Communities rally on the East Coast

By Education Gazette editors

Issue: Volume 99, Number 1

Posted: 8 March 2023

Reference #: 1HAZo0

In mid-February, much of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand was dealt a devastating blow at the hands of Cyclone Gabrielle. There have been many stories of devastation and loss, but equally, there are many of bravery, community, Kiwi ingenuity and local heroism. In this series of photos, we explore some of the mahi underway in the hard-hit regions of Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay and Tāirāwhiti Gisborne to get early learning services, schools and kura up and running in the aftermath.

Education Gazette would love to publish more stories from our education communities across the North Island and celebrate the incredible actions and resilience of our local people. Please send your photos and ideas to gazette@education.govt.nz.

Our thoughts are with those who have been impacted by this severe weather event, and those who have lost loved ones. Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

A cross-agency effort saw educational materials and other supplies flown into the rural community of Waihau in the Hastings District.

Local coordinator Sarah Grant collects education packs from the Ministry of Education.

Tamariki at Pātoka School were excited to receive learning packs.

The packs included Anchor UHT Milk, Boring Oat Milk, and The Apple Press juice which was kindly donated by Apollo Foods.

MBIE regional advisor Cameron Osmond unloads the supplies from a helicopter that was arranged through the Evergreen Foundation.

Tamatea Intermediate School had many fallen trees to clean up, including a large 40 year old tree that was likely planted when the school first opened in the 70s.

Waiapu Kids Te Hapara Whānau Aroha in Gisborne closed on 13 February in response to Cyclone Gabrielle and National State of Emergency being declared. In the aftermath, the centre had one tree fall and excess water in their outdoor areas. The centre got an arborist in to remove the remainder of the tree that had fallen and assess the rest for risk. Kaiako checked the grounds for any other damage, and luckily, there wasn’t. The early learning centre re-opened on 22 February.

Waiapu Kids Te Hapara Whānau Aroha in Gisborne.

Tamatea Intermediate School students and their teachers Maia Murray and Sandra Howard baked 200 chocolate muffins as a way to pay it forward to the community who pitched in to help clean up fallen trees at the school.

Pātoka School was one of many in the region left without power, water, sanitation, or road access. On 22 February, acting principal Madelene Field arrived at Patoka School on a boat ride across the river in Rissington to assess the situation. The same day, the Ministry of Education worked with Stead Construction to send two generators and an electrician to Pātoka in a commercially leased helicopter to get the school back up and running.

Stead Construction worked with local contractors to deliver and install a 60kVA Generator at Puketapu School, a semi-rural school six kilometres from Taradale in Napier. They got the school wired up to run the necessities.

Generators on their way from Palmerston North to Auckland, where they will eventually be delivered to Pākōwhai School, a small, semi-rural school located between Napier and Hastings.

Two generators and an electrician on their way to the rural Hastings community of Pātoka.

It was a big clean-up effort at Pākōwhai School – the community rallied together to clean up mud and silt both inside and outside the school. In a Facebook post to the community, principal Tim Race said, “After many hours and buckets of sweat we are able to open for our children. From the food to the brooms we thank you!”

It was a big clean-up effort at Pākōwhai School.

In storm affected areas of Napier, local Ministry of Education property advisor Alan Dibley clocked over 20 kilometres on his road bike to check on affected schools in the hard hit region of Hawke’s Bay.

Year 12 and 13 students from Gisborne Boys' High School got stuck into the hard mahi of clearing debris, digging out silt and mud from properties, and helping their wider community recover from damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.