Now that the Lodge is back to its 'new normal' and open for business we want to say a huge thank you to all the people who have supported us and helped us get back.
Debris removal was our first challenge.
The people who were pivotal in helping us conquer this challenge were many - Council (especially Scott D’Silva and Ruth Bunney) were instrumental, as was Dale Smith at Tree Safe who moved mountains of trees and slip debris. Diggers were certainly a feature of the site for quite a while (thanks also goes to Ward Demolition and Nick Skeates) as debris was moved off and around the site. The driveways and services were gradually restored with help and expertise from Alpha Electrical and Reef Plumbing. The power and water services lost in the slip were the first things that needed to be restored before we could begin any sort of cleanup.
[pic of the diggers]
Then, once we were all reconnected the month long ‘clean’ began! While the accommodation was in need of a thorough clean (having been closed up for such a long time) the ground floor of the Lodge, where the rodent population had been partying in the Deli's flour and baking ingredients for months, needed a very intensive, very deep clean. Appliances were wrecked due to a nasty combination of contamination from spoiled food and/or from rodent activity. The mess was truly epic!
Dave Taylor and his team created a new layout for the site and built a handsome new structure to house our rubbish bins (as their home, and them, had been destroyed). When the wrecked community garden space was cleared away the fabulous lawn experts from the Muriwai Golf Course stepped in to create a new lawn for us and local heroes helped us dig out block roadside stormwater drains and weed our overgrown gardens.
We were fortunate to have efficient and effective help from our insurance assessors, their contractors and our insurance company - without this vital help and financial support with plant replacement and restart costs re-opening would have been impossible given we had been unable to trade for nearly 10 months.
We are also lucky that both the Muriwai Deli and The Little Coolstore were keen to return and that guests began booking to stay almost as soon as we were able to open.
It is such a pleasure and a privilege to have the Lodge back up and running and to see people once again enjoying our place and our beautiful beach, we are so fortunate that all was not lost for us as it was for so many in our community. As we get close to the one year anniversary we feel incredibly grateful to all of the people we have named here and so many more who support us every day.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
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