Tasman’s Great Taste Trail brings about 30 per cent of Deb Coleman’s income through the door at Kohatu Flat Rock Cafe, but since the floods that income has dried up and it will be months before cyclists return.
For a couple of weeks, she had minimal income as first one flood and then another, plus fallen trees, closed roads, and even though her insurance policy includes business disruption, without physical damage to the cafe there’s no payout.
Just off the phone with her insurance company last week, she was in disbelief.
“They said it has to be physical damage to the building itself. Even though there was water going under the house (from the hillside and creek) and we didn’t have water to run the cafe, and the power was off for two days and so we had to chuck a lot out of the freezers.
“We were in the middle of a civil defence emergency and no-one could get here! So, things are pretty dire actually. There’s still wages and mortgage to pay for.”
Deb knows she is one of many businesses depending on the Great Taste Trail which has been damaged in multiple places from flooding and fallen trees and is expected to take months to repair.
When the first flood closed the roads about 15 cars parked up at the cafe, including a couple heading to the West Coast for the birth of their grandchild. When the call came through that the baby had arrived, Deb gave the marooned grandparents a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
Then the second flood and violent winds swept through the area, and while the house and cafe were safe from the river that raged across land just below it, water flowed under the 1890’s house from the stream and hills behind. That time, about 10 people were stuck at the café and no way out, with no power and no toilet.
“We had gas so we could heat bottled water, and sat around playing cards. Everyone got to know each other, and they were hugging each other when they were leaving. We had a cooked breakfast the next morning and they left in convoy with the police. The whole thing was quite surreal.”
Floods are not new to Deb. She spent 25 years on a West Coast dairy farm beside the mighty Buller River and has been surrounded by floodwater before.
“I knew it was crucial to keep contact with police, civil defence and Fulton Hogan and they were all brilliant. And I had all these lovely locals come in and say: ‘what do you need?’”
Going forward, she says the damage to the Great Taste Trail and forced closure is going to hurt – a lot.
“If I don’t get insurance, it’s going to hurt. I’m trying to stay positive. When you’re in a business like this, you can’t let things like this hold you down. And you get support from locals and people going past.
“I just hope they fix the trail really, really quickly, and not just for me but everyone along the Great Taste Trail. It’s such a pivotal part of the economy in the area.”
