The Rotorua Aero Club flew into Hawke’s Bay over the weekend with their planes full of supplies to support the local cyclone response effort.
Hastings Mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst, welcomed the teams who brought food and other necessities that had been collected through a combined effort by the Waiariki Women’s Refuge Rotorua, Rotorua Whakaora and Rotorua Aero Club.
The goods went to support RSE workers from flood-damaged orchards and to the Civil Defence community hub at Tomoana Showgrounds in Hastings.
“I was invited to welcome the team to the region and thanked them for making the trip to support our region’s recovery,” Mayor Hazlehurst said.
“It was wonderful to meet them – their efforts will be much appreciated by our wider community – there’s a huge amount of need and it’s wonderful to have people pulling together like this to help others.”
The Rotorua Aero Club also dropped supplies into Puketapu and Wairoa last week.
Mayor Hazlehurst thanked Air Napier for opening their tarmac to the planes – to date they’ve moved about 80 tonnes of supplies throughout the region.
Helena Von Oslow and friend, Micky C, picked up the goods on behalf of 80 RSE workers who had been displaced by the floods.
“There was rice, lots of cans of food, muesli bars, pasta and snacks and razors and shaving cream, which they had particularly asked for. The workers were pretty happy to get these supplies – it’s a big help.”
Mayor Hazlehurst said multiple agencies were working together to reach remote communities over the coming days to assess people’s needs.
“We are very aware there’s those in the community who we haven’t seen as much of as we would like – we have not forgotten about them, we are on our way,” she said.
