Historic Village aka Waterworld

by Historic Village, Tauranga

Shopkeepers at Tauranga's Historic Village were this morning biding their time before they could enter their flood damaged shops and assess any losses after heavy rain over the weekend.

This morning the entrance to the village mimicked something of a ``waterworld'' and prevented shopkeepers from entering their premises. Water in the village was "knee deep" in some places but was slowly starting to recede.

Miranda Campbell, president of the Tauranga Gem and Mineral Club _ which has a shop on site, said it was her third year as president and her second flood.

When spoken to by the Bay of Plenty Times this morning, Ms Campbell hadn't been inside but anticipated the outcome.

"This is going to be messy I think," she said.

The Gem and Mineral Club had been one month away from having a major open house and had painted and upgraded its work shop. Ms Campbell said when she visited the site yesterday at 2. 30pm the flood waters seemed to be receding, when she came back again at 4. 30pm, however, the situation was much grimmer.

"I'm thinking we're back to square one," she said. "I was expecting after a high tide it would flow away again but something is definitely blocked. "

Keith Godwin, whose son Scott Godwin owns the Wood Museum at the village, said the water had slowly been working its way up since 4. 30pm last night. Mr Godwin managed to get inside and lift as much as he could onto shelves and chairs and hoped he'd be able to enter the shop again by noon. "It's unusual because this (water) has come from Tauriko and it usually comes from down the hill. "Tauranga City Council property services manager Anthony Averill, who was at the village at 9pm last night addressing the damage, said council was at the moment letting the water drain away.

"The main issue last night was when it was high tide, obviously the water wasn't going out the valley but I left there about half past nine and we seemed to think it was starting to drain away. "

Mr Averill said the Historic Village had a caretaker on site who was monitoring the situation.

"There's a pretty dedicated team down there that do the landscaping and look after the grounds so they'll be upset. "

The village has flooded several times since 1998.