Private planes fly supplies to farms

"Luckily the guy flying the topdressing plane knows all the airstrips . . .'' NZ Farming spokesman

Private planes are flying supplies into remote North Canterbury communities.

NZ Farming organised the aircraft to take food, water, fuel, and The Press newspapers yesterday to small communities cut off by last week’s earthquake.

Top-dressing company Aerowork donated the use of one of their planes for the operation, and NZ Farming contributed to the costs of running the other two.

An NZ Farming spokesman said the planes would follow the inland route north of Culverdon. They would deliver supplies to rural airstrips that were safe to land on.

‘‘Luckily the guy flying the topdressing plane knows all the airstrips up through there pretty well, so he’s going to suss them all out for safety first,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got to shoot from the hip a bit, just because communication and everything’s pretty limited up there.’’

NZ Farming social media organiser Andrea Roberts said the idea came about when a pilot called her after dropping off relief supplies last week.

He told her that remote communities were in need of essential supplies, as well as headlights, batteries, and a whole lot of other things people might not immediately consider.

‘‘I said ‘Oh, I’ll just put a post up on Facebook and see how it goes’,’’ said Roberts. ‘‘I just got inundated.’’

She said she originally planned to have people drop off donations at her house, but the volume overcame her and she organised to use space at Marshland School. ‘‘I had all these mums turning up with endless supplies of banana boxes full of stuff.’’

Luckily, someone donated the use of a freight truck to get all the donations to the airfield at Culverden.

Roberts will continue to organise supply deliveries in the coming days, and anyone wanting to make a donation can get in contact on her dedicated Facebook page.

Turbo Staff managing director Ihaka Rongonui was also organising relief for farmers in the Kaikoura area.

A business associate of Rongonui’s is donating the use of his helicopter, and Turbo Staff will use it over the weekend to take supplies to farms that don’t yet have access to town.

He said a distribution centre had donated a lot of non-perishable food, and Vodafone had donated some wireless modems so people could access the internet.