Mayoralty Candidate On Stepping Up As Kaikōura Shook

Friday, 29 August 2025, 4:52 pm
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

It was just after midnight on November 14, 2016, and Kaikōura’s newly elected councillors and most of the staff were out of town. 

John Diver had just been voted off the council, but he had been trained as a civil defence logistics officer, so when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck he stepped in to fill the void. 

‘‘For the first 30 seconds I was worried what was going to happen to my house and then my focus turned to organising civil defence for the next 10 hours and all that training kicked in.’’ 

The council had been due to move into its new council building that week, so Mr Diver opened it up and got down to work. 

Mr Diver co-ordinated the civil defence response until Mayor Winston Gray, the councillors and staff were able to return from their council retreat at Saint Arnaud - by helicopter, as the roads were closed.

He had support from three council staff, who had remained behind in Kaikōura, and his wife Lorraine, who was the chairperson of the local Red Cross. 

Mrs Diver opened up the Red Cross depot and another command centre was set up for the police, St John and the fire brigade. 

The lack of cellphone coverage made communication difficult, but the community rallied round and supported each other, Mr Diver said. 

‘‘It was an exciting time.’’ 

His involvement in local politics dates back to the 1980s when he was appointed to the sport and recreation committee under the then Kaikōura County Council. 

He was then co-opted on to the community council, which looked after the town, in 1986 as a 26-year-old. 

‘‘We looked after the reserves and facilities. But everything had to go through the main council, the Kaikōura County Council. 

‘‘It had 13 councillors and the rural outnumbered the town. It was a ward system back then. 

‘‘I’ve always opposed ward systems because you can look after your ward and you don’t always look at the big picture.’’ 

An electrical contractor, Mr Diver was first elected to the Kaikōura District Council in 1998 and has served two terms as deputy mayor, in 2001 under Jim Abernethy and in 2013 under Winston Gray.

After being voted off council in 2016, Mr Diver stood for mayor in 2019, losing to Craig Mackle by just 12 votes. 

He was re-elected to the council in 2022. 

Mr Diver is standing for mayor in October’s local government election against incumbent mayor Craig Mackle and Dave Anderson. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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