A WHAKATANE schoolgirl whose great-great uncles were killed in World War I is ensuring her family keeps up its tradition of remembering the fallen on Anzac Day during lockdown.

Zara Herring has created beautiful lanterns from recycled milk bottles with messages in memory of those who died fighting for their country – and now she is encouraging others to do the same.

Usually the family attends the dawn parade at Wairaka, but this year they will stand at the end of their Ohope home driveway and light the lanterns.

The 10-year-old said she would be putting the lanterns on their lawn on Anzac Day.

Zara first created four lanterns in memory of her relatives who died, but then decided to expand on the idea.

“I am also challenging my class to do it,” said Zara, who is in year 6 at Ohope Beach School.

Zara has also made a video of her great-great uncles who died in action at war.

“We had to do it for a project for our class.”

“These are my two great-great grand uncles,” Zara says on her video.

It tells of brothers William and Arthur Avis who died in battle in 1917 and 1918 in France, where they are buried. They were both only 23.

Zara also remembers her great-great grand uncles Matthew and Arthur Davidson. Matthew died in battle in 1917.

“He fought in a very famous battle in New Zealand history, the Battle of Messines. He is buried in Belgium.”

Arthur, who was in the Navy, died in 1916 from illness and is buried in England.

“We are very proud of our uncles who never came home.”

NEIGHBOURS were quick to dob in an Auckland businessman who dashed down to his bach in Ohope on Sunday following the sudden death of his stepfather.

Adrian Barkla knew that in making the trip he was breaching the lockdown, but he said he had spoken to police on his arrival and they understood his circumstances.

Mr Barkla was also stopped by police on the road after leaving Auckland and explained that he was going to be with his 82-year-old mum, following the death of her husband and his stepfather of 48 years.

Whakatane police confirm they have spoken to Mr Barkla and say they are dealing with extraordinary situations such as his on a case-by-case basis, and compassion and common sense has to be applied in these difficult times. Police also say the welfare of Mr Barkla’s mother has to be taken into consideration.

Mr Barkla’s stepdad, Ohope lawyer Brendon Neutze, died on Sunday morning and Mr Barkla said he and his partner, Sigita Kupaca, drove from Auckland soon after.

They drove in separate cars, Mr Barkla in his Porsche and Ms Kupaca in her Mercedes, cars which were spotted by neighbours.

The couple have had Covid-19, which they contracted on a skiing trip to Austria, but both have recovered, and Mr Barkla, who owns New World in Remuera, has been back at work for more than three weeks, interacting with staff and customers.

“I was case number 13 for the coronavirus. I have been cleared by the Ministry of Health for three weeks and I have been at work for three weeks and I have not had a day off because we were so busy,” Mr Barkla said.

The couple are symptom-free and pose no health risk to others. They have also most likely developed immunity so will not contract the illness again.

Mr Barkla said about four people had contacted the police after seeing him in Whakatane.

His neighbour across the road filmed him when he arrived.

“I went over and said I was stopped by the police on the way here. They let me through after questioning, they used their discretion. I told the neighbour we have been cleared by the Ministry of Health and been back at work.”

Mr Barkla was also contacted by Whakatane police this week after arriving at his Pohutukawa Avenue holiday home.

“I spoke to the police constable and said I would just go up to mum’s because we have got food; we don’t need to go the supermarket or anything … maybe only go for a walk on the beach.”

“Police are happy if I am just going to go from mum’s to home and back and I am not going anywhere.

The couple contracted Covid-19 while at a popular ski resort in Austria.

“We were in a place called Ischgl, which is probably worse than Northern Italy. The authorities never told anyone [about the extent of Covid-19] and then when they tested the town of San Anton [a nearby town] they stopped testing because everyone was positive, so they locked that down,” Mr Barkla said.

The alpine ski resort, known as the “Ibiza of the Alps”, has since been identified as a hotbed of Covid-19 and blamed for spreading the illness across Europe.

Five thousand people who have tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from the resort in recent weeks have now filed a class-action lawsuit that claims Ischgl and the Tyrol region prioritised private gain over public health, the Irish Times reports.

Mr Barkla said Ms Kupaca was the first one to fall ill, but she recovered while still in Austria, and then he caught the virus from her.

“We had left, and I was so worried because I had a runny nose … so I went into lockdown myself and went to the doctor [in Auckland] and said I wanted a test.

“I just erred on the side of caution when I went home; didn’t speak to anyone, went to the doctor in the morning, did the test and tested positive.”

Ms Kupaca was also tested in Auckland but was negative as she had already recovered while overseas and was symptom-free by the time they got home.

“I had a runny nose and a cough, no fever, no headaches,” Mr Barkla said of his mild symptoms.

He spent two weeks in quarantine at home and was subsequently cleared by the health ministry.

Mr Barkla said he believed in transparency and was fine to talk about his experience and why he was in Whakatane. “I understand why people are concerned, but I have had it, I have been totally cleared and been back at work.

“I understand the rules … I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for mum, to support her. We are not going anywhere, not going to town.”

“We can’t go to the funeral, that is okay, the only reason I am here is to comfort mum, otherwise I wouldn’t be here at all.”

Mr Barkla has also been open about his catching Covid-19 with his customers, who have been “relaxed” and curious about it.

Mr Barkla said he would probably be in Whakatane until Sunday and then return to Auckland.

Police apply discretion

WHAKATANE police Senior Sergeant Mark van der Kley said police were aware of Adrian Barkla, and because he had travelled to join his mother in a bubble by herself, that discretion was executed by local staff.

“His mother was on her own and needed support, and so a certain amount of discretion can be given to the family,” Mr van der Kley said.

He added that Mr Barkla was already given a warning coming out of the Auckland region.

Local police are dealing with extraordinary situations such as Mr Barkla’s on a case-by-case basis, and Mr van der Kley said there were no definitive guidelines on what was appropriate during the extension of alert level four.

“It’s hard to put a line in the sand with certain circumstances and we just need to use a little bit of common sense and compassion during these times.”

Mr van der Kley said it might have been a different situation if Mr Barkla’s mother had family support in the region, but because she was left alone, her personal welfare played a large role in police decision-making.

Mr van der Kley gave another example where discretion was applied by Eastern Bay police, when a person needed to move from Rotorua to Whakatane to escape a violent home life.

• Tourism Business Advice director Lesley Immink says Whakatane needs to be proactive in its decisions and marketing of the district to avoid being “lost in the noise” of other regions who will be vying hard with higher budgets, to get cut through to the New Zealanders who when ready, will be able to travel and spend.

ONE of positive things for the Whakatane district is that our visitor market is made up of 80 percent domestic and 20 percent international visitors, even though White Island Tours customer base was the opposite. ie, 80 percent international and 20 percent domestic (approx).

Since December 9 our international market has significantly declined and of course once the borders closed, to practically zero from visitors.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) monthly regional tourism estimates for the Whakatane district as at end January 2020 had our spend profile being 82.3 percent as domestic ($115 million) and 17.7 percent international ($25 million) which correlates to the visitor profile.

The spend data is collected every time you make an electronic purchase at the point of sale. Eg, buy a dress at Rositas, groceries at New World or buy a fishing rod at Great Outdoors.

Retail is a very important sector for communities and is categorised into four retail sub-groups.

The highest value category for spend in the Whakatane district is the retail and hospitality sector (66 percent ). This includes retail alcohol, food/beverage (supermarkets), retail food/beverage serving outlets (restaurants, bars, cafes), retail fuel and automotive products and retail other.

Other sector categories include:

• Other passenger transport covers: taxi, other road transport, water passenger transport, rail, travel agency and tour company travel arrangements
• Other tourism product category covers: parking, movies, hairdressing and beauty, health and fitness, laundry and dry-cleaning, specialist medical services, goods and equipment rental and repair and automotive repairs and maintenance (not fuel and products).
• Accommodation: includes all forms of accommodation
• Culture, recreation, and gambling category covers: attractions and activities, museums, zoological, gardens, performing arts and venues, libraries, sports and recreation venues, facilities operations (events), nature reserve and conservation parks, health and fitness, amusement parks and casinos. This is the spend category that would include White Island tours sales.

While we consider White Island tours to be our iconic drawcard to the region, you can see it is the retail sector that provides the most economic benefit to our district. It is a shame due to Covid-19 that the February and March statistics are not available until mid-May, but there will be no surprise that spend will have declined severely across the range of categories.

And so… the silver lining. The fact that we have an 80 percent domestic visitor population means that if we are smart and move quickly, we’ll have a destination marketing edge ahead of other regions who are more reliant on international visitors, eg, Rotorua, Queenstown, Kaikoura.

Who will have the money and time to travel in the foreseeable future? Who are travel ready? Answer – the retired and baby boomers. The retired population clearly are the answer to both these questions as the majority of New Zealand will not be holidaying for some time.

What do they want as a sector group? Being a generation of thrifty savers, they want value, affordability, and good service. They want to be sold, encouraged, to be appreciated and pay a fair price – not what operators might charge international visitors. Is this target group hard to market to? No, it’s easy. Is it expensive to market to them? No, it’s super easy.

Firstly, every senior citizen registered with the government receives a newsletter (732,000 as per IRD figures end Mar 2018).

The database is already there and under the current environment, hopefully shared freely rather than having to pay for it.

Secondly organisations like AA New Zealand who has 1.7 million members and NZMCA (NZ Motor Caravan Association) which has 77,000 members, receive monthly magazines. Then you could look at bowling clubs, golf clubs, RSAs, Probus and other service clubs etc, who all have newsletters with print and digital communication channels. And don’t be fooled in thinking that the travelling retiree sector are not digitally inclined. Because they are constantly travelling, they are “up with the play” and have great networks. They buy online and click and collect as they go through the country.

Rod Meharry of Matata who is a NZMCA member shared with me an event they were going to attend in Australia before Covid-19 broke. Rod was booked to join 10,000 other motor-homers at the Big Red Bash music festival this year in Birdsville, Australia, the middle of nowhere… It unfortunately was cancelled but demonstrates the level of innovation you need to create some cut through and smart targeted marketing.

He suggests let’s host a Big Green Bash in the Whakatane district.

Thinking outside the box, those with motor homes and caravans are more likely to arrive if you tempt them with “free”. Consider “free stay” as a marketing tool. Google has made a fortune out of “free”. The members of NZMCA for example love to gather and enjoy what regions have to offer.

Give them a large grassed area eg. racecourse, some basic services, water, ablutions etc with a reason, and they will come. Look at Mystery Creek when the motor show is on.

Prepare a package exclusively with NZMCA to offer their members – a week of fun and activities in your town, and you can get a proportion of those 77,000 members.

We provide the “free space”, put on a “free bus” to transport them from town (so they don’t have to drive their motorhomes), have a theme and entice them to activities during the day with discount vouchers and in the evening they can choose from a range of restaurants and bars knowing they have safe transport options back to their motorhomes.

Yes, the accommodation sector may not benefit initially, but this is phase 1 of multi-stage marketing strategy.

Whakatane is already a holiday destination who has a safe swimming beach, great range of outdoor activities with Te Urewera and Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tane Conservation Park on our doorstep. Since our light pollution is low in general, with some smart thinking we could adapt our lighting policy and become a “night sky destination”.

Currently Whakatane pays a contribution to Tourism BOP each year to do their international marketing.

Now is the time to re-purpose these funds and use this spend to develop/market events for domestic visitors with food, wine, golf, cycle, and other outdoor packages. Perhaps create a purpose retiree E-bike weekend away package.

Having a strong retail marketing strategy combined with enhancing our other natural attractions, and new Provincial Growth Fund economic development proposals in the pipeline is the start of helping our recovery.

• The views expressed here are solely my own and do not express the view or opinions of any organisation with which I am associated with.

A BELGIAN couple left stranded in New Zealand after being booted off their flight home are back safe on home soil.

Dirk Bosselaers and Agnes “Jes” De Wolf were taken into the home of Whakatane friends Veerle Poels and Wiel Jongmans when they could not board their flight home on March 25.

They were turned away from the Singapore Arline’s flight they were meant to catch home when the airline said it would only take Singaporeans.

Ms Poels and Mr Jongmans have hosted the couple since, but said the couple managed to get on a mercy flight back to Belgium over Easter.

Ms Poels said the situation changed unexpectedly on Good Friday when the Dutch and the Belgian embassies offered Mr Bosselaers and Mrs De Wolf seats on three flights to Europe during the Easter weekend.

The couple secured seats on a flight organised by the Czech Republic for late afternoon on Easter Monday.

“At 1pm on Easter Monday, we left for Auckland International Airport with the two stranded visitors and plenty of supplies,” Ms Poels said.

With the roads deserted, the emergency trip to Auckland went quickly and at Auckland International airport, they were met with kindness.

Ms Poels said they parked at the “drop off” section when two young ladies in fluorescent vests asked how they could help.

When the airport officials learned why the four were at the airport, they allocated a parking spot free for two hours so they could say goodbye.

“What was left to say?” Mr Jongmans said.

“There are no words for the relief and the gratitude we all felt.

“Although everyone felt relieved that a return home became reality, we also felt sad that our amazing experience was coming to an end,” Ms Poels said.

She said the four quickly settled into a daily routine of three of them working from home and “one beautifying the garden, finishing each day with a presentation of some sort, mostly holiday related, each taking turns”.

“Our house is strangely quiet, and the fridge and pantry are well stocked with foods we usually don’t eat. We realise that this experience has been absolutely unique.”

Ms Poels and Mr Jongmans were a little disappointed they did not encounter any police checkpoints on their journey.

They missed the opportunity to show a formal letter from the Czech Embassy in Sydney allowing them to travel, but they said this now historical document would be treasured as such.

They said their friends’ flight home went smoothly.

“Their plane to Seoul was full, including coughing and sneezing travellers without face masks. And then staff announced that the air conditioning was turned off because of Covid-19.

“After about 11 hours flight time they transited in Seoul to another, again fully loaded, plane to Prague. Once they set foot on the ground in Prague, all Belgians were welcomed by the Belgian Ambassador and piled into two minivans towards Brussels, roughly a 10-hour trip.”

THE numbers are small, but pre-school children of essential workers have started trickling back to early childhood centres this week, with at least one school opening yesterday.

A sudden change in policy on Friday has meant that preschools could open from yesterday, although most said they would be open only from today, and with limited numbers.
On Friday, the Ministry of Education did a U-turn and changed its opening date for preschools to yesterday. Schools are still opening today under alert level three.

Only one early childhood centre appeared to be open yesterday, Pohutukawa Preschool.

Owner Nicole Fleming said 30 children were enrolled for this week and distancing rules would be enforced meaning children would be divided into four per bubble, with 16 teachers, a manager and a cook on duty.

“We have got a lot of parents who work as doctors, nurses, midwives so we cater for the shift-working families, and farmers’ children, all those essential workers who are back at work now,” she said.

Ms Fleming said they had a busy weekend getting ready for opening today after the education ministry changed its ruling on when centres could open.

“But everyone is really loving it and we have been in this morning; the kids are all smiling and happy and having fun, so it was really nice to see.”

Little Orchard Preschool said it was opening today and was expecting nine children who would be looked after by five teachers, plus a management team of two.

Centre manger Karla Goddard said they were expecting numbers to grow as families headed back to mahi.

“We will have a total of 14 on the 4th of May, with staff rosters changing to suit the increased numbers.”

Coastlands Preschool manager Brenda Stewart said they would be opening today with lower numbers than usual, two under-two children attending in a bubble with three teachers and seven over-twos attending with three teachers in another bubble.

“We don’t expect numbers to increase as the [Ministry of Education] says that we have to keep the same bubbles,” she said.

“We would normally have up to 70 children split into two rooms with nine to 10 teachers in the over twos. We have up to 22 children in the under twos, split into two areas with eight teachers.”

Michelle Maddren, head visiting teacher at Bizzy Buddyz, which offers home-based care, said some of their educarers had been looking after the children of essential workers during alert level four.

“They have only been looking after one family of children. But as of today we can look after a little bit more; we can have up to four children with one educarer.”

Central Kids Early Education was also opening its early childhood centres and kindergartens, which are situated through the Eastern Bay.

Chief executive Donovan Clarke said it had been a huge task opening as their staff had to meet a number of public health requirements and give reassurance to parents and caregivers.

“I don’t think the full impact of Covid-19 has fully been felt, there are a lot of families struggling and a lot of people have lost their jobs, so we are there to support those families if they need care for their children.”

Mr Clarke said they were also not expecting huge numbers this week “but they will increase quickly as we move towards alert level two. We have got to remember the bubble is limited to 10”.

Two arrests follow bust of alleged meth lab

TWO men are facing charges after an investigation into an alleged clandestine laboratory operating at Pikowai in the Eastern Bay.

Bay of Plenty Police carried out search warrants at two addresses in Settlement Road on Friday, locating cannabis, firearms and pre-cursor chemicals.

A 57-year-old man appeared in the Whakatane District Court on Saturday facing a number of charges, including unlawful possession of firearms, unlawful possession of a pistol and possession of methamphetamine.

A 60-year-old man is due to appear in the Whakatane court on June 4 on charges of possession of firearms and possession of cannabis.

No visitors to hospital

THE current “no visitor” rule still applies at Whakatane and Tauranga hospitals.

The Ministry of Health has indicated that changes will be made to the visitors’ policy under alert level three, but until this happens no visitors are allowed.

The only exceptions will include a nominated person who is supporting a terminal patient through end-of-life-care, and a parent or guardian who is supporting a child. For maternity, one support person or birthing partner is allowed.

Clinical nurse managers, midwife managers and duty managers have the discretion to allow visitors on a case-by-case basis on compassionate grounds.

Tests clear kiwifruit workers

A GROUP of 261 seasonal workers in Te Puke who were tested for Covid-19 have returned negative tests.

The workers tested were “casual contacts” of a recent confirmed case, a staff member at an accommodation provider.

Dr Joe Bourne, in charge of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board’s community-based health services response, said this weekend they were still awaiting the last few tests to come back, but the remaining tests were no higher risk than any of the reported results.

He hoped the large number of negative results would reassure the Te Puke community.

“These workers are a long way from home, and they are doing vital work in the community, so we were really pleased to be able to deliver the negative test results to them.”

In this case, a temporary assessment clinic was set up within the accommodation specifically to test the people staying there.

IN a response to Covid-19, Ngati Awa iwi opened up their hearts and motel doors wide to the region’s most vulnerable families and the homeless.

Motels owned by the tribe’s White Island Tours subsidiary has filled 20 units with approximately 30 people and Te Tohu o Te Ora o Ngati Awa chief executive Enid Ratahi-

Pryor said the temporary accommodation had been put in place specifically to meet the Covid-19 lockdown requirements.

She said Whakatane had a shortage of social houses to support those most in need and there were still whanau requiring low cost homes who were living in motels, which was a “sad indictment on our society”.

“Our emergency homes in Whakatane are full to capacity with many whanau still continuing to live in garages, unhealthy conditions and some live in cars with their babies,” she said.

Many in the region have been adversely affected by natural disasters and epidemics including the eruption of Whakaari (White Island), which claimed the lives of 20 people, however, Mrs Ratahi-Pryor said, during times of emergency and crisis, in her experience,

Maori were always there to manaaki (support) those in need.

“It is in our DNA and an essential aspect that defines us as Maori.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s picking up the oil and rubbish from Rena on our beaches, cleaning up the houses and streets after flooding in Edgecumbe, manning the recovery centres and red zones – iwi have a place in emergency management because when our people are directly affected, whether it be physically or spiritually, we naturally seek the strength and support of our whanau, hapu and iwi.

“There is no better recent example of this than during the Whakaari eruption where we as Ngati Awa stood together with the community of Whakatane, Te Whanau a Apanui and our international whanau and shared a collective grieving process, which is of course an essential part of building community resilience.

“With each crisis and emergency, not only Ngati Awa but our community, builds its resilience through its experience and are able to adapt and continue do whatever is required of us.”

The Ngati Awa Covid-19 response was a joint effort between Te Runanga o Ngati Awa and its health and social service provider Te Tohu O Te Ora o Ngati Awa, she said, to support their people, community and town.

“E hara te kumara he korero o tona reka – We just do what we do,” she said.

While rough sleepers are mostly single men, the face of homelessness doesn’t distinguish and now includes families with children.

Mrs Ratahi-Pryor said, interestingly, they had been asked by some of the town’s rough sleepers if they “can they go back to their parking spots”.

Some don’t want to be here, because they make a choice to “sleep rough” and want to get back to doing what they were doing before Covid-19.

For some of our residents, it was about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she said.

Having travelled to Whakatane, they got caught in the lockdown and hadn’t quite got their seasonal jobs sorted so they were left without work or a place to stay.

There are others who, through circumstance, had found themselves out of a home in lockdown. There was one case of overcrowded housing and lockdown made the situation far worse.

MICHAELA Wellauer and Jon Evetts had prepared to change the signs of their bicycle store at the beginning of this month, but due to the Covid-19 lockdown, only the couple’s work vehicle has been rebranded to their store’s new name, Full Cycle Bikes.

Ms Wellauer said they bought the business three years ago, on April 1, as a Bike Barn franchise. However, Bike Barn has since been acquired by Queensland-based The Pedal

Group, which owns the massive 99 Bikes chain of stores.

As a consequence, regional stores are being closed and only five Bike Barns are being kept open in New Zealand, all of them in main centres such as Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The Whakatane store was one of only two in New Zealand that operated only as a franchisee rather than a branch of Bike Barn, and as of April 1 this year, that contract was up leaving Ms Wellauer and Mr Evetts free to rebrand and keep the store open under its new name.

“We have had the new signage on the car for a couple of months because when we went to Crankworks mountain bike festival in Rotorua in March, we wanted to be able to show off our new brand.”

Though it might take some time for the new signage to appear, the store has been supporting customers to get cycling during the lockdown and have a click and collect service up and running.

Though the sale of new bicycles was not classified an essential service by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment under level four lockdown, the parts to repair and keep currently owned bicycles was, and Ms Wellauer said they had been doing their best to help their customers.

“Tubes have been a popular item. During lockdown, people were pulling out bikes that had been sitting in the shed for about five years and realising, hello, they needed new tubes.”

Several people have also ordered new bikes and as New Zealand moved into level three this week, she was looking forward to her customers being able to collect their new purchases.

“I’ve got about six bikes here ready to go,” Ms Wellauer said.

She said that, unfortunately, customers would not be able to try out bikes before buying.

They will just have to trust my advice about what bike will suit their needs.

“I’ve always been very honest with my customers. If someone comes to me and says, ‘I want a bike for under $400 and I want to ride the Redwoods’, I will always be honest with them, and tell them that a bike at that price won’t stand up to being ridden off road.”

Full Cycle Bikes has also set up a new click and collect service through Swiftly. Swiftly is a new, free website set up especially for small businesses to be able to quickly and easily set up their own click and collect service.

“It was really easy to set up,” Ms Weallauer said. “It took me all of about four or five minutes.”

To purchase from Full Cycle Bikes visit https://fullcyclebikes.swiftly.nz/, alternatively, phone the store or they can be found through the new Facebook group set up to help Whakatane small businesses @whakataneonlineretailers, which Ms Wellauer said has gained almost 3000 new members in the first three days since it was launched.

A SIX-FOOT kiwi constructed of native toe toe grass is capturing Ohope residents’ attention.

The giant kiwi, at the Ohope Bowling Club, also has a couple of baby kiwi alongside it.
Chris Skews, its creator, said he had a bit of spare time during the lockdown

“I made some little teddy bears first, and that [the kiwi] has been on my mind for years but I have never made one, but I have had plenty of time, so I made it.”

He said they had toe toe growing by the thousand nearby. “So, I said ‘what do we do with them? I will make a big kiwi out of them’.”

“A couple of kids live on the corner and I made the babies for them.”

Mr Skews, who lives close to the bowling club, said lots of people had been stopping to take photos of the toe toe kiwi.

Asked if he was an artist, Mr Skews laughed, “No, I am just an old bulls******.”

I just muck around; I built a car last year, so I built a kiwi this year. I like making stuff. I keep busy, my lockdown was a very enjoyable time.”

Mr Skews has put his kiwi up for sale on Trade Me and says all funds will be given to charity if it is sold.

UNABLE to take part in their customary Anzac Day remembrances due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Kiwis across the country came up with their own ways of “remembering them”.

In Whakatane, many people went to the ends of their driveways at dawn, standing together but apart from their neighbours, to listen to the service broadcast locally by Radio 1XX.

There were Poppies and poppy artwork in windows, on fences, letterboxes and trees, flags flying and tribute messages place to New Zealand’s fallen heroes.

Even Whakatane’s lockdown celebrities Pinocchio and Maverick got into the Anzac spirit.
Watching from his Douglas Street window, wearing a his protective Covid-19 mask, Pinocchio’s arm was raised in salute. Meanwhile, in his last official day on the job in James Street, Maverick the bear was up at 4.30am to warm up his bugle.

Thanks to the generosity of neighbours and the community, he helped raise $131 for the RSA by selling poppies.

In Opotiki, there were street-level remembrances in Fromow and View roads and in Ohope, Pohutukawa Avenue residents Sheldon and Crete Keepa held a bubble commemoration from their hillside property.

They asked Beacon reporter Sven Carlsson, who lives in the same bubble, to produce a video that could be sent to families and friends in New Zealand, Australia, England and around the world.

Mrs Keepa’s father, Hoani Wiwi Pirini, was captured by German soldiers on the island of Crete and he spent the rest of the war in a German concentration camp, naming his daughter after the island of his capture.

Her eldest son Sheldon spent six years in the Royal New Zealand Navy and her other son, Hoani, who is now living in England, spent 20 years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

LONG before the sun rose on Whakatane’s first day in alert level three, fast food junkies were queuing for their burger fix.

At 4am yesterday there were three vehicles waiting patiently in the McDonald’s drive-through, the first customer having apparently arrived at 10pm on Monday.

From then, the line just grew and grew until it wrapped around the corner with up to 80 vehicles nose-to-tail along the street and through the carpark waiting for their first taste of McDonald’s in five weeks.

Whakatane McDonald’s franchisee Gordon Town-send said demand at the Domain Road restaurant had been non-stop with approximately 1500 Big Macs and 600 Quarter Pounders served up to around 600 cars – and that was before the dinner-time rush.

Much like the queue, the orders were long with the largest totalling $411, making the drive-through process slower than usual.

“It is taking longer than usual to serve each car because the orders are very large and our kitchen crew are having to get used to the social distancing requirements,” Mr Townsend said.

The wait was little problem for most customers though, with the public generally being very understanding, he said.

It was a shock for staff dealing with such staggering numbers, but they were grateful to be back working.

“Everyone was excited to get back into it, however going from doing nothing for a month then straight into a super busy restaurant was quite a shock for most,” Mr Townsend said.

With yesterday’s steady stream of McDonald’s customers expected to continue, and KFC and Burger King across the road having their own loyal clientele, it is creating traffic challenges for the restaurants and police.

Mr Townsend said it was important that people followed the guidelines so as not to cut off traffic coming onto Domain Road, specifically fire appliances.

Parking on the corner of Commerce Street and Domain Road can have serious implications as it is the main arterial route for the fire service. Police and station staff are urging those lining up for takeaways to stay clear of the corner.

Eastern Bay road policing manager Senior Sergeant Chris Howard said police would be assisting the restaurants with a traffic management plan to ensure queues had a minimal impact on traffic flow.

“People need to realise they can’t impede traffic, and they can’t park in the middle of the road,” he said.

When KFC opens on Thursday, that will be a massive test, according to Mr Howard.

With a high concentration of fast food restaurants in one area, police say they will continue to monitor the situation.

It’s not just the return of McDonald’s and KFC that people are excited about though, many are also looking forward to supporting local with sushi, cafes, Turkish, Indian, pizza, fish and chips and more.

For some it’s simply a coffee, for others it’s a burger. But for many people in the region getting their take-out fix yesterday was, more than anything, a symbol of normality in what are unprecedented times.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield addressed the nation yesterday morning and like many others he admitted to enjoying a takeaway coffee under the new regulations.

He added that this was not an excuse to congregate and socialise and said physical distancing at this time was imperative in alert level three.

This glimpse into normality is exciting but people still need to be socially distancing and keeping their bubble small.

AS the country moves into alert level three this week, businesses are getting used to a new way of trading.

Tony and Tramel Edelsten, owners of Javaman Café and Jord Espresso, said they saw the writing on the wall before the country went into lockdown but never stopped working towards their first service back.

“As soon as we locked down, we started to get ready for re-opening.

“We have had constant communication with managers, suppliers, our accountant, industry friends and leaders but we really couldn’t do it without our staff.

“We needed to be sure that they were comfortable with the plan,” Mr Edelsten said.

Many people in the Eastern Bay community have felt the absence of comforts such as their coffee in the morning and the Edelstens are happy to be providing them at least a few of their favourite things.

Although customers will be unable to dine-in during alert level three, blackboard classics, as well as a full range of coffee and beverages will be available through contactless collection at both sites on The Strand and at The Hub.

Contactless collection will involve Jord Espresso implementing a drive- through, operational only during alert level three, and a designated collection area for Javaman’s Strand site.

Both sites are supporting online orders through the shop-now Facebook button located on their page, website and by text.

It will be the same ordering process online, with pre-emptive payment preferred.

Customers will also be able to pay via Paywave at the door, however cash and keep cups will not be accepted.

Mr Edelsten said a massive part of making sure they were ready to hit the ground running yesterday had to do with their staff, and support for them would be of the utmost importance going forward.

“We’re going into uncharted waters, and we can’t send our staff into no-man’s land alone, we’ll be on the floor leading the charge.

“We are providing PPE to our staff per Covid-19 guidelines and implementing one-metre separation between them with no physical contact with customers.”

As many local businesses embark on some level of contactless service, Mr Edelsten said plans for safe service were diverse and changes would be made, but at the end of the day they were just keen to get back into it.

“We’re entering into a whole new world and it’s time to remind everybody of what we do, and we do it well.

“We’re keen to get back into some hard work, we’re missing our customers and the thrill of service.”

NEW ZEALAND has only two new cases of Covid-19, and no new cases in the Bay of Plenty.

The new total for Covid-19 cases in the country is 1474, while it remains at 47 in the Bay of Plenty, including one in the Eastern Bay, with 37 of those recovered. Rotorua still has 10 cases and there six in Taupo, with 14 of those recovered.

There are no additional deaths to report and 1229 cases have recovered. Six people are in hospital and there are still 16 clusters.
There were 2637 tests completed on Tuesday, with a combined total of 128,073 to date.
After only a few days into alert level three, the Director-General of Health has reinforced the importance of the key health messages which will help continue the fight against Covid-19.
“It’s crucial that all New Zealanders stay vigilant and follow the guidelines of physical distancing, keeping to our bubbles, practising good hand hygiene and if you’re unwell, staying away from others and seeking medical advice,” said Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

“As commercial activity resumes, this also applies to businesses and retailers who’re now interacting with the public again,” he said.
Dr Bloomfield said there were a few instances of behaviours and practices which weren’t quite as they need to be.

“For instance, food retailers must make sure they’re providing the appropriate environment for their customers … queueing for takeaways can’t occur in a random or haphazard way.

Food retailers must provide clear guidelines and instructions around this to customers and staff and are responsible for ensuring these are followed.

“For the most part [Tuesday] worked well, we just have a few things to iron out.  No one wants to return to Level 4 and we all have a part to play.”

KAWERAU District Council has approved a $934,211 spend on its three waters infrastructure.

In a council meeting livestreamed to Facebook on Tuesday, the council approved the spending to refurbish three bores which provide drinking water to the town and to construct stormwater detention basins and culverts to prevent flooding in the town.

Currently, Kawerau’s water supply is provided by the Pumphouse and Holland Springs. Neither spring can provide all the water required by the district through the year on their own and for a significant period each year, both springs are required.

In 2018, the council’s former operations and services manager Tom McDowall began to investigate and refurbish the three Tarawera bore holes as a reserve supply.

However, it was found that the pumps were in a worse condition than anticipated and Mr McDowall’s original work came in at $80,000, well above the $23,700 budget.

His successor, Hanno van der Merwe, said this year had been “particularly dry” for the district and the council had to impose water restrictions.

He said with the bores there would be more than enough water but the cost to fully refurbish all three bores including new electrical controls would be $220,000 over and above the $80,000 already spent.

Mr van der Merwe said as soon as key staff were back, he would be able to begin work.

Councillors voted unanimously to spend the additional money.

Opotiki Pumps Ltd will be undertaking the work.

Councillors also voted unanimously to spend $153,000 to construct four detention basins on Hardie Avenue, Beattie Road and Valley Road to combat flooding in the area.

The council had been looking at mitigation in the area following a storm in 2017 which saw houses damaged in Beattie Road, Hardie Avenue and the junction of Fenton Mill and Valley Roads.

Councillor Sela Kingi said it had been a lengthy process for residents to get to this point, but the council wanted to be sure it “got it right”.

Councillor Carolyn Ion said it had been an “uphill downhill saga” and while the basins wouldn’t completely remove the threat of flooding, they would go some way to mitigate it.

Mayor Malcolm Campbell said when dealing with nature nothing was 100 percent, but the mitigation works should provide some peace to residents who would have had many sleepless nights during periods of rain.

Councillor Aaron Rangihika said it was time the council got in behind and got it done.

The council received tenders from four contractors: Hickey Contractors Limited, $846,520; Schick Civil Construction, $499,782; Crossroads Construction, $457,703; and Waiotahi Contractors, $302,904.

Waiotahi Contractors was awarded the contract.

Waiotahi Contractors was also awarded the contract to construct culverts on River Road after submitting the lowest tender.

During intense rainfalls, debris washes down Maruka Stream blocking two culverts on River Road and causing localised flooding to nearby houses.

The culverts have been evaluated and the design found to be susceptible to blockage requiring the need for a redesign and rebuild.

MAP Projects Limited submitted a tender of  $751,413 to do the work, Schick Civil Construction tendered $599,112, Tracks Concrete 2002 Ltd tendered $797,187 and Waiotahi Contractors $561,211.

Mayor Malcolm Campbell said he was pleased Waiotahi Contractors was awarded both contracts for the flood mitigation work as the company had the best price, was the “right team to do the job” and was local.

MORE families have been exploring their neighbourhoods than ever before and a petition wants to keep it that way.

Within a week, a petition started by the Bike Whakatane Trust to ensure people can continue to enjoy their neighbourhoods by bike after cars return to the road, has attracted over 500 signatures.

“People from all walks of life and backgrounds have used the lockdown to get out bikes that have sat gathering dust in the shed, to get kids who have not been active in their local neighbourhoods out walking, scootering and biking and enjoying the range of benefits this brings such as connection to neighbours and community, improved fitness, improved mental health, and reduced emissions,” trust spokesman Richard Hamer said.

“This is because we can. Before lockdown, it felt too unsafe for all but the hardiest and most risk-tolerant to use our busy roads in anything other than a car.”

The trust is asking Whakatane District Council to ensure families continue to feel safe on the town’s roads.

The petition asks the council to look into creating pedestrian areas, reduced speed zones, stream margins and a safe and connected network across Whakatane.

Mr Hamer said pre-lockdown he had encountered problems teaching children how to ride on Whakatane’s streets as part of his “Bike Ready” programme as the Blue Light Whakatane co-ordinator.

He said he had drivers pull the fingers at his group of 10 children and some had tried to overtake them dangerously on roundabouts.

Incidents like this were the reason children and adults felt unsafe when cycling on the road.

However, with the absence of cars on the streets during lockdown people had felt more empowered to explore their neighbourhoods.

“During the lockdown, we’ve seen many of our vulnerable people such as young children, elderly people and people with disabilities out using our streets in huge numbers because the streets feel safe to use,” Mr Hamer said.

“This gives us a unique insight into how our town could look, feel and be used if we take action to make it more people-friendly.”

Mr Hamer said the trust was aware that the council had undertaken significant work through its Active Whakatane programme but little on the ground had changed for people until the lockdown.

The trust is worried work it is doing now to map out Whakatane and changes it wants to see may be “wasted” if the council had already completed something similar.

“Unfortunately, we are finding it hard to get the council to engage with us on this and nobody has seen what they are proposing,” Mr Hamer said.

A parent of a keen cyclist has submitted an Official Information Act request to the council to try and find out what it is planning.

”We want the council to listen to our community and use what we have learned from this experience to make our town’s streets safer, healthy and nicer and to use, for everyone,” Mr Hamer said.

Comments on the trust’s petition echo Mr Hamer’s sentiments.

One woman said her whanau had loved being able to use the streets during lockdown in ways they hadn’t been able to before. Another said her family would hardly ever use their bikes before lockdown but now they “absolutely love it” and would like to continue safely.

“It has been wonderful and freeing to walk and bike the streets safely over lockdown,” said another.

“Wouldn’t it be great not to feel threatened every time I jump on my bike,” said another.

Others said encouraging cycling would build a more resilient community both health-wise and in the face of climate change.

Whakatane Mayor Judy Turner said the council’s work around more active modes of transport was a work in progress and the town’s aged streets were not designed for shared use between cars, cyclists, pedestrians and those on mobility scooters

“In the past cars have dominated our mindsets and it is time to start thinking about more active modes of transport,” she said.

“The Government funding we are hoping to get is for cycleways based on tourism but in my mind cycleways to get children to school are a higher priority.”

Mrs Turner said for shared spaces to work, all users needed to be aware of others. This included those on bikes, scooters and mobility scooters to watch their speed and be careful when passing pedestrians.

“I really welcome the talk on this,” said Mrs Turner.

“This petition is not widely off track with what council was already aiming to do.”

A HANDFUL of high school students are physically at schools this week under alert level three, which permits students up to year 10 of essential workers to return, while the numbers are higher at primary schools.

Whakatane High School has only five students at the school in a bubble, while Edgecumbe College has six.

“The rest of our students are doing distance learning at home; the teachers are supporting them to do that work,” Whakatane High principal Martyn Knapton said.

“These students have parents who are essential workers, so it is really important to support them.”

He is pleased with the enthusiasm of his teachers, with many going the extra mile to ensure students are able to get their work done.

“Because we are at Covid level three, it gives us better access to the community, so we are going out with devices and Wi-fi for students who haven’t had access over the course of the lockdown so they can catch up with their work.

“I have actually been out [yesterday] to Opotiki, to Waimana and to Ruatoki to deliver devices to some of our whanau,” he said.

At Edgecumbe College, deputy principal Renee Otto said distance learning was going well, with all hard copy learning packs given to students.

“We have six students at school and three staff,” he said.

Trident High School principal Philip Gurney said his staff and students had been amazingly creative with the online courses.

“Our PE department has devised a lockdown five-kilometre challenge, to raise funds for the Salvation Army. Our tech staff have been delivering portfolios to students to work on.

“In the art classes, our art teacher painted a picture using food colouring, for students who were not able to access paints. Subjects have been devising activities that take our students away from the screen and focus on practical challenges – making music, creating website videos and completing activity challenges.”

Whakatane Intermediate School said fewer students had turned up this week than indicated, but the school has set up four bubbles, each with a team of teachers.

“Each learning bubble has their own classroom, toilet and outdoor space that is separate from the others,” principal Mike Webster said.

He said students at school were doing the same work that those doing distance learning at home.

“Students are being able to create experiences like class themed dress-up days for their online class meetings, sharing pieces of poetry and writing about their lockdown experiences, which have been very impressive pieces of work and allowing the chance for students to include their whanau with some of the class activities, like preparing items for Anzac Day commemorations,” he said.

Mr Webster said the school had provided families with printed learning booklets.

Apanui School attendance was 29 and 26 students over two days this week, while St Joseph’s Catholic School has four bubbles with 25 students in total. Allandale Primary School has similar numbers and says it has moved smoothly from alert level four to level three.

“We have 30 students booked in over the next two weeks. Our in-school bubbles have a teacher and a teacher aide and are completing a combination of our hard copy learning packs and online learning activities like every other student at Allandale School,” acting principal Adrianne McAllister said.

“We have provided each student with a bike to ride and their own playground area.”

REAL estate agency Harcourts Whakatane is about to launch a new campaign aimed at helping small businesses back on to their feet, while rewarding frontline workers during the Covid 19 lockdown.

“For every property that’s sold during the months of May and June, we’re going to go out there and purchase coffee vouchers from some of our cafes around town and look at donating those to our frontline workers,” principal Wayne Pamment said.

“It’s a way of saying thank you to those people who, over the past four or five weeks, have gone out there and continued to work and not had time with their families or made adjustments around their bubbles.

“Hospitals, pharmacies, police, supermarket workers, those sort of people who have turned up to work every day, and put themselves at some level of risk.

“But it’s also a way of being able to inject some money back into those small businesses like our cafes, that might be struggling at this time.

“There’s going to be a lot of small businesses, who haven’t turned a dollar in the past month and we think it would be good to be able to share that around some of our local cafes.

Mr Pamment said Harcourts Whakatane was planning to buy $250 worth of vouchers for each property sold over the next two months.
Vendors would be given some say as to which cafe they would like to support and what

frontline essential services they would like to give the vouchers to although he wanted to make sure they were distributed evenly across the community.

AS the Eastern Bay enters its fourth day at alert level three, eateries are reminding the community to support small businesses or the variety may deplete.

Cafe owners Amy Smith of Ohope’s Moxi Cafe and Tony Edelsten of Javaman and Jord Espresso say the response from the community had been great so far, but the support needs to continue with local hospitality feeling the strain of Covid-19.

“I think my plea is with locals to keep it local and what I mean by that, is please remember the small businesses that are owned and operated by hard working locals,” Ms Smith said.

“Covid has hit all businesses extremely hard but small businesses do not have the backing or financial support of large corporate franchises.

“We encourage all locals to get out and continue to support your small local businesses, all of us.

“Keep Whakatane and Ohope that special little place that we love to live in with plenty of options available to us all.”

Mr Edelsten said they had received good support from the community so far.

“Everybody seems to be raving about us, but people need to understand if they want to see small businesses at the end of this, they need to support local and keep that support up.”

Although the wage subsidy had been helping, added costs of trade meant business was difficult.

“At the moment we are treading water, and we hope level three doesn’t last too long,” he said.

For Mr Edelsten and Ms Smith, a big reason for re-opening under level three has been reconnecting.

“For many of us, opening and offering online ordering under level three is purely out of wanting to reconnect with our supportive locals and community. We want to offer a small piece of happiness back to them after the lockdown.

“We simply are just covering costs to offer our level three service, but our long-term future and support of our community is much more important,” Ms Smith said.

“We missed that connection and getting to put our soul back out into the community,” Ms Smith said.

Mr Edelsten agrees.

“Our staff and customers are so passionate and we’re fortunate we never lost connection with them.

“To be isolated can really take its toll … it was just good to see everybody back.”

But he believe what was normal pre-Covid will not be the norm moving forward.

“We know that normal before won’t exist after this; we just hope the new normal isn’t too far from the old.”

But he said, for now, customers were embracing the new way of receiving their orders.

Both cafe owners have reported a steady pace of customers this week albeit with a few teething issues to work through with the new regime of online, contactless, ordering and pick-up.

Three new cases of Covid-19 have been reported, bringing the total to 1476 cases nationally.

The Eastern Bay remains unchanged with one case, and the Bay of Plenty is also constant with 47 cases, while Rotorua and Taupo’s totals remain unchanged at 10 and six respectively.

Thirty-seven cases have recovered in the Bay of Plenty and 14 have recovered in the Lakes district.

One of the new cases today is linked to an existing case and the other two remain under investigation. A previous probable case has been reclassified as not a case.

This means the total for confirmed cases is 1129, the number which the Ministry of Health reports to the World Health Organisation.  The total for probable cases is 347.

There have been no additional deaths, while testing has increased to 5867 tests completed on Wednesday, bringing the total to 134,570 tests to date.
A total of 1241 cases – or 84 percent of cases – are reported as recovered.
Seven people remain in hospital and there are still 16 significant clusters.

The Ministry of Health has urged the public to continue with routine healthcare, such as childhood immunisations and smear tests.

An update and clarification to the rules for alert level 3 state that people can travel to care for their pets or animals and that veterinary services are permitted contact services, which means you can go into the premises to drop off your pets and animals.

Hunting game birds for recreation purposes is not permitted at alert level 3, thus duck shooting is banned.

Whakatane and Tauranga hospitals have changed their “no visitor” policy to a “restricted visitor” one, effective immediately.

However, this policy may change as the hospitals continue to monitor the risks to workers and the public.

Visitor access is now as follows:

• Visitors to be approved on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the clinical nurse manager/clinical midwife manager or duty nurse manager. Decisions can be made on compassionate grounds and for patients who are palliative and receiving end-of-life care.
• An approved visitor can only enter and leave once daily.
• One parent or guardian is able to accompany any hospitalised child age 16 or under in either the Children’s Unit or Emergency Department.
• One nominated support person can accompany a woman in labour and birth. This nominated support person may visit once daily and stay as long as the woman wants. No overnight stays will be permitted unless the woman is in labour and for early post-natal support.
• Mothers only are permitted to the Special Care Baby Unit.
• No visitors are allowed for confirmed or suspected Covid-19 patients.
• In all cases where a visitor is allowed access to any BOPDHB facility, appropriate screening will take place before they are allowed to enter the facility to ensure they are well.
• Visiting hours will be from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

People who would like to visit can phone the Patient Information Centre on 0800333477 or email contactus@bopdhb.govt.nz in advance.