Fire in roof of business in Christchurch
RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Fire crews have put out an overnight fire in the roof of a commercial building in the Christchurch suburb of Wigram.
Emergency services were called to the fire shortly after 11.30pm and six trucks, including a turntable ladder, were sent.
The fire was put out around 2am on Wednesday.
FENZ says a fire had spread from machinery.
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The totara floor of Rangatira Marae was ruined in Cyclone Gabrielle, and the hapu plans to bury it with a karakia. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook A major project to relocate five marae in Tairāwhiti is underway, after flooding from Cyclone Gabrielle forced them to move to safer ground. The $136 million Crown funded project is expected to take several years and it's not just a logistical challenge, but a spiritual one too. Down a bumpy rural road in Te Karaka near Gisborne, lies the Ngāti Wahia hapū's Rangatira Marae. The red and white buildings are nestled on the banks of the Waiapoa River and a small stopbank wraps its arms around the site. Next to the wharenui, a lovely old kauri tree stands tall and you can hear the bubbling sound of the river mixing with cheerful birdsong. But look closer and the rustic wharekai building with its original dirt floor lies tilted to one side, and the wharenui meeting house is missing half of its walls - they've been stripped off and sad pile of totara planks lie rotting in the carpark. "We'll end up burying it, we'll have a karakia and lay it to rest," said Dave Pikia. The two buildings are lined with native timber and were lovingly crafted by hand 100 years ago. Pikia's face fills with pride as he shows me the clever design of the wharekai's kitchen bench. "You don't see stuff like this anymore, the grooves and that - you're talking over a hundred years old - it's crazy," he exclaimed. Pikia's ancestors built this special place, and it's filled with precious memories from his childhood spent playing at the river. "I was up to no good, mischief," he laughed. "The river was our playground and all around here were fruit trees, so we'd spend all day over there and when we got hungry at lunchtime.. we'd come up and have a feed," he said. Dave Pikia and nephew Himi Taingahue at Rangatira Marae. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook The marae is at risk from the Waipaoa River, which has flooded it countless times, most recently in 2023 during Cyclone Gabrielle where floodwaters reached three metres in depth around the buildings. The taonga that did survive includes eight woven whariki mats, some are about a century old and were gifted to Pikia's grandfather as he travelled the motu. "He was a tohunga, a spiritual man, he was a healer. And that was how they paid him, through gifts," he said. Rangatira is one of five flooded marae in Tairāwhiti's Category 3 areas being moved to safer ground. Puketawai, Hinemaurea ki Mangatuna, Okuri, Takipū are also in the process of relocating and each of them have accepted a support package from the government. Those decisions have taken time for each hapu to reach, as it's not just about the logistical challenges, but the spiritual ones too. "This wasn't something I took lightly because my mother said 'never move the marae', but she's not experienced what we've experienced.. "Now she'll be looking down on us saying 'you've made the right call', said Pikia. Photo: Supplied Ngāti Wahia is hoping the marae's original roof can be transported in one whole piece, as Pikia said it holds the mauri and mana of his people's history. "All the korero of the wharanui... it stays in the head and we take that to the new site. "Because of the rot in the lower walls we can only take what is good, but at least we still maintain the mana of the wharenui." Pikia's nephew Himi Taingahue supports the decision to move as during the cyclone he was stuck on a hill watching Te Karaka disappear under floodwaters. The new site sits on much higher ground only a few minutes away, and is where residents evacuate to in flooding. "If it floods up here then it'll flood all of Gisborne before it makes it this high," he said. At the end of a lush green paddock sits the freshly carved Te Pou Whenua o Wi Haronga, proudly overlooking and guarding the new marae site. "It's a nice site, it's going to be fitting as we all feel this will be safest place. "Across the road is our MTT site, our iwi led civil defence, that's where our headquarters are," Himi explained. A pou whenua overlooks Rangatira Marae's new site which is just minutes away from the original location, but on much higher ground. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook The aim is for the relocation to be completed within a year, so Rangatira Marae can celebrate its 100th anniversary at the new location. Pikia looks sad, but at peace, as he explains that the original marae site will be treated as a taonga. "We'll always come back here, there are a lot of stories and that here. My kuia passed away out in the gardens out there, and that's where my koroua used to bury the taonga... it's got a lot of significance spiritually," said Pikia. However, after seeing mother nature's fury unleashed on Te Karaka in the cyclone, he knows change is needed. "It's not the end. It's about preserving our taonga for the preservation of our mokopuna and their mokupuna, for future generations. "What is happening globally with climate change - we have to manage our retreat," he said. Dean Whiting is the Director Māori Heritage for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, and has been working alongside marae to help with the relocation process. "It puts a lot of pressure on communities when faced with these challenges. Some of these places are really treasured in the sense that they have carvings, painted art work and other taonga that adorn them or are contained in them," he said. Whiting told RNZ it's about acknowledging the relationship to the threat, such as a river or ocean, which will result in more marae deciding to move to safer ground. "It's that planned approach to it that we will see a lot more of. "The very nature of a lot of whare in particular is that they are reasonably moveable... it depends on where they need to come from and go to, as there may be obstacles in the way that prevent a whole building being moved." Whiting said many marae were located in a particular place for a unique reason. "It's the vantage of that place - there might be a particular orientation of a whare to an island or a land mark that was always referred to in a whai korero so if you move to a new location you might have to re-think that. "There are a lot of connections culturally that have to be considered." He said there's a lot of resilience in these communities, and his advice would be to keep marae well maintained if possible. "Then should a community need to relocate, they know their building is in a sound condition and it's a lot easier to move," he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
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South Indian communities celebrate Bonalu in Auckland
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RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
'Fairy dust' gets in the way, but does not stop chopper rescues
Photo: 123RF Life-saving helicopter flights are being increasingly used in disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle, with Fire and Emergency's annual helicopter bill more than doubling to $7 million. But one of its top aviation roles - Air Division Commander (ADC) - was so vague it amounted to "fairy dust", said Fire and Emergency (FENZ) head of aviation Stephen Bishop in March this year. In emails released under the Official Information Act, Bishop said the ADC role had "no training pathways, qualifications, currency or competency assessment". "You magically achieve it by fairy dust! Yet the function of the role is 100% needed," said Bishop. Another of his memos, written last year, warned that a core gap was "no aviation common operating picture for national emergencies". The demands on aviation coordinators during Cyclone Gabrielle were unprecedented - the most ever seen outside of wartime. 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One problem with Cyclone Gabrielle was a concern that so many choppers going up and down might hit each other. The "biggest challenge was coordination and collaboration between multiple agencies and need to deconflict airspace", though there were no significant near-misses, the review said. The large number of flights landed FENZ with a $3.2m bill in 2022-23. A year later, the bill had risen to nearly $6m and is now more than $7m. Total annual hours of emergency chopper use have risen from 966 to 1920. But Bishop in mid-2024 warned that FENZ had known for a long time that aviation was a "high risk" for it. While a lot of that was dealt with after the Tasman fires in 2019, "until now we have not been able to look at the training we provide our people". They were not trained to know the risks they faced. This is similar to the warning FENZ got about lack of landslide training, after two volunteer fire-fighters died at Muriwai during the cyclone. "Wrong people been given the wrong level of training at the wrong point in their pathway," Bishop said. "Current training for basic aircraft safety awareness is inconsistent. No training provided for stations, brigades who regularly use aircraft for fire fighting, outer island response" and road crashes. Another report said FENZ and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were "working hard, as resources allow, to champion and implement a more strategic and unified approach to aviation response across the country". Training, and contracts with private chopper companies were being improved. "It is not a quick fix and will take some time and as with all aspects require additional resources," a group manager wrote in January 2024. "We have some gaps around the country - Auckland, Northland, South Canterbury are my main areas of concern." The agency told RNZ its aviation specialists showed "bravery and dedication" in Gabrielle's extreme conditions. Its operational improvements since the start of last year included better safety awareness and training; more electronic datakeeping and invoicing; and a strengthened inter-agency CatPlan (Catastrophic Planning). "This has a focus on shared air operations planning and resource alignment across large-scale emergencies to support a more unified national response and clearer operational roles between agencies," it said in a statement this week. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
