Volunteers clear beach
Hundreds of volunteers answered a call on Saturday to help clear storm debris from a 1600m stretch of Tāhunanui Beach in Nelson.
A stoked Nelson harbour master, Stuart Whitehouse, called the response ‘‘amazing’’.
‘‘Everybody pulled together,’’ he said. ‘‘It was really superb. Community at its best.’’
An estimated 200 to 300 people filled three skips and six trailer loads, while more debris was left for contractors to collect today.
Large logs that could become navigational hazards if they refloated had been ‘‘lifted and rolled and pulled’’ to the top of the beach, past the high-tide line.
‘‘Where they’re not going to cause a problem for the harbour,’’ Whitehouse said.
During a briefing for the volunteers before they started, Whitehouse said the beach was about 1600m long.
‘‘We are going to try to tackle as much as possible.’’ Clearing the popular beach was a step towards helping the community.
‘‘People are hurting right now so having this space to come and enjoy, it will be fantastic to get our beach back,’’ Whitehouse said.
The debris washed up after an ‘‘atmospheric river’’ hammered the NelsonTasman region over four days in August.
Volunteer Sandie Kitchingham said she lived on the Tāhunanui hills and walked along the beach daily.
Kitchingham was away from Nelson when the storm hit and returned to discover that while her own home was unaffected, some neighbouring properties were damaged and the beach was covered in debris. ‘‘It just made you cry.’’
Fellow volunteer Sheila Scott said she worked at Port Nelson and wanted to help clear the beach for everyone who used it or went out on the water.
Another volunteer said she was there to pick up debris because ‘‘I can’t drive a digger’’ but wanted to help with clean-up.