Mark
Stanford, General Manager of the Nanuku Auberge Resort Fiji, has advised
that while his resort is “a bit of a mess right
now” with the resort’s gardens and beachfront bearing the brunt of
TC Winston over the weekend, the resort has not suffered
structural damage and is aiming to be ready to resume full
operations as early as 1 March 2016.
Mr Stanford
said his first inspection of the resort on Sunday morning with his
engineering team revealed extensive damage to the resort’s
foreshore by huge wind-driven waves, and several trees had been
uprooted and general foliage and plants flattened.
The bure at the resort’s nearby private airstrip was also damaged
in the storm.
“But apart from some bamboo fencing
on the resort, it appears our club house and villas have all
escaped structural damage which makes us very lucky indeed,” Mr
Stanford said.
Having been given advance notice by
the Fijian government’s meteorological services, Mr Stanford and
his well-rehearsed management team took swift action to evacuate
guests and ensure all staff were safely with their families before
putting the resort under protective wraps as the cyclone bore down
on the Pacific Harbour region.
“We are in already
in full clean-up mode and we doing all in our power to hopefully
be ready to accept our guests and resume full service by 1
March,” Mr Stanford said.
Mr Stanford cautioned
that while his team is pulling out all the stops, several factors
still need to be taken into account.
“Our staffing
levels have been impacted with many of our team having gone home
to be with their families and locally sourced supplies will
definitely be affected in the short term,” he said. “Most importantly of all, we need to ensure we are able to
operate in a completely safe and comfortable environment. While this was cyclone was one of the biggest, if not the
biggest to ever hit Fiji, the Fijian people are extremely
resilient and very used to this type of situation – and no more so
than at Nanuku where our staff are once again demonstrating their
wonderful spirit in the face of adversary.”
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