Bay Harbour: February 23, 2022

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Visitor numbers drop
at bayside museums
• By Kristie Boland
MUSEUM VISITOR numbers
are dwindling with some
museums seeing nearly half the
amount of visitors compared to
last year.
Akaroa Museum visitor
numbers are at 50-60 per cent
of last year’s, with the month of
January – usually the museum’s
busiest – at less than 50 per cent.
Less than 2500 people visited in
January 2022, compared to 5000
the previous January.
Museum director Lynda
Wallace said this may be due to
the requirement of vaccination
passes, along with people being
cautious about travelling this
summer.
“Akaroa Museum’s experience
is not unique. Other museums
throughout the country, particularly
in smaller centres, have also
experienced 40-50 per cent drops
in visitor numbers this summer,”
Wallace said.
Visitor numbers were down 40
per cent at Okains Bay Museum.
However, it was only open 114
days compared to 357 in the
2019-20 year.
The museum reopened in
October 2020 after a six-month
QUIET: Akaroa Museum visitor numbers have dropped by
nearly half, compared to last year.
closure, under a new structure
with reduced hours.
Okains Bay Museum general
manager Wendy Riley said: “Our
2021 December numbers were
slightly up on 2020 due to a new
event bringing in additional and
new visitors.
“Christmas at the Museum was
so successful we plan on making
it an annual event.”
Riley said this January was
down 23 per cent on January 2021.
February was likely to show
a considerable reduction
in numbers due to the
cancellation of the Waitangi
Day commemorations, which
generally attract 1800-3000
visitors, Riley said.
Wednesday February 23 2022 Bay Harbour News
NEWS 5
‘We’ve just got to
try and do our best’
• From page 1
Diamond Harbour
Volunteer Fire Brigade chief
Bob Palmer has found the
changes stressful.
Diamond Harbour now has
two teams, one on day shifts
and one on night shifts, and the
crews are encouraged not
to mix outside of their
groups.
“It’s actually quite
stressful because it means
that during the day and
the night you have only
half of your brigade
that you can use and
sometimes some of them
are away or unwell so
a bit of pressure on the
troopies at the moment,” Palmer
said.
The Diamond Harbour
brigade has a pool of about 21
firefighters. Volunteers have to
ensure all their data is up to date
when they are available.
“It’s quite stressful because
you have to be right on the ball
about who is available and who
is not. It’s more of a constant
thing,” Palmer said.
“There’s usually a good pool
to draw from but when you’re
on half that strength it becomes
a bit more stressful.”
In the event of an emergency
that required more numbers,
Palmer said they had the option
of calling on a neighbouring
brigade. Or, if the whole brigade
was needed, they would do their
best to work separate from each
other.
“We’ve just got to try and do
our best to keep our team safe
from infection, it’s
quite a difficult thing
to do but we just do
the best that we can,”
Palmer said.
Sumner and
Lyttelton fire brigades
are doing something
similar.
Chief fire officer
for Sumner, Daryl
Sayer, has split the
team in two.
Due to lower number
availability during the day,
the brigade cannot maintain
separation for work hours callouts.
“We ensure that precautions
are taken like masking and
distancing as much as possible.
The down side is that half the
brigade can’t train with the
other half for the time being,”
said Sayer.
Lyttelton Volunteer Fire
Brigade has split into two teams
who are taking week about with
separate training, said chief fire
officer Mark Buckley.
Bob Palmer
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