Mauao has reopened. Photo / Tauranga City Council
Mauao has roepened this morning.
Tauranga City Council said the team had carried out extensive checks of the maunga and because some sections of the track may be uneven, they advised the public to take care.
“Some of the team will remain on the maunga to carry out minor works with some small, intermittent closures on track sections while the work is completed.
“We appreciate the community’s patience while this closure was in place,” the council said.
Bay of Plenty Civil Defence and Emergency Management group public information manager Lisa Glass said “things will be starting to return to normal” throughout the region.
“Most businesses that closed or shut up early should be back in action but some may still be in clean-up mode, so check ahead of time if you are heading into town,” Glass said.
“Roads and power issues will be addressed now that the weather has eased off, but some areas are more complex and will take time.”
Image 1 of 16: Massive tree brought down in Memorial Park during fierce gales overnight on Monday. Photo / Sandra Conchie
Across the region clean-up efforts continued as fallen trees were cleared and power restored to thousands, but Powerco has warned some homes may not be reconnected this week.
In a 11.30am update today, Powerco said 271 customers were still without power in the Bay of Plenty and 1446 in Coromandel.
“We know how hard it will be for those customers who’ve been without power for up to four days now. I also understand how frustrating it must be sitting there waiting for supply to be restored – particularly if you see crews in your area and you’re still without power,” Powerco Head of Network Operations, Caz Haydon, said.
Arbor Care project manager Joe Palmer said its crews had been “out on the tools” around Tauranga over the past few days.
“It’s been an all-hands-on-deck type of situation,” Palmer said. “It was an absolute mess out there and we’re all out in the middle of it.”
Palmer’s advice to property owners was to be proactive and keep an eye on their trees and vegetation so that any problems could be sorted before storms arrived.
When arborists were at work it was best for the public to give them space, Palmer said.
“We need to have the room to do our job without interference from anybody. We can’t have anyone else on site that’s not trained.”
Tauranga Boys’ principal Andrew Turner said the school would reopen its doors today after being closed yesterday to deal with debris.
“We’ve cleared all of the at-risk trees. We had a lot of old, big historic trees here and there were some branches still hanging that posed the risk of falling onto our boys,” Turner said.
“We appreciate everyone’s support during this time.”
Moturiki/Leisure Island reopened yesterday morning.
There were no state highway closures in the Bay of Plenty yesterday as a result of the cyclone but many were closed around Coromandel.
State Highway 2 (Karangahake Gorge) from Paeroa to Waihi reopened last night and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says travel to and from Coromandel should be possible by this morning as work to clear slips and repair damage continued.
A DairyNZ spokesperson said region-specific support was being offered to cyclone-affected farmers in the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and other parts of the upper North Island.
DairyNZ farm performance general manager Sarah Speight said recovery would take time.
“We won’t know the full extent of damage across the regions until flood waters recede, but we will continue working closely with those directly impacted to understand the support required,” Speight said.
“But DairyNZ and other sector partners are providing regionally-relevant support where possible, including feed budgeting assistance, as many cyclone-affected farmers had damage to crops and feed supplies.”
The opening day-night test against England will go ahead as planned today with Bay Oval manager Kelvin Jones saying it “dodged a bullet”.
The test is the Black Caps’ first on New Zealand soil this year and is the first of two against England.
“We have been extremely fortunate given all the bad weather and the devastation other regions have experienced, to have had no damage to the oval. In fact, I would say we have dodged a bullet. The oval is looking the best it’s ever been.
“The whole oval and pitch are looking great and there is no browning off on the embankments and ticket sales [are] tracking really well.
“Everything is looking really positive and we know there is a lot of English supporters already in town or coming to the match, including members of the Barmy Army with their trumpet who sing all day and all night and always add to the awesome atmosphere, as well as our big English-born local community.”
The day’s play starts at 2pm and was expected to run through to about 9.30pm.
“We are really trying to create a family-friendly carnival atmosphere with lots of entertainment for younger spectators including plenty of cricket-focused activities for the kids right throughout the match and a few vendors including... Mr Whippy and so on.”
Jones said the ticket sales were tracking well and New Zealand Cricket had kept the ticket prices “pretty reasonable”.
Western Bay of Plenty District could have fewer councillors to vote for next election.
