Return home for Wairoa’s recovery manager

Former Wairoa woman Te Arohanui Cook has been appointed the recovery manager for Wairoa District Council in the aftermath of the June flooding event. 

She returns home from her role as regulatory, compliance and community services group manager at Westland District Council. 

Cook has extensive experience across 30 years of working in local government, Civil Defence and emergency management. 

She has also been a Civil Defence group controller for multiple weather events on the West Coast and was deployed as a group controller to the Hawke’s Bay Emergency Co-ordination Centre for the first two weeks of Cyclone Gabrielle. 

She was also the local controller and then recovery manager for the 2019 flood event in Westland. 

Born and raised in Wairoa, her career began with Wairoa District Council as the Wairoa Museum curator. She moved on to an emergency management officer role, and then into the governance manager position. 

She began her association with the former NZ Fire Service in Wairoa in 1999 and has held a range of positions, including a ministerial appointment on the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Fire Service Commission. 

Cook and partner Don Scott had already been planning their return to Wairoa when the June flooding hit the town. 

“For us, it was time to come home and I certainly never expected to be in a position where my experience would be needed. 

“While this flooding, on top of the Cyclone Gabrielle flooding, has been devastating for our community, I feel privileged to be back home and to be able to help wherever I can.”