Coromandel Life Spring/Holiday 2014

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In our last issue , we featured popular
local chef Andy Corles, owner of
Castle Rock Café at Te Rerenga, in
both the Coastal Road Trip, and the reporting
of the bake-off competition at the ‘Taste of
Matarangi’ Food Festival.
The first of July, shortly after the issue
was released, Andy suffered a devastating
accident, which has dramatically changed
most aspects of life for him as well as for his
wife Shelley and their little girl Maddie.
In appalling wet weather, while Andy was
driving to pick up Maddie in Coromandel, his
car aquaplaned, hit a bank, overturned, and
he suffered a broken neck.
With prompt attention from his friends at
the Matarangi and Whangapoua Volunteer
Rural Fire Force first response teams,
and an airlift to Auckland Hospital in the
Westpac helicopter, he was then transferred
to Middlemore where he spent 29 days in
intensive care.
His fracture was successfully operated on
to fuse vertebrae in his neck, but during
recovery he survived several cardiac arrests.
Andy recovered from the initial trauma but has
become tetraplegic, paralysed from the chest
down, with full use of both arms and the left
hand and 30% function in the right hand.
Currently residing in the Spinal unit at Otara
and undergoing intensive rehabilitation he
is expected home by the 15th of October.
Renovations are being made to both his home
and café.
In a typical display of the quiet and sincere
support, common amongst rural communities,
initiatives sprang into life to give Andy and his
family hope and courage in moving forward.
Anna Yates, Te Rerenga Primary School Principal
and Shelley’s employer, set up a collection
centre at the school and created a website page
on the ‘Givealittle’ site. By the end of August the
website had received over $23,000 in generous
donations.
Andy’s mate Wayne “Puku” Stevens at the
Matarangi Beach Store set up a bucket
collection in his shop, which has raised over
$3000 so far, and then proceeded to organise a
golf tournament followed by an auction at The
Dunes Golf Resort.
In his inimitable style Puku managed to acquire a
huge range of quality goods for the bidding, the
golf event was well supported and the day raised
over $14,000 for the cause. The Dunes Golf
Resort made the course and clubhouse available
free and donated a generous percentage of their
bar profits to the cause.
Andy’s mother-in-law, Margaret Briggs
thanked everyone present on his behalf for
their generosity and told the crowd that the
money raised would take care of their business
mortgage for the next year and had taken away
the pressure of any immediate financial worries.
Meantime, Andy and Shelley’s nephew Dyon, a
trained chef that returned from Melbourne, has
taken over the kitchen at Castle Rock Café. So
it is business as usual and in due course with
some adaptations to the layout, Andy should be
Many learned of
Andy’s accident
suddenly,
via Shelley’s
shocking
Facebook entry
of July 2.
She has kept
wellwishers
informed with
daily posts.
MATARANGI FOLKS TO THE RESCUE
A COMMUNITY RALLIES SUPPORT
FOR CASTLE ROCK CAFE’S
ANDY CORLES
Although it breaks my heart to say this .... my beautiful Andy was in a
horrific car crash on Tuesday afternoon. He has a broken back and severed
cord. At present we are not 100% sure of the future ahtough the café will
not be closing.
Thank you all for your business.
Shelley
or ema
insanely
good coffee
Winner 14 NZ Coffee Awards
By Ian Patrick
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Castle Rock Café
July 2
Holy crap! Puk just phoned to tell me how much money he raised. Andy
cried, Puk cried. One things for sure - the café has got manyyears in it
to come. This community ROCKS!!
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Castle Rock Café
August 15
SMOKED... salmon, mussels, fish, scallops, eel, prawns, platters
TAKEAWAY or SHOP ONLINE •
Vacuum Packed
For Freshness
52 COROMANDEL LIFE LATE SPRING/HOLIDAY