![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/hastings-house-G33A2M35KVAYDGSV6NCJBSHK5M.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cYou can have it, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Linda Hall for Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Businessman Jeremy Hanaray\u2019s act of generosity has warmed the heart of Hastings\u2019 mayor, who says it\u2019s exactly what the cyclone-recovering city is all about.<\/p>\n
Because Hanaray has not given away something small.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s gifted a two-flat, stucco house to the family of one of his long-standing customers who lost their home in Cyclone Gabrielle.<\/p>\n
For years, Hanaray had the rental property right beside his Hastings CBD hunting and fishing shop Rivers to Ranges in Nelson St North, Hastings.<\/p>\n
He said he had been thinking about removing the 80-year-old home from the site for a long time.<\/p>\n
Tenants occasionally caused him issues and he thought it would be valuable to create a car park for the shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put brand new carpet in, and it was destroyed. After that, I\u2019d had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
What began as a decision to get rid of the property soon turned into something much more meaningful.<\/p>\n
Hanaray was chatting with a long-standing customer earlier this year when he casually asked, \u201cYou\u2019re not in need of a property, are you, mate?\u201d<\/p>\n
The customer replied: \u201cJeremy, actually I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, see that house that\u2019s in front of you there, you can have it, mate\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Oh, bro\u2019 he said to me; \u2018I knew I needed to come and see you today for some reason, and it wasn\u2019t just to buy ammo\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparations for the move began on in April.<\/p>\n
Sadly in August, before the move could take place, the customer passed away.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The house was transported on Monday night to Om\u0101hu. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Hanaray and the man\u2019s wife and family, who paid for the moving costs, all continued with the project, and on Monday night the house was relocated to their new site in Om\u0101hu.<\/p>\n
Brittons House Movers Hawke\u2019s Bay branch manager Elwyn Fryer said the move went \u201csuper smoothly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was on site overnight on Monday, our guys put the piles in place on Tuesday and it was lowered down on Wednesday ready for the family to start renovations,\u201d Fryer said.<\/p>\n
Hastings Mayor Wendy Schollum said the move was a reminder that cyclone recovery was far from over for some families.<\/p>\n
Om\u0101hu bore the full force of Cyclone Gabrielle, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate as homes, the local marae, and burial sites were damaged or left submerged by floodwaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than three years on from Cyclone Gabrielle, there are still families working to rebuild their lives and find their way back into a home.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil is also continuing to repair and rebuild roads, bridges and infrastructure across our district. Recovery is still very real for many people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes this so special is the generosity of one family helping another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful example of the way people across Hastings have looked after each other since the cyclone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish the family all the very best as they make this house their home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanaray is now excited to have a car park for his customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want people walking too far with firearms. I\u2019ve been wanting to do this for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just sad that my mate isn\u2019t here to see the final results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou can have it, mate.\u201d By Linda Hall for Local Democracy Reporting Businessman Jeremy Hanaray\u2019s act of generosity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20277,687,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-632305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-hawke-s-bay","tag-housing-and-infrastructure","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}