Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand

[Adam Lawrence]

"The worst storm to hit New Zealand this century" -- PM.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/13/cyclone-gabrielle-new-zealand-declares-national-state-of-emergency

Given that Northland is one of the worst-hit parts of the country, I hope all the people at Tara Iti and Te Arai are OK.

Adam

[Paul Rudovsky]

We are in Melbourne right now and scheduled to head to the North Island on 2/18 for a 4-5 day visit to Auckland and the Tara Iti area.  Have not heard back from an email I sent 2 days ago and have a sense that part of the trip will not happen. 


They clearly have their hands full with more important things right now.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Some good news...just spoke to Te Arai and they expect to open course tomorrow (Thursday NZ time).  Not sure about roads from Auckland to that area.  I went on qantas and they were still selling tickets for flights tomorrow from AUS to Auckland so Auckland airport seems to be open. 


We are planning to go...we fly Saturday morning MEL to AKL.


No answer (in fact no sound of the phone call going thru and ringing) at Titarangi GC

[Clyde Johnson]

Titirangi is closed today and tomorrow.


They have taken another 138mm of rain, after taking 300mm over 24 or so hours at the back end of January. They've also had a some trees down again this time too, which they need to make sure are safe.


Greg Swafford and his team had just finished putting back together all of the bunkers, and I'm sure they will be quick to do it again. They're a great bunch at Titirangi (and in New Zealand.)

[Wayne_Kozun]

The area around Hawkes Bay and Napier seems to have been hit very badly.  That is very near Cape Kidnappers.

[Paul Rudovsky]

More good news.  Titarangi GC near Auckland is open for play.  Trees were down but have been cleaned up.  Planning to play tomorrow. 


No additional info regarding Cape Kiddnappers area

[Daryl David]

I’m in Hawke’s Bay Area now. My golf course is open. Not sure about Kidnappers as I’m not sure if they have power. Knowing their resources, I assume they have generators. The issue now is not the weather or flooding, it’s power and cell service.

[Wayne_Kozun]

I’m in Hawke’s Bay Area now. My golf course is open. Not sure about Kidnappers as I’m not sure if they have power. Knowing their resources, I assume they have generators. The issue now is not the weather or flooding, it’s power and cell service.

How are roads in the area - are many of them washed out?  It is not hard to envision the road into Kidnappers being washed out.

[Daryl David]

A few roads are still closed, but there are ways around them. Kidnappers road is ok, the entrance is a mess. Gate and all destroyed, but you can still get up there. Course is and lodge are fine.

[Tom_Doak]

I was waiting for reports from our golf courses and fortunately they seem to have survived the storm pretty well . . . Tara Iti has the most issues, just because the water table is so high right now.  Several of the early holes are pretty squishy and there is a deep pond to the right of #6 where there used to be a hollow in the dunes!  The practice range is also wet.  But they'll survive.


Te Arai didn't do as badly, although there were more trees to create debris.  I will see it a week from now and report back.


Cape Kidnappers is the high ground in Hawkes Bay, and they said the golf course had just normal storm debris.  But the surrounding towns were hit very hard.  They did lose power and have closed the resort for a few days to sort things out.