Haumoana beach is rugged and beautiful. Yes, there's the coastal erosion problem but residents Tracy Oliver and Mark Lawrence just love the place.
Ms Oliver explains “where else can you stand out in your pink dressing gown and cast a line and get a kahawai in 5 minutes?”
As for the erosion, well they've built a seawall replacing a crumbling wall that wasn't giving their home and family any protection.
Mr Lawrence said “What difference has it made? Peace of mind born from that.”
Mark and Tracy say if they didn't have the wall it would just be a matter of time before the sea would take their home just like the mangled remains of a neighbour’s property four doors down.
To add to the stress of battling the advancing ocean, Mark and Tracy now have another storm to deal with.
Earlier this week the Hastings City Council served the couple with abatement notices ordering removal of the wall under the resource management and building acts.
Council Chief Executive Ross McLeod confirmed this but said “issuing an abatement notice is not something that we do lightly or enjoy doing.”
But the upshot is that the Haumoana couple has 30 days to pull the wall out.
Mr Lawrence says that this is not going to happen.
Mr McLeod says the council's taking a hard line because there has been no official scrutiny as to how safe the wall is.
“There's been no such assessment done and the community relies on us to do this. I don't know, a concrete block could fall on a kid on the beach.”
But Ms Oliver says, there's more chance a child would have injured itself on the concrete blocks with protruding spikes that littered the beach until she and Mr Lawrence them and put them into the new wall.
Neighbour and head of the residents action group, Keith Newman agrees.
“If this (the wall) wasn't here his (Mr Lawrence) place would have been inundated in the last storm....he's done a public good.”
Ms Oliver said “to me it's a nice safe wall, what's the problem?”
The other problem, according to the council is the impact of the wall on sea flow, in particular how it will affect properties to the south.
Before the council sent off the abatement notices, Mr Lawrence and Ms Oliver had begun applying for a retrospective resource consent which would have cost them up to $80,000.
Ms Oliver said “that's not including lawyers’ fees. It's more like a $100,000.”
But they were prepared to pay that much because the prospect of facing the spring tides without a wall was inconceivable.
As Mr Lawrebnce said, it's not a matter of if but when the storms do come.”
The council has imposed a deadline to get rid of the wall - late next month but the Haumoana family say it will remain standing.
Mr McLeod says he'd rather not have to force them to remove it.
Erosion on this coast is likely to be an expensive and long term problem for councils and residents alike..
Ms Oliver said “we choose to live here and pay the cost. One day the sea will take the house but hey, that's our choice.”