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New Zealand will provide up to $100,000 in aid to help Fiji recover from it floods - but the money is going directly to the Red Cross rather than the military Government.
The aid was announced yesterday, despite relations being strained with Fiji after Commodore Frank Bainimarama's government expelled New Zealand's High Commissioner Caroline McDonald last month.
In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said further funding allocations would be made to "relief agencies who are working with communities affected by the flooding".
A spokesman for Mr McCully said it was "standard practice" to give aid directly to the Red Cross and New Zealand's current relationship with the military government had nothing to do with it.
Mr McCully's spokesman said Commodore Bainimarama's government had not asked for any money directly, but if it did, it would have to be considered "carefully".
Labour leader Phil Goff supported the decision to send aid, referring to Fijian people as "close friends".
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the High Commission in Fiji had not received any reports of New Zealanders needing assistance.
Hundreds of tourists from New Zealand and Australia remain stranded by flooding in the Fijian tourist hub of Nadi and outlying resorts, after storms lashed the Pacific island destination.
Authorities have declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the tropical storm, which has left eight dead and more than 9000 displaced.
Typhoid warning
Fijian health authorities are warning of a possible typhoid outbreak as a result of the torrential rain.
The Disaster Management Committee in Fiji has said it will distribute water purification tablets and equipment to affected areas.
Principal disaster management officer Patiliai Dobui said rain water treated with the tablets was the safest water to drink at the moment.
He said those who did not have the purification tablets should take precautions by boiling their water.
Mr Dobui said power supplies were cut and telephone lines were down in some places.
Stranded tourists
While the airport was open, many international flight departures were heavily delayed and tourists were still having difficulty reaching the terminal, he said.
"Tourists will unfortunately have to be very patient because there's very little we can do except watch and wait."
Hundreds of holidaymakers have been unable to leave island beach resorts in the country's west and north, or the flooded tourist centre of Nadi, where roads to the country's international airport remain closed to all vehicles except four-wheel drives.
Two Tauranga men, Luke Fryett, founder of the Fijian Charitable Trust, and civil engineer Kip Cooper, both 25, were also trying to leave Fiji yesterday. They were due to leave on Sunday, but instead took refuge in Lase Lase village where they helped people to evacuate their homes.
On Sunday the pair left again for Nadi, passing through the "ransacked" town of Sigatoka, about 70km from Nadi, which was closed with no fresh water or power available.
Mr Fryett said they had been travelling by minivan to the airport on Saturday but got turned back on the outskirts of Nadi where the water had reached the roofs of the houses.
This is one of a series of trips Mr Fryett has made to the remote Waibasaga village. The last was in May to witness the completion of a community hall.
During that trip, he contracted a blood disease. Determined to bring fresh water to the Waibasaga village, Mr Fryett returned with Mr Cooper, a specialist in water engineering. Mr Fryett said he and Mr Cooper had managed to get the tank in place but would have to return to lay the pipe.
'Mini Dunkirk'
Keen golfers Stu Pedley and Murray Kuzman from Wanganui said their evacuation from Fiji's flood-struck Denarau Island at the weekend was like a "mini Dunkirk".
Mr Pedley told the Wanganui Chronicle that they had been taken off Denarau by catamaran around to Nadi Airport.
"There was no way anyone could get through on the road, even in a four-wheel-drive truck."
The island resort, mostly built on reclaimed land, was under two metres of water.
"It was a huge brown sea of water. The canal had broken its banks, the bridge was gone," Mr Kuzman said.
Overnight on Wednesday, the rain started, and it fell solidly without a stop for two and a-half days.
The heavy rain flooded the roads and there was no way local staff could get to work in the hotels and resorts.
The men said Nadi Airport was chaotic, with thousands of tourists trying to arrange flights out of Fiji.
Only when in the air did they both fully realise the enormity of the devastation.
But despite everything the Fijian people kept smiling, Mr Pedley said.
"They just smiled through it all. They said the rain will stop," he said.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP, NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB
