Updated report on the Rena Incident – 7th June 2012

Since the grounding of Rena on Wednesday October 5th 2011, our small part of the beach at Papamoa bore the brunt of her debris and spilled oil.
We were naturally devastated for our beaches as well as our Resort. The Resort was much emptier throughout summer and even though the beach was tidied up in a matter of weeks, many regular campers were scared off by dramatised media reports.

Our beach has been open since November 2011 and things are now back to their beautiful ways, some say they’re even better than before. The devastation is behind us, and we are happy to report that surfers, swimmers and beach-goers are enjoying Papamoa Beach once again, despite it being a bit chilly this time of year! We are especially happy to report that wildlife, including many of our coasts little blue penguins, have been returned to their natural habitats.

Since our last report containers continue to be removed from the wreck and they are making good progress. Almost 900 of the 1368 containers have been recovered and debris no longer scars our coastline.

We have been enjoying the good weather over the past month or so, and are pleased to host holiday makers deciding to take a late summer holiday at Papamoa Beach TOP 10. We are looking forward to next summer and showing off our beach again!

Rena Incident - October 2011

The recent grounding of the ship Rena on Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty and its subsequent oil spill has impacted a narrow and small area of coastal Bay of Plenty.

We would like to assure you that the situation is not as bad as some of the media has made it out to be. The grounding of the Rena and the subsequent oil spill impacted a narrow and contained stretch of our coastline. The local community rallied quickly to provide support to Maritime NZ in a coordinated clean-up effort. The dedication and commitment of 6000+ volunteers means that the beaches have largely been restored to their former beauty ready for the holiday period.

This is the first time ever, anywhere in the world that volunteers have been used to assist in an oil spill recovery and have returned our beaches and surrounding environment to its pristine pre-spill conditions in record time.

Papamoa had two days where the oil washed up onto our beach, however in both instances the oil was cleaned up within 24hours. The smells that were reported in the media were in fact minimal in our area and did not last very long. Since those two days, there have been small pockets of the beach which have seen oil however we have not seen any significant amount of oil nor have we had any smells.

However as you may be aware, the salvage operations are continuing so we are not completely out of the woods yet. At this point no more oil has been leaked and the salvers are working very hard to get the remaining oil off the ship so that they can then remove the ship from the reef. The experts are confident that we will have a favourable outcome with the salvage efforts but it may still take a few weeks to remove the remaining oil from the ships tanks.

We at Papamoa Beach TOP 10 along with our community pride ourselves on the natural beauty and environment that our little piece of paradise and the wider Bay of Plenty offers, so we are passionate about sharing the experience with you . . .  so come and enjoy the best of the Bay of Plenty!

Helpful websites to stay informed;

• Papamoa Beach TOP 10 Facebook
• Environment Bay of Plenty
• Maritime NZ

Updates from Papamoa Beach TOP 10;