Hastings’ post-cyclone free store faces hefty power bill, set to lose premises

Camille Pruckmuller at the Hastings Cyclone Hub. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green

By Kate Green of RNZ

A free store in Hastings set up to help storm-affected locals is still going strong, eight months after the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle.

But it is now facing a hefty power bill and the borrowed shop space is on the market.

The Hastings Cyclone Hub at 105 Market St North is a place for people to restock items they lost in the storm, from clothing to cutlery.

Diane Bainbridge-Quate, formerly retired, could now be found at the front desk almost seven days a week.

“I can usually judge now who hasn’t been in before,” she said. “[I say] ‘Everything here is free’, and the look on their faces, they’re astounded.”

There had been plenty of memorable requests. For one man, the thing he missed the most when his possessions were lost was his favourite Nescafé mug.

For another, it was his old-fashioned lemon squeezer, while for others, it was the basics - like a portacot or a meal.

A woman living in a caravan was struggling to cook for her family with only one power outlet, so Bainbridge-Quate had set aside a big electric frying pan for her.

Even eight months after the cyclone, the need for the store was still apparent, she said.

Diane Bainbridge-Quate is on the front desk at the Hastings Cyclone Hub most days. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green

“[There was an] older lady in yesterday, lost everything,” Bainbridge-Quate said.

“And she said, ‘Do I need to have proof of where I came from, my address?’

“And I said, ‘No no, you just take what you want, love,’ and all she wanted, she was off to a funeral, so she just wanted some clothes.”

The hub provided all of it - including an identical Nescafé mug and a lemon squeezer - thanks to donations from around the country which sometimes arrived by the truckload.

When people donated money, it all went to local legend Neela Neela, a chef who has cooked thousands of meals for displaced families and volunteers.

The store began as the brainchild of Camille Pruckmuller, who runs the Koryo Taekwondo School across the road.

After the storm, she had put out a call to her members and the donations had started flooding in.

“Everything from cutlery to blankets, clothing - all types of clothing - bedding was huge ... duvets, some brand new,” Pruckmuller said.

The items piled up to the extent that she did not have space to teach her classes, so she approached the owner of an empty shop across the road and had been allowed to use it rent-free ever since.

Often they found people opening up, their trauma making its way to the surface as they shopped for what they had lost.

Both women had completed a psychological first aid course through Red Cross.

“At least they can talk to us,” Bainbridge-Quate said.

“I have a bad habit of talking to people, don’t I? And bringing things out of people.”

It had not always been smooth sailing - Bainbridge-Quate was allegedly assaulted by a man she had caught rifling through the back room, and people occasionally stole things, despite them being free to begin with.

The store had no official funding, as well as a $700 power bill to pay, and their borrowed shop space was now on the market.

Pruckmuller and Bainbridge-Quate have had some laughs too, but said the next big need would be furniture, as people began to move back into their homes.

They were both hoping the stars would align to pay the bills and find a new space, to carry on the mahi.