7 weeks on...
14 April 2018A Big thank you for all your donations to our community restoration efforts. It has a been a stressful period for most people here. Some temporary folk renting have left because it was all too much, but thankfully now- it looks like all our main community members are staying.
There have been diggers working here almost every day since the cyclone- digging out & shaping new stream channels, clearing huge piles of silt & pine debris, reshaping/ flattening out much of the lower community. This is being mostly paid for by EQC claims, and Tasman forestry. It kinda looks like a bare new subdivision- which we will be planting with new grass seed & native trees (some large existing trees are dying due to the meters of silt around their bases)
Our three largest beef cows were dispatched early because we had no longer had paddocks capable of holding them. Temporary electric tape is plugging gaps in the damaged fences- but it will still be some time before our overworked fencer can rebuild them all properly. A group of volunteers from Motueka came out and helped us clear all the pine debris throughout our paddocks into a big burn pile.
A new community waterline was built up the creek & a small dam at the intake- so our water supply has been restored (however there have been major concerns with forestry weed/ gorse spray drifting into our catchment). Almost all our toilets are composting and we have filters processing our grey water- so waste water is not an issue.
We all hope that when the bills come in- the community account and funds from this givealittle campaign will cover them.
Key people in the greater Marahau Village have formed a collective "Save Marahau" to challenge/ stop further forestry replanting on steep separation point granite- so this type of disaster won't be repeated in future storms. This is being supported by an environmental lawyer.
Recent news articles have shown the damage forestry runoff has done to the marine environment. It is ridiculous we can call our country 'clean green NZ' while this type of industry is permitted.
...and the main Marahau hill road has finally been reopened (albeit with stop/go traffic control).