Source: Radio New Zealand
Hicks Bay locals are worried how their businesses will survive after being cut off for weeks. Supplied
Hicks Bay locals are worried how their businesses will survive after being cut off for weeks of the peak tourism season and still facing a major clean up.
On Thursday, three weeks since heavy rainfall and flooding brought down multiple slips, closing the road between Pōtaka and Te Araroa, the section of State Highway 35 from Pōtaka through to Hicks Bay and around to Te Araroa reopened.
The road which will open daily between 7am and 7pm is still in a fragile state with reduced speed limits and traffic management in place.
Maree Brownlie, who owned the Twilight Coffee Garden, said the biggest immediate positives of having the road reopen was reconnecting friends and family between Te Araroa and Hicks Bay.
She said it also meant locals now had access back to local shops and schools.
She was not so convinced the road reopening would have business booming with some still in clean up mode following the floods.
“It’s not going to make a great deal of difference to small business there, particularly over the summer.”
She said the road was currently not really fit for town cars to drive on either.
With peak season nearly over, Brownlie said most tourism was unlikely to return until next summer.
“This will be another year that’ll be difficult for businesses around the 35.”
“[For] small businesses, like myself, it’s going to be, can you hang in there till next summer?”
Brownlie said since Covid there had been many catastrophes in a row for the community.
“It’s been really hard for everyone on the 35 to keep their head above water, basically, literally.”
Damage at 35 Eat Street. Supplied
One of those businesses in clean up mode was 35 Eat Street which was based in Te Araroa Holiday Park.
Owner Nina McClutchie said her caravan had suffered water damage and silt had surrounded the premises.
She expected it would not be open for another four to eight weeks.
“We’re facing a really huge clean-up here.
“Tourists are not going to come here, we feel, for quite a while until they see, a substantial clean-up that’s happened.
McClutchie said the impact on her business was “massive”.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
