Council has committed $10,000 toward the Mayoral Relief Fund to aid Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts.

Mayor Weston Kirton said that in deciding how to spend the money he wanted to do something to help people working at the forefront of the recovery.

"Working on a natural disaster recovery effort for an extended period of time such in this case can have significant impacts on peoples' physical, emotional, and mental well-being, as well as their personal and financial lives," he said.

"In recognition of these impacts I want to use the funding to offer workers, community leaders and others involved in the recovery a weekend of respite here in our amazing district to rest and recharge.

It is readily apparent that due to the scale of the disaster the recovery will be on-going for some significant time and that the people involved will need timeout.

With Ruapehu district being only a few hours' drive away from the impacted areas we are perfectly placed to offer some of these people a much needed break.

As well as benefiting the disaster recovery efforts this approach also directly supports our visitor and tourism sector.

We are still working through the details of how the scheme will be administered, however, if people would like to contribute please contact Council on 07 895 8188,” he said.

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