Thanks in the wake of the cyclone

I’d like to thank our community for their incredible generosity towards victims of Cyclone Gabrielle, and especially Tenby Powell and the pilots, ground crew and suppliers at Tauranga Aero Club. Tenby and TAC were supported by Auckland and Waikato pilots who ew six tonnes of essential supplies to the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay.

ank you to TAC, Brett Marsh Transport, supermarkets, social clubs and everyone in the Bay of Plenty who helped with supplies, logistics and nancial donations. If you’d still like to contribute, TAC would appreciate help towards fuel costs; they are accepting donations to 02-0372-0019669-00 with ‘DB donation’ in the reference eld.

I am so proud that the Bay of Plenty has been represented in such a special way, when we ourselves are still recovering from the anniversary weekend storms that a ected many in our region, including families in Maungatapu who still can’t access their properties. e coming months will continue to be challenging for us locally and for many regions in the North Island, including neighbouring Coromandel. For a tourism destination whose international market has been locked out for two years, losing their domestic market due to bad weather and ood damage is devastating.

I urge you to support them and other local businesses while they provide products, services and employment under stressful conditions.