Cone watch - Goooone!

The cone that topped the norfolk pine for all to see in Island View has been toppled -the norwesterly winds from yesterday afternoon blew it off the top of the pine and the cone has tumbled to be hanging on a little way down.

Quite amazing really that it has stood a years worth of all sorts of storms and in all sorts of conditions yet a strong nowesterly wind yeserday did the trick.

Lets hope who ever put the cone up the tree originally can get it back to its rightful place on top of the pine.

To find Waihi Beach www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/map.html

Rena - Waihi Beach

photo Mike Hill

The media are pretty fickle when it comes to a story - containers and debris on Waihi Beach seemed to be the go for a while there. However once the clean up started and the beach was cleaned up promptly by salvors, the WBOPDC and volunteers the story seems to have died.

The clean up still continues with areas such as Orakawa, Bowentown, Shelley Bay, Matakana Island and Motiti all needing work to be done to get them back to their pristine condition yet the story and Waihi Beach to have fallen off the radar since.

Its amazing what you read and hear about the effect of the containers on Waihi Beach - one news report said Waihi Beach was open again after a week - yet it was only ever closed for 2 hours after the initial containers were washed up on the beach. Within 2 days people were back picnicing and swimming on the beach - yet this received no coverage - it seems good news is not newsworthy.

To find Waihi Beach www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/map.html

Guests at Waihi Beach Lodge

Orakawa Beach

"You don't know how the other half live" as the saying goes.

Recently we had a couple of wonderful guests - their jobs were working on a super yacht and presently their one was in for repairs & fine tuning in Auckland. They were working for an owner who lives in Monaco and this was one of his two super yachts - they are here in NZ until April when they have to take the yacht  to Tahiti and sometime later in the year they will end up in Alaska - what a way to see the world!

Both had key roles - one was the skipper and his wife is the chef out of a total crew of 9 and they loved stopping in NZ and getting provisions and getting the yacht ship shape so they can take off again when the time is right. They were using their down time to get out and see a little more of New Zealand

The owner can fly in at any time and they need to be ready to do meet his requests - entertaining guests, saling -all part of what they do on board.

For more info on Waihi Beach http://www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/

Guests from all over at Waihi Beach

Its amazing who comes to Waihi Beach - it never fails to amaze us as we tick off guests from yet another country that have come to stay with us at Waihi Beach. This time Isreal is the new country with a our first guests from there to go along with recent guests from the US, UK, Australia and Belgium.Must be something here that attracts them - the fantastic beach!

To find Waihi Beach www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/map.html

Rena clean up Day 3 Waihi Beach

What a difference a day makes - good as new and kids back swimming and people back under umbrellas on the beach.

No containers - all  have gone as has the kindling type wood and the packs of egg fried rice that littered the beach yesterday. The tractor carrying the splintered wood is shown above.

Special thanks to the volunteers, the salvors, Maritime NZ,  WBOPDC who have made this possible.

For more information on Waihi Beach http://www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/

Rena Clean Up Day 2 Waihi Beach

Today we have been greeted with lots of wood littering the beach in the form of broken pieces of ply wood or similar and a few more bags of milk powder.Additinally there are packs of fried rice
.
There are still 6 containers stuck on the beach but workmen are already in attendance with diggers and hopefully the containers will be moved soon.

It would be great to know if we can help with the clean up - especially with the bits of wood - hopefully at the meeting today here at the beach @4pm we will learn more.

Rena containers - Debris on Waihi Beach cleaned up

3.00pm - Not sure who to thank (Maritime NZ may be) but at our entrance and as far as the eye can see the beach has been cleaned up and all we have is 6 containers that can be seen  A big thank you to all those involved from us at the beach!

Maritime NZ must have sent it's workforce out because all the bags of milk powder and all the polystyrene that littered the beach are no longer visable - all bagged up ready to be collected. Remarkable effort when you consider the beach was a bombsite this morning!

The containers - well thats another story - not sure if trucks or helicpoters will need to be used to move them - I'm sure the powers that be will have that sorted.Cranes have been put in place just by 3 mile creek so may be they will be used.

For more info on Waihi Beach http://www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/

Rena containers Mako Rd

10.30am the container clean up is under way. We have the fire brigade close by as well as others from Maritime NZ and in the distance we can see a tug towing away a container back towards Tauraunga.

For more info on Waihi Beach http://www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/

Rena Containers on Waihi Beach

@7.30 am this morning we spotted conatiners coming ashore at our entrance on Waihi Beach. A phone call from a neighbour confirmed there were more containers in the sea just out in front heading our way.

After going down to take a closer look we have found 3 containers grounded on the beach, milk powder and polystyrene scattered all along the beach from the Mako Rd entrance.Plus we could see several containers in the waves heading our way.

A call to the maritime NZ headquarters in Tauraunga to advise them about the containers confirmed we need to leave it to them to pick up the debris off the beach as they are worried about toxins

Will keep you posted.

For more info on Waihi Beach http://www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/

Waihi Beach visitors

Happy New Year - roll on 2012

We have seen many visitors over the last part of 2011 and the early part of 2012 - from the UK, Australia and Germany and from all walks of life.

Most recently a professional baseball player and his family experiencing Waihi Beach for the first time and over the moon with what they saw and experienced. They are as passionate about baseball as we are about rugby and they have similar technical support with video clips of all the pitchers he will face available prior to each game and they play almost every day - can you imagine that - professional rugby players playing twice a week???

To find Waihi Beach - www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/map.html