‘Worse than the quake’

Kaiko¯ ura was surfing the wave of a solid summer, confident and excited for the future when the coronavirus hit.

Business had finally recovered after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake three years before, with a summer filled with throngs of tourists peeking into shops on the main street, and eager internationals queueing to see Kaiko¯ ura’s wildlife.

But a month on, it was as if the town had been transported in a “time capsule” to the 1980s, to the days before tourism took off.

Back then, the town relied on businesses like the cheese factory, the sawmill and a prominent fishing fleet, but those industries had either shrunk or no longer existed, Whale Watch Kaiko¯ura general manager Kauahi Ngapora said.

“We’re going to go back to that scenario but without the businesses which once propped up the town, so that’s a worry,” he said.

Following the earthquake in November 2016, New Zealand’s focus turned to Kaiko¯ ura, and the region was flooded with support.

“This is easily going to be much harder and deeper than what we experienced with the earthquake.”

With more than 40 per cent of Kaiko¯ ura’s workforce employed in tourism, and another 30 per cent having some connection with tourism, he expected unemployment to be “pretty steep” if other job avenues were not identified.

And the most “daunting thing” was the road ahead. They were looking at November 2020 to potentially reopen Whale Watch to a domestic market, provided that New Zealand was at alert level one or had no alert levels by that time. That would require a significant “pivot” in their business model, as formerly 80 per cent of their customers were from overseas.

“We like to plan for what could potentially be the worst case scenarios but hopefully things work out better than that,” he said.

However, there were strengths for the town moving forward, like the ability to come together as was done post-quake, and the natural assets which would still be there when coronavirus passed, Ngapora said.

Dolphin Encounter Kaiko¯ ura business manager Lynette Burman said they thought the earthquake was a large event when it occurred, but it was “tiny by comparison” to the global impact of coronavirus.

But businesses had become more resilient post-quake. They had been given significant Government support and opportunities to rethink and strengthen their business model.

‘‘It was a learning opportunity even though it was a really harsh way to learn.’’

The earthquake was a ‘‘trial run’’ in some respects, because they were forced to face the vulnerabilities within their businesses.

‘‘But this, of course, is bigger than just being resilient, this is survival,’’ Burman said.

‘‘The uncertainty and the lack of ability to make assumptions on anything is what’s challenging, but it’s all about self belief.’’

One strength of the town was its seasonality. They were accustomed to intense summers and very low winters, and were fortunate the lockdown hit when it did, she said.

A self-proclaimed optimist, she said Kaiko¯ ura would ‘‘forge a path forward’’.

‘‘We will come back, but there’s definitely going to be some casualties along the way.’’

Coopers Catch owner Jason Hill said they spent the five weeks of lockdown intensely making