Town ‘buoyed’ by its new marina
Kaiko¯ura has taken ‘‘a huge leap forward’’ as hundreds turned out to celebrate the opening of the South Bay Marina.
Marine tourism operators are again fully operational as a year of uncertainty drew to a close yesterday – the anniversary of the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that took the lives of two people.
Encounter Kaiko¯ura co-owner Lynette Buurman said ‘‘forward bookings are good’’ now the $7 million of remediation work had been completed. It included a new facility for cruise ship arrivals and a new ramp for commercial fishers and weekend boaties.
‘‘To be able to confidently say now we can operate on any day, with any vessel, on any tide, that is just a huge leap forward,’’ she said.
‘‘There’s a long way to go, but the speed of the reconstruction of the harbour has kind of lessened the concern that we’ve had, and the anxiety.’’
About 300 people attended the official opening at midday yesterday, following a dawn ceremony to acknowledge the lives of Jo-Anne Mackinnon and Louis Edgar.
A whale bone sculpture was unveiled by Te Ru¯ nanga o Kaiko¯ ura and flowers were placed by Leila Tombs, Mackinnon’s mother.
Mackinnon, 50, died during the earthquake as she fled the home she shared with partner Gary Morton at Mt Lyford.
Edgar, 74, was killed when the Elms historic homestead, near Kaiko¯ ura Airport, collapsed.
Two other people escaped the wreckage, including Edgar’s then 100-year-old mother, Margaret Edgar. She died at Kaiko¯ ura Hospital in April.
Te Ru¯ nanga o Kaiko¯ ura representatives Brett Cowan and Darran KereiKeepa came up with the idea for the sculpture as a memorial to the two lives lost.
It also represented Kaiko¯ura’s connection to the sea and its relationship with all living things.
‘‘We used these particular bones because they were unearthed during the earthquake,’’ Cowan said.
The long curved rib bones were retrieved from the creek bed that ran through Jimmy Armers Beach on Kaiko¯ura Peninsula, once home to a whaling station.
He said they could be anywhere between 100 and 150 years old.
Kaiko¯ ura Mayor Winston Gray said progress on three key rebuild projects – State Highway 1, the marina, and the rail network – had brought ‘‘a positive lift’’ to the community’s spirit.
Buurman said many in the area had become ‘‘used to living with compromised road access now for 12 months’’, so
SH1’s scheduled reopening on December
15 would add to the relief felt. ‘‘[Yesterday’s] not just the harbour, you know, this is for the community. It’s about ‘hey, we’re rebuilding’ and it’s the first thing that’s been completed.
‘‘We’re really buoyed by that. It gives us confidence and it gives us something to be really proud of and celebrate. We’re on the way back.’’