Marina opening end to Herculean task but still work to do

Tuesday, 7 November 2017

Work on South Bay Marina a month before the official opening.

A week out from the official opening of South Bay Marina there's still a lot of work to do.

On Tuesday, one year on from 7.8-magnitude earthquake Ngāti Kuri will be leading a dawn service to mark the reconnection of Kaikōura to the ocean through the reopening of the harbour, followed by the official reopening just after midday.

A Whale Watch boat pulls out from one of their new berths.

Ian Bradshaw who co-owns Encounter Kaikōura, together with Dennis and Lynette Buurman, said he was confident the marina would open in time.

'I'm pretty confident they'll have their ducks in line.

Work on the boat ramp at South Bay Marina a week out from the official opening.

Encounter Kaikōura owners, Ian Bradshaw and Lynette Buurman at their new jetty.

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'They'll be pulling all stops to make it happen.

'There's is a lot of earth carting work to do, but they'll get there,' he said.

When the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in November it raised the seabed up two metres in places in the South Bay area, leaving marine-based tourism operators, commercial and recreational fishermen and Coastguard Kaikōura high and dry.

Bradshaw he couldn't see how the damage would be resolved quickly or how they would get the resources to do it.

'It looked almost like a Herculean task,' he said.

Business virtually stopped overnight for tourism-based operators Whale Watch and Encounter Kaikōura, until the Inland Rd opened and a 'trickle' of business started to come in.

At first commercial operators just wanted to open the channel and get the boats operating, said Bradshaw.

'The first stage was virtually done with no planning.

'Ordinarily there would be a lot of consent process, and a lot of planning.'

'Once the harbour was open, the second stage involved a lot more planning and design work, and this was quite frustrating,' said Bradshaw.

Initially the government stepped in with $5 million to help clear the harbour, the Coastguard Kaikōura slipway and community boat ramp.

Lynette Buurman said it soon became evident there wasn't enough money, however, they didn't expect government to fund infrastructure for commercial use.

In the end the funding shortfall was divided up and Whale Watch, Encounter Kaikōura and Kaikōura District Council contributed a proportion each to get the project finished. The money helped pay for a new Encounter Kaikōura jetty, four Whale Watch berths and a tender jetty for visiting cruise ships.

North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) alliance were tasked with removing thousands of cubic metres of rocks to re-open channels and restore marina facilities.

Buurman said the lack of consultation between the government-funded project and private enterprise led to frustration at first.

'When we got into the design process we realised there were some major oversights with the planning and understanding the needs of the users.'

'However in the last six months we have developed great collaborative relationships with NCTIR project managers in what had been a challenging process,' she said.

'When a project is funded by government a whole lot of processes have to be put in place and we found it challenging in the time it took, however we had to learn to work with that.

'We were so pressured economically and commercially every week that went by was a delay we thought could be avoided,' said Buurman.

'It hasn't been an easy project, and a lot more complicated than anyone would have imagined.

'If we can get through that - we can get through anything as a business,' added Buurman.