NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Waimarino business owners work through tough summer after November fire
• Many hope for decent winter snow dump to boost coffers
• DOC says burned area rejuvenating.

In early November, a wall of smoke loomed large over the tourism-dependent, central North Island town of Waimarino.

After a couple of days wet weather and the round-the-clock efforts of firefighters put out the blaze, which had burned through almost 3000 hectares of the Tongariro National Park.

But Waimarino continues to feels its effects. The fire closed the popular Tongariro Crossing walking track for more than a week – meaning the peak season started slowly.

And there were further blows when a smaller fire ignited in December, while wet weather has hit the region too.

All this has left business owners in the town hoping for a good dumping of winter snow on Mt Ruapehu to get the area and its tills humming again.

Worst summer in a decade: motel owner

Adventure Lodge and Motels was fully booked when RNZ visited this week, but owner Gillian Visser said until now the usual summer peak season had not taken off.

“I’ve been here 10 years and, I have to say, this is probably the worst summer we’ve had, income wise.

“This makes us a little bit worried for winter because normally we can be like little squirrels and squirrel away the money.”

Without that to see them through winter, Visser was among those hoping for lots of snow.

“We made no money in three quarters of November because people stayed away because of the fire. Then, everything was delayed.

“There was a trickle-over effect of people putting off their trip and now we’re really busy. February is fabulous.”

On State Highway 4, Chrissi Phillips-Ryburn’s food truck Tātahi – The Beach faced the wall of smoke shrouding the central plateau when the 8 November fire spread.

“It was quite catastrophic for the area to watch, as all events like that are,” she said.

“They take a personal toll on people.”

She said people were asking what was going to happen and how would it affect them.

And it has had an effect – this week Phillips-Ryburn had to let go an employee.

“The following weeks beyond that fire were quite catastrophic. Customers didn’t come. There was no tourism.

“It’s been really difficult for all the businesses locally because the numbers just haven’t been there.”

Poor summer weather a battle

Sam Wilson opened The Station cafe at Waimarino’s railway station last year and so far has traded through a tough winter and then the fire.

“The effect was short term and we got back up to pace pretty quickly,” he said.

“Where we’ve seen a potential slowdown in trade is where they’ve put restrictions on the start of the crossing, whereby no private vehicles are allowed up there and it’s only accessed via commercial operators.”

The cost of about $70 for that could put off some travellers, he said.

RNZ visited the cafe during a busy weekday early afternoon with the sun shining.

But, for Wilson, the weather’s the biggest battle.

“This summer’s been horrendous, so that’s had a big effect.

“When the crossing is not doable due to wind and low visibility, that’s had a big effect on trade.

“Talking to other operators in the area, they say it’s down considerably and you wouldn’t put that down to the fires. I’d put that down to the atrocious weather.”

Enjoying the sun outside while his friends waited for a train was Adrian Boden, who spends summer in Waimarino – formerly known as National Park.

While he said the town had returned to normal, the nearby landscape was still scarred.

“When you drive along the main road of that area you do see it from a distance and it’s so different,” he said.

“You actually can see, wow, that was some fire. I think it was 3000ha and you can see the destruction that it wreaked.”

English tourist Izzie Robertson also saw some fire damage when doing the Tongariro Crossing.

She said she and her friends did not consider cancelling after they had checked the walk was still possible.

“When we were driving up towards the site of the trail there was a lot of burnt vegetation and stuff like that.

“But, after we started doing the trail we didn’t notice much damage.”

Short-term effect

Tongariro Crossing Lodge owner Louis van Wyk said the fire’s effects didn’t last, but the region was owed a decent winter.

“We had quite a few cancellations because people couldn’t do the crossing for at least a week and there was uncertainty about how long that would last.

“We did definitely have an impact for those first few days and couple of weeks. Since then it’s almost like it didn’t happen.”

Van Wyk is a volunteer firefighter. He helped with efforts battling the November blaze and was one of the first on the scene for the smaller December fire.

“Just seeing it go was very sobering and sad. I was thinking, ‘is this going to be the same again?’ – but fortunately that one went on to be a bit smaller.”

Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton said the region was busy now, as plenty of groups of visiting walkers and cyclists took advantage of the more settled weather.

He expected electronic figures reported by council-controlled organisation Visit Ruapehu would show the effects of the fire.

Department of Conservation technical adviser, flora and ecosystems Paul Cashmore said the fire destroyed vegetation, and killed native birds, lizards and insects.

No critically endangered species were known to live in the burned area.

“Anyone who has visited the area recently can attest to the regrowth of plants and presence of birds in the burned zone,” he said.

“This regeneration began within the first couple of weeks post fire and shows the resilience of this landscape. While the system will naturally recover, pressures like invasive weeds threaten this process.

“Maunga Ora, the recovery plan led by Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro with DOC, will largely be focused on weed control.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Saturday is Caturday at a south Auckland animal shelter, where a bumper crop of kittens are in desperate need of forever homes.

The SPCA has more than 30 kittens available for adoption at its Māngere Centre, where it says the 40-year-old building is crumbling and part of the cattery floods when it rains.

The organisation has seen a surge in cats needing to be adopted across the country, and it hopes its Caturday events will see people heading home with a new family member in tow.

At the Māngere shelter, Michaela Foggin has a cat-lover’s dream job.

“I am a senior feline attendant so my job during the day is caring for the cats, feeding them, cleaning them, medicating them, making sure they get all the love and attention possible.”

She will be helping to adopt out the bumper crop of kittens.

“We’ll do walk-ins and they can come through, look at all the kittens we have available for adoption, meet some, cuddle some and they usually pick you so it can be pretty easy when you’re coming in to meet and adopt a kitten.”

More than 30 kittens are available for adoption at the Māngere shelter, where vet Nathan Wong has worked for five years.

“We’re inundated with cats and kittens at this time. The reason for that is with the warmer weather they always want to have babies at this time of year which is really cute,” he said.

“There’s more cats than we’ve got cages to deal with so Caturdays is one of those things where we try to adopt out as many cats as we can because the more cats we adopt out, the more we can take in.”

The decades-old shelter is falling apart, riddled with asbestos and rust.

The SPCA said the buildings would need to be vacated this year – a new purpose-built centre is being built in Wiri, due to be finished in November.

Graeme Ford manages the Māngere shelter and said the run-down buildings were risky for both staff and the animals.

He said a worker recently tripped and broke their wrist and thumb – and part of the cattery flooded when it rained.

“We’ve got 18 pens here and nine of them flood, every time we’ve got rain and it’s not heavy rain anymore now it’s just any rain.”

The pens flood deep enough to fill the cats’ water bowls – there are platforms in each pen the cats can safely jump to.

“It’s not ideal for the animals and it’s not ideal for the staff who’ve got to come in the next morning and think this is what they’ve got to take an hour or two out of their day to clean up the mess from the flood.”

Ford said some of the dog kennels were rusting and asbestos had been found in parts of the buildings.

“There’s a lot of asbestos on site. It is stable and it is marked where it is but it’s not ideal especially as the building starts to show some deterioration, we wouldn’t want the deterioration to be shown around the asbestos and put anyone at risk.”

The SPCA’s new shelter in Wiri is due for completion in November and will be a much larger hub, it’s still fundraising for $10 million.

“We need someone with some deep pockets to try and help out and get us there and get these cats and dogs into a better space,” Ford said.

The Māngere centre cared for more than 5500 animals last year and bigger buildings at Wiri will allow an additional 2000 animals to be helped.

Meanwhile, Ford said they also needed more foster parents to take animals home for short stays and relieve pressure on their kennels and pens – animal food and any medications are provided.

Roma Timpson is a vet nurse and seasoned foster parent, the day RNZ visited she was taking home two kittens, one had an eye removed, the other a leg amputated.

“It doesn’t have to be forever, it is really hard giving them back but knowing that you’ve done your part to help, you can send them off just knowing they’re ready to go to homes.”

The SPCA said anyone ready to give some T-L-C to some four legged friends can check online when Caturdays are held in their region.

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