Tim Tams and rebuild plans
The request from Kaikoura was for chocolate biscuits and some decent perc coffee.
So when a trio of Waikato waste minimisation workers flew in, they took a few kilos of chocolate Tim Tams and some Raglan Roast.
But delivering longed-for goodies wasn’t the main focus for the helpers from Raglan’s Xtreme Zero Waste.
Their friends at a similar recycling enterprise in Kaikoura were shaken by the magnitude-7.8 earthquake on November 14 and needed some help figure out how to sustainably deal with the aftereffects.
Cue the arrival of Rick Thorpe – the leader of the expedition from Raglan – accompanied by Herewini Barlow and Bavan Maru.
’’When the earthquake hit, we got a call early the next morning from the manager [of Innovative Waste Kaikoura ], Rob Roche, just to tell us: dreadful earthquake and many buildings suffered damage,’’ Thorpe said.
The Raglan crew and the ‘‘wider waste whanau’’ in the Community Recycling Network have backed their Kaikoura colleagues up since then, and are helping with a plan for how to put the town back together.
Work on the Christchurch quake showed there’s an emotional impact when buildings are crushed and taken away, Thorpe said.
‘‘[People] had no access to the materials, and some of those houses may have been in the family for a few generations, or they may have been dream houses that the family had actually built themselves.’’
Their plan for Kaikoura would see buildings deconstructed so the materials can be reused.
It’s not a small job, but Innovative Waste can see there are builders, tourism operators and others in town who have been laid off after the disaster, Thorpe said.
‘‘They want to be involved in something positive and they see that the gentle deconstruction of the buildings as a labour-intensive job which would be a great positive activity for those people who have lost their livelihood.’’
As for the Innovative Waste team, they were back at work the day after the big shake, Thorpe said. But they have a lot to deal with – two staffers have seen red stickers applied to their homes.
‘‘For their families, for many of them, with the schools being closed, their kids have been at home. It’s a major disturbance. They’re kind of readjusting.’’
Supplies are limited in the supermarkets, hence the request for chocolate biscuits and coffee.
The Raglan trio will be back home tonight.
"They want to be involved in something positive ...'' Rick Thorpe