Hans van Kregten (left) and Meredith Stewart with Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz accepting on behalf of the Tairāwhiti Multicultural Council. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
Gisborne residents, groups and businesses who went above and beyond during the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle a year ago have been honoured in a ceremony.
Among them, a pilot who turned her small plane into a school bus, a woman who held classes in her carport for the children of Te Karaka for seven weeks, and countless community-minded neighbours who shovelled silt and housed the displaced.
More than 50 nominees, put forward by other members of the public, were honoured at the Gisborne Super Hero Awards on Thursday evening, held at the War Memorial Theatre.
Katie Edwards, a Gisborne pilot who repurposed her 10-seater aircraft normally used for mapping flights in the Pacific, to reunite families whose children were away at boarding school.
On one particularly busy day, she said, she flew 120 kids back to their homes.
"I flew down, we used Bridge Pa and they had an aero club. The schools were just dropping the kids off in van-loads, and I sat down there all day and loaded them into the plane, hung out with them, if I was delayed I went down and got a heap of food for them."
She said she hoped, for some, it had made a lasting impressing.
"And I also thought, it's pretty cool if I inspire one person to go flying, you know, in the middle of all this."
Pilot Katie Edwards with Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
There were so many stories like this one - Mayor Rehette Stoltz said one in particular had stuck with her.
Days after the cyclone, the prime minister's office wrote to her saying they were coming to visit, and they needed transport.
"No telephones, I had no idea, but I knew that Tom Cairns [the principal] from Gisborne Boys' High lived on the same street as my sister. So off I went to Tom's house."
"Tom wasn't there, so I left a note on his door saying 'Tom, can you please have a van ready tomorrow morning...' And apparently the van needed quite a bit of cleaning, but the next morning at council, there was the Gisborne Boys' High van."
The crowd gathers in the atrium of the War Memorial Theatre before the awards ceremony starts. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
Meredith Stewart, along with Hans van Kregten, accepted an award on behalf of the Tairāwhiti Multicultural Council.
The group had helped 150 families during the cyclone, providing accommodation, food and medicine, as well as water pumps and help with application forms for financial support.
Stewart said it was great for those who had put in the hard work to be recognised, although many felt they did not deserve it.
"Everybody is very humble, and they just get on with the mahi," she said.
The ceremony featured a performance by Samantha Grace and Hadow Reid. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
Half-time entertainment was provided by musicians Samantha Grace and Hadow Reid, with a song written by a local songwriter, Te Whaiororangihuia Webster, from Te Karaka, called 'Chosen'.
A few big groups were welcomed onto the stage, too - among them, the residents of Fergusson Drive, Mangatū Marae, and the team from Three Rivers Medical.
More FM radio host Bevan Chapman received multiple nominations, and cheers erupted when he took to the stage.
He had slept on the floor of the studio and talked through the night to let others know they were not alone.
And that was one of the messages that rang clear throughout the evening - through it all, the community of Gisborne made sure people were never truly alone.
