From being ignored for 13 days to suddenly having four trucks and three utes of Vector contractors lining their street and property today is a welcome surprise to Shelley Cox and Wayne Emslie.
From being ignored for 13 days to suddenly having four trucks and three utes of Vector contractors lining their street and property today is a welcome surprise to Shelley Cox and Wayne Emslie.
Cold showers, barbecues and navigation around the house by headlamp have been a part of a Titirangi couple's life for the past 13 days.
But Shelley Cox and Wayne Emslie are over it now.
It was 13 days ago that a massive storm whipped across the country inflicting damage to neighbourhoods across Auckland, plunging thousands of homes into darkness.
As of today, all but three homes remained in darkness, and Cox and Emslie's Titirangi home was one of them. And it will be at least a couple more until the property is back to normal.
Little did the couple know, until this afternoon, the complexity of the repair job which will entail helicopters flying in new power poles and crews digging new holes by hand.
But a Vector spokesman said it will still be "at least a further couple of days" before power is restored due to the complexities.
Cox said it's been the lack of communication that has aggravated their situation as it meant they were living in hope each day that they might have power restored.
The rest of the neighbourhood had their power back on after just two days.
They thought they might have to wait another day or two, but not weeks.
A contractor works in the backyard of Shelley Cox and Wayne Emslie's Titirangi home today. Photo/Supplied
Emslie was annoyed Vector didn't tell them how complex the job was and why there would be such a lengthy delay. He said he'd learned more this morning than at any other time during the outage.
"We haven't seen anything done about it until 10am today. Everyone's turned up all at once ... we weren't seen until the Thursday after the storm, that was a week and two days after the storm. Personally I think it was put in the too hard basket."
It now appeared the repair was too complex.
"We stay in the bush and our power comes down from the road above us. So there's three power poles they've got to be put in and they're going to be choppered in tomorrow.
"It is a challenge to get in there ... but it's more the fact that it took till Thursday for anything to happen but Vector wasn't able to tell us what was happening.
"The way Vector has handled it has been .. quite appalling."
Cox said it had been a frustrating and expensive near two weeks of not only surviving without power but dealing with the company's call centre who knew nothing about their predicament and couldn't give them any advice.
"We just get nothing from them.
"I've laid about three complaints and have been told varying things including 'you can't lay a complaint' and I said 'yes I can, I can by law. You have to have a complaints process'."
This morning she got in touch with her local MP Deborah Russell and finally crews started arriving.
She said they were fortunate to have a woodburner to keep the home warm and a barbecue to cook food and could afford to continually buy ice and keep food in chilly bins. They also went away for the weekend to escape the cold showers.
She estimates they would have spent at least $1000 on buying supplies so far during the outage.
A vector spokesman said the Titirangi Beach Rd job was "extremely difficult, owing to access issues".
"To restore power, crews are on site now digging holes for three replacement power poles by hand, as we can't get machinery in to do it.
"Once the holes are dug, a helicopter will deliver the poles to site and help with installation. This work will take at least a further couple of days."
The house was currently one of three, that Vector "were aware of", still without power, however one of those was not brought to their attention until the weekend.
The spokesman said the property had the use of a generator, but that was news to Cox who said they would have been using it if they had been delivered one.
The spokesman said Vector had been bolstered in the storm repair work by crews normally based in Hamilton, Hawke's Bay, Whangarei, Bay of Plenty, New Plymouth and Wellington.
"We're extremely grateful for their help as it has allowed us to work around the clock restoring power."
