Donations for East Coast cyclone victims are collected at Tauranga Aero Club before being loaded into trucks and planes. Photo / Supplied
The Tauranga community has donated more than 45 tonnes of essential supplies within three days for victims of Cyclone Gabrielle.
A donation drive headed by the Tauranga Aero Club began on Friday, with club member and former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell calling for items including tinned food, sanitary items, and hygiene goods such as toothbrushes and toothpaste.
The drive ended yesterday after a huge response.
“We flew six tonnes of humanitarian aid, mostly to Ruatoria and Wairoa,” Powell said.
The aero club was unable to access air space in Napier and Gisborne, other areas significantly impacted by the cyclone.
Many of the other goods were loaded on to large trucks to be driven to their East Coast destinations.
Powell, who retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel and flew some of the delivery flights, said the donated goods were warmly received.
Many were picked up by local helicopters, utes, and trailers and distributed to more isolated locations in conjunction with military personnel and Wairoa District Council.
Powell said the crews in Wairoa were “overwhelmed”, firstly by the generosity shown and secondly that the flights kept arriving.
“It took them a while to realise what was actually happening.”
The donation drive came as Civil Defence messaging asked people not to donate items but to help financially if they could afford to.
Powell said the aero club’s call for goods came from a “number of us having local connections, New Zealand is a small town”. This meant the club was able to help immediately and directly, he said.
Warrant Officer Class One Chaz Dewes was helping coordinate donation distribution in Wairoa and checking in on cyclone-affected residents.
Dewes said there had been a flood of donations from people from Tauranga and all over New Zealand.
“The hardest thing was getting it out to people. There’s been limited access, especially for those in isolated regions.”
Dewes said Fire and Emergency New Zealand had been incredible in travelling to people in isolated areas to check on them.
Meanwhile, the local community centre, marae, and aero club had been working tirelessly to help distribute donations to where they were needed.
“It makes me proud to see that community spirit from the locals and others.”
Dewes said many people in Wairoa were now “quite comfortable with what they have” and the cyclone response had moved into a phase of working out what people most wanted now.
The aero club posted on its Facebook page that the donation drive was a “huge success” with more than 45 tonnes being moved into the East Coast communities “where it has been distributed to more remote locations”.
“The donations were wholeheartedly received by East Coast communities.”
The club also thanked key individuals involved, including pilots who travelled from Auckland and Waitomo to help deliver the goods.
The couple spend five months a year in America running their business.