Shantelle with her dog at the campground. Photo: Supplied
Muriwai residents who have not been able to
return to their homes since the cyclone say they are still in the dark after having their houses reassessed.
Auckland council recently conducted a re-evaluation into the affected area of the Auckland coastal community, and 181 properties have had their sticker colour updated, leaving 83 still inaccessible.
Shantelle and her family have lived in the community for the past five years.
Since her family were evacuated from their property after the cyclone, she had been relying on the help of others for shelter.
"We are a family of six - four kids and two dogs - and we've been staying with amazing friends the past weeks and now just moved down to the campground three days ago," she said.
This morning Shantelle was told her red-stickered property has been re-graded to yellow, which meant she could go home and retrieve some belongings, but was not allowed to stay.
She said after waiting so long to learn the council re-assessment of her house, the result had not given her any reassurance.
"It's not much. We've been displaced for more than a month. We have neighbours right next to us that are white [stickered] but [they] don't even have power or water so they can't even live there anyway."
She said, although residents can see little progress in the assessments, being able to physically live in the affected areas could take a while.
"Not knowing where to go, it's unsettling," Shantelle said.
A few metres away in the campground, Pete had been living in a campervan for the past three weeks as his house remained red stickered.
"My landlord just sent me a text that on Friday saying that we can get a police escort up to our property, but we are only allowed one hour to grab what we can."
Muriwai residents have been at the campsite since their homes were red-stickered. Photo: Supplied/Bailey Brannon
Pete said all the uncertainty had taken a toll on his mental health.
"I'm overwhelmed. My anxiety has been going through the roof, I'm very frustrated, confused, sad and emotional," he said.
"We're just trying to find a two-bedroom place where we can go with my cat and my son, but it hasn't been great."
A few campervans away, resident Debra had lived in Muriwai for 40 years.
Her house is in a red zone, in between two big slips.
"The council has been doing what they can but I'm angry that I haven't heard from them yet.
"My house is in the red zone, and there's no way I can access it, even to clean it up, and I don't know when I would be able to, it's infuriating."
Debra said the possibility of having to move out of the community was upsetting.
"You know I've lived at Muriwai all this time - I want to be at Muriwai and I don't know if I will be able to live there again."
Auckland Emergency Service deputy recovery manager Mace Ward said the council was pleased to be able to allow people back in their homes, but understood it wasn't a good news day for everyone.
"Over the last four weeks we have been actively working on the ground and they had enough confidence with our building consent people to be able to change some some of the placards to red to white and yellow to white."
Ward said from the 181 properties that had updated stickers, 57 had been given a white sticker and were now ready to be accessed by their owners.
In relation to the lack of water in the affected areas, Watercare said it would be at least 10 days before services can be restored.
"While we had already restored service to customers who have been living in their homes, people who can now move back home because of a change of sticker status do not yet have water connected," it said through a statement.
It said crews had not been able to get into the area to assess any damage to pipes
"In the meantime, we've brought back a tanker to provide emergency water, located outside the Sand Dunz Beach Café."