Akitio resident Muriel Cowan gets her first look at her burnt-out home. Photo / Christine McKay
Last Wednesday, Muriel Cowan saw for the first time the devastating damage to her Akitio Beach home.
The home was destroyed by fire on March 6, and revisiting the burn-out structure was an emotional moment.
Cowan had driven from her daughter's home in Napier where she and husband George are now living while they wait for a new home to rise from the ashes.
"It's a case of getting back on the horse," she told the Dannevirke News.
Although the historic home had limited insurance because of its age, the couple are determined to return to life at the beach.
"There will be space for a little cottage and getting rehoused here has to be the focus because we can't go on licking our wounds forever," Cowan said.
The fire came at a time when both Muriel, 77 and George, 81, were battling serious health issues. The blaze destroyed everything in the 109-year-old home, which had been in the Cowan family since the 1930s.
And, as Cowan pressed her face against the wire security fence now surrounding her home, she pondered the fate of some of the precious trees in the burnt-out garden.
"It's just the back of the magnolia and pohutakawa trees which are burnt so I'm sure they will come back," she said.
The pohutakawa tree was planted in 1920 by a Mrs Armstrong, a member of Akitio's founding family.
Not so lucky was the toilet up the garden path from the house.
"I can't see if the loo has survived," Cowan said. "It was a country dunny, but I want to know if it's still there."
The loo didn't survive the blaze.
The couple have high hopes of coming back to the beach.
"We still have the land, we just need a dwelling," she said. "Our old house was something special, I could sit in bed and look out across the roses in my garden to the sea.
"But our new home will have an inside toilet."
Cowan spent last Wednesday night in the small motel at the Akitio Camping Ground and said she loved listening to the sea.
"It's very soothing and I miss it," she said.
However, she won't be returning to Akitio until her insurance company has cleared the site.
"It's too painful," she said.
How to help the Cowans:
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/akitio-icon-and-loved-home-of-george-and-muriel
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