour in 2024.
E ora ngātahai ana – Together we thrive.
