Hot pies and warm drinks: Puketapu local store opens to 'feed the people'

A Hawke's Bay man has not let Cyclone Gabrielle put him off from buying a local store in a hard hit rural area.

The day Jaycen Maxwell was meant to buy the Puketapu Store, the cyclone hit.

Maxwell and his partner faced a stressful few days of not knowing if the store or the house they bought were alright.

They spent the time packing up their lives in Napier without power, a working kitchen or showers.

Both buildings weathered the cyclone, and they moved in last week.

Families in Puketapu are still cut off with no running water and sharing generators for power. Some parts are still only accessible by helicopter or boat after the Dartmoor bridge and others were wiped out.

"Officially, we haven't opened. We've unofficially been operating for the last three days with whatever we've had to sell with hot food for people. Not everything, but just opening the doors," Maxwell said.

The store on Dartmoor Road was where relatives lived when he was growing up.

He remembered popping in and out of the shop as a kid and was pleased to be back in such a close community.

"While we were setting up, getting everything ready, we had people calling in and asking Are you open? Have you got a hot pie? Have you got this? Have you got that? So it was like 'hey, let's feed the people'.

"So that's what we did. We got hot pies in the oven. Drinks - they weren't cold because we were still waiting on fridges from Auckland - so people were buying warm drinks and just happy that it was wet."

Residents were delighted to have access to the essentials - and ice cream - once again.

The community support had been overwhelming, Maxwell said, and he was pleased that getting supplies had been fairly a smooth process.

"We've had a few hiccups where orders have been missed because roads have been closed and they've turned around. But we've communicated with each other.

"I've had to run into town a couple of times and pick up things - milk and bread - to get it out here so that people have it available.

"But generally speaking, it's been ok. The only thing at the moment is we're waiting for our coffee machine to come in."

Rallying for the community

Things have been a bit tougher for pub owner Mary Danielson.

She has owned The Puketapu for 17 years and was facing a long clean up.

Builders have been stripping wood off the walls before the drying can begin.

"Everything has to be recarpeted, linoed. The walls need to be put back on after the proper tests are done and everything's correct.

"Then we lost all of our equipment, that was floating so we've had to get quotes for that. All of that takes time."

That hasn't stopped her doing her bit for others - working with the local school, other residents and suppliers to get pre-cooked meals to people in Puketapu and in more isolated areas.

"Now that we can go a bit further, we've been getting out and going to these areas and giving the food out.

"Before, some of it went via helicopter. That's what we've been trying to help and then if ... other people that have come to see us, we've helped them in different ways."

She was in awe of how the community has rallied, setting up a hub at the local school hall that was full of supplies.

But the community needs bridges or walkways to reconnect isolate families.

"It's horrible not having them like a 15 minute ride (away) and the children coming to school.

"It's very, very hard on them and their families, and the same with Rissington and Dartmoor.

"Dartmoor, the same thing, they go over on a boat. It's really hard and we need bridges."

A temporary bridge for Dartmoor Road was still several weeks away.

With so many residents losing their homes and livelihoods, Danielson said the community would need financial support as they tried to get back on their feet.