12:00, Jul 14 2021
Luke Nola and Friends
Te Kura o Kimi Ora in Hawke s Bay welcomed students from the East Cape after flooding closed their school.
When storms on the East Cape flooded Hatea-a-Rangi School, a kura (school) 300km away chose to live its value of manaakitanga (hospitality, support) and invited them all to stay. Hatea-a-Rangi principal Karla Kohatu called the flooding at her school an “emotional trainwreck”. The weekend of rainfall in late June left the school flood-damaged and smelling “like a long-drop”, according to pupils. In the
Kea Kids News video above, Mele Pailate, 12, takes us to her school, Te Kura o Kimi Ora, to see how the 29 students from the East Cape enjoyed their time dossing in a classroom on mattresses from the marae.
Jack Chambers used to be a skinny little rat but just right for being winched with the wool bales on to lighters heading off Tokomaru Bay s wharf.
He d dressed up in his old man s boots and coat to get a job as a casual wharfie when he was 15.
In those days the wharf at the northern end of the bay was humming.
There was a freezing works, wool store and shipping company nearby, feeding goods out onto the concrete and wooden structure via a small railway.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
It was bustling even at night, Grant Dargie remembers. He lives in the old harbour master s house now where there s a fine view of the crumbling wharf below.