Wairoa Mayor: Road upgrades between Napier and Wairoa will boost safety and accessibility
The road between Napier and Wairoa is on the mend.
"The roads into our town are so fragile that another storm could take them out at any time."
That's how Wairoa Mayor Craig Little describes the predicament that Wairoa is facing following Cyclone Gabrielle. He says the town's access to the outside world is hanging by a thread due to the state of the highway between Napier and Wairoa.
Little points out that the town was cut off for three months when the Waikere bridge was washed away, which has just been replaced by a single land Bailey Bridge.
He told Rural News the problems with fragile infrastructure are putting the economic viability of the town at risk. Little believes there is a 100% chance of Wairoa going down the gurgler if infrastructure issues aren't properly resolved.
"Any company or potential investor coming to town and looking at those roads and the connectivity would likely think twice," he adds. "There is little or no tourism happening at the moment and any downturn in the rural economy will put pressure on retail in the town."
Little says that horticulture is a sector that could work well for the district. He believes there is a lot of suitable land available, and fruit grown in Wairoa ripens earlier than fruit grown in Hawke's Bay.
He says the Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Māori Trust has developed a significant horticulture operation around Wairoa, but they are having second thoughts about expanding until the uncertainty of infrastructure - especially roading is resolved.
According to Little, most of the roads that service the town were built before the era of larger trucks and the advent of these has put pressure on the existing network.
The horror and power of Gabrielle is clearly visible in both the township and in the rural hinterland. People are still living in temporary accommodation and there are red stickered homes all around Wairoa. In the rural areas, water still ponds in what were paddocks of maize, which have been destroyed.
Silt covers pastures and homes and sheds are gone or beyond repair. Fencing remains a massive problem.
"Everyone is feeling it. Sheep and beef farmers are struggling to repair fences," Little says.
"They have probably got kilometres and kilometres to fix and at the moment. Myself, and others, are just putting up hot wires to keep the cattle in, but that doesn't keep the sheep in - so there is a long way to go yet."
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Spare a thought for the arable farmer, squeezed on one side by soft global prices and on the other…
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts…