Cousins Bentley and Emmy playing in the sand at Māhia Beach earlier in 2021. Photo / Aleisha Gerbes
Cousins Bentley and Emmy playing in the sand at Māhia Beach earlier in 2021. Photo / Aleisha Gerbes
Popular Hawke's Bay holiday spot Māhia's move to orange just in time for new year celebrations is not a green light for huge crowds to cause carnage, the district's mayor says.
Rhythm and Vines music festival's postponement and a change in the Covid traffic light system in the Wairoa Districtfrom red to orange on Friday could swell crowds above the usual summer thousands, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said.
The population of the usually quiet township of Māhia explodes each year during the new year as people flock to the beach destination.
"Last year it bulged to about an extra 18,000 people, and I think it could be more this year without Rhythm and Vines [in Gisborne] going ahead," Little said.
"It's going to be pretty hectic out there and I hope we can cope with it. I really hope people don't flout wearing masks and everything else, because we don't want Covid in Wairoa."
He encouraged visitors to Māhia to respect the locals by taking all their rubbish away with them and also to use the Covid Tracer app wherever they go.
Little said the move to orange was a good thing for the Wairoa community, which has been stuck in red despite the rest of Hawke's Bay being at orange.
"We weren't too bad really in red, to be quite honest ... but it just gives you a bit more freedom to meet and have a new year's party and things like that."
Wairoa Mayor Craig Little says even more people could descend on Māhia this year. Photo / Paul Taylor
He praised the amazing work of nurses who were on the front line of getting people vaccinated across Wairoa, which was the main reason they were able to move down to orange.
"They have been endlessly working hard."
A Māhia Beach Motels & Holiday Park spokeswoman said their venue was completely full from Tuesday through to January 4.
She said she expected the township to be as busy as other years over the new year.
"We are fully booked," she said. "It will be the same as every year here."
The latest data released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday showed that Hawke's Bay needed just 103 more people to get their second jab to reach the target of 90 per cent of the eligible population double-vaccinated.
There were 18 new community cases of Covid-19 reported across the country on Tuesday including in Auckland (13 cases), Waikato (three), Bay of Plenty (one), and Lakes (one).
