Thousands of dollars worth of property, including poles that had been embedded in concrete, has been taken from a rebuild site at Nuhaka School in northern Hawke’s Bay.
Hit in the apparent brazen theft at the weekend were both the community of the school, which has run out of the nearby Jesus Christ Church of the Latter Day Saints chapel since the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, and preschool centre A Kiwiana Childhood, which was to have started on the school site on the day of the cyclone and has been without a home ever since.
The disappearance was discovered on Saturday and revealed by A Kiwiana Childhood in a Facebook call for community help, saying 50 fenceposts had been pulled from the ground, including the rails, and removed, along with 14 shade sail poles from 4.8m to 6m long, also pulled from the ground, about 15 lengths of timber removed from the sandpit, three gates, about 20 plants, a wheelbarrow, and a swing.
School property including an unpacked kitset of a small room, and laptop computers are also understood to have been stolen.
A Kiwiana Childhood is the venture of career preschool teachers Simon Yarrall and South African partner Jani Oosthuizen, who moved from Napier about five years ago and bought a preschool centre in Wairoa, with a new name and ultimately a decision to expand to the State Highway 2 Nuhaka community between Wairoa and Māhia.
The social media post, calling for help in finding the missing items, said: “We need your help. It was sad enough that we lost Nūhaka school & A Kiwiana Childhood due to Cyclone Gabrielle, only to discover today that someone has been on to the site and stolen building materials that were to be used in the rebuild.”
It continued: “This is going to put a hold on our rebuild so now our children will have to go without childcare for longer.”
Yarrall told Hawke’s Bay Today about 25 children are waiting for the centre to operate when the school is rebuilt, but it was a major hit when the theft was discovered — within the 24 hours since the site was last seen intact.
It was likely a digger-excavator and a truck were used, but by late Tuesday no one had reported anything linked and hopes of getting it back were starting to fade.
He was in two minds as to what may have happened, on the one hand hoping those responsible were from outside the district because of the potential for friction within, and on the other, hoping locals were involved, for the possibility of getting the property back.
“It sucks,” he said. “It hurts.”
Police had not been initially involved, because the couple did not want “trouble” in the community.
Nūhaka School principal Raelene McFarlane said there had been multiple break-ins at the school property which started towards the end of January.
“Every now and then we’ll pop in and there will be another piece of the playground missing or just a little bit of damage,” McFarlane said.
The stolen rebuild material in this most recent incident mostly belonged to A Kiwiana Childhood.
“It’s sad and frustrating, especially for our Kiwiana crew because they are just gorgeous and they are awesome people.”
She said the incidents were likely due to the site being unoccupied for months while waiting for the demolition and rebuild.
“The thing we find most hard is every time something else happens to the school or something goes missing or another piece is damaged in some way, it really hurts our whānau.
“It hurts the people who are already grieving for our buildings and our school and it makes what is already such an incredibly hard time even harder for our community.”
