In March, Cyclone Pam ravaged Vanuatu. Its 360 kilometre per hour winds wreaked havoc on the Pacific island archipelago leaving 11 dead, more than 90,000 people homeless and a damage bill of $600 million.
Insight takes a closer look at the power play behind the relief effort.
People seek refuge from the scorching sun after Cyclone Pam devastated their island Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
Listen to Insight - Vanuatu & the Tussle over Cyclone Aid:
People salvaged what they could after the cyclone struck Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
It was only a few days after the cyclone they called the Monster had swept through Vanuatu.
I was accompanying a group of local business people who'd decided to club together, load up their barge and get food and water out to some of Vanuatu's more remote islands.
The Epi Dream at work Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
As we pulled into a bay in the Shepherds group in Vanuatu's north, we came across a gleaming super yacht, the Dragonfly, at anchor.
The Dragonfly anchors in the remote Shepherd Islands Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
Curious and hoping for an internet connection so I could file my stories, our barge pulled up alongside.
Instead of wealthy yachties soaking up the tropical sun and feasting on delicacies, I found a crack team of medics, engineers and technicians, busy ferrying thousands of litres of water they had desalinated and purified via the yacht's on board system to villagers waiting on the beach.
"A floating city has arrived," said one Shepherd Island villager Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
"When the storm hit, we as a crew and fortunately, supported by the owners, felt that there was no better team to come down and help, providing aid, search and rescue, delivering water, delivering food and just trying to do as much as we can to help the people of Vanuatu," said the Dragonfly's skipper, Mike Gregory.
The owners weren't on board and did not want their identity revealed.
The multi-skilled and multi-national team included ex-navy seals who were running the logistics, a "smoke-jumper", doctors and water purification experts.
Lucas a US Pararescue Medic running one of the emergency health clinics, this one was at Lamen Island North Epi. Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
They were all brought together by the Dragonfly owners to deliver aid and provide an essential emergency response to Vanuatu's subsistence communities, most of whom had not received aid more than a week after the cyclone.
I left the barge and joined the team.
As a speaker of the local Bislama, I found a useful role translating for the crew as we made contact with the villages.
Reporter Koroi Hawkins (left) with Chief Ben Lovo of Erromango who said he was able to warn people to take shelter a few hours before Pam made landfall by listening to Radio New Zealand International. Photo: RNZI
Over 12 days we traveled from the Shepherd Islands in the north right through to Tanna in the south.
It was going on two weeks since the cyclone and everywhere we went we found people in desperate need of help.
A widow and her granddaughter, in front of what used to be their home, Shepherd Islands. Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
Some villages were in a worse state than others but the core needs were the same - water, food, shelter and medical supplies.
But Captain Gregory said it had not been easy getting the green light.
He said he had to first convince Vanuatu's disaster authorities they had a limited time to utilise his huge resource, a vessel with a 4500 nautical mile range and 27 knot capability to speed around the far flung islands.
Military aircraft from New Zealand, Australia and France were the first to reach Vanuatu after the cyclone Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
Back in the capital Port Vila fast arriving international aid was being stacked and stored in warehouses.
Vanuatu's disaster management plan had kicked in led by the Vanuatu Disaster Management Office (NDMO), and all organisations had been banned from distributing their relief supplies until its disaster assessments were carried out.
Vanuatu Red Cross transports sanitation kits, tarpaulins and water containers to storage. Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
The NDMO's technical advisor Benjamin Shing said there were two reasons why the government wanted to control the distribution of aid.
"The first one is to get government ownership over the reconstruction process and the relief efforts, but also to ensure that all the aid that's delivered is delivered in the most efficient and the most effective manner," said Mr Shing.
"It's also recognition that all our development partners are treated equally, and also to be transparent and accountable to them."
A nightly press briefing at the NDMO head office in Port Vila Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
The government was also mindful of Vanuatu people's resilience.
"A lot of them live off their root crops and the government has calculated that they will still be able to survive with the food that they have and especially with the yam season at the present. The government is banking on the people being able to use those until relief supplies reach them," said the chief government spokesperson at the time, Kiery Mannaseh.
Kerby and Ellen Vatoko display the last of their yam covered by mud from the floods Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
The assessments ended up taking two weeks and in that time people in need of food, shelter, water and medical supplies were left to fend for themselves.
Many people just wanted some indication that help was on its way.
"The people who are here just want to know if the government could give some answers to them quickly," said Sikal Iaruel, who had taken shelter in one of the numerous make-shift evacuation centres.
Ralph and Mary Yalu and their family at the Freswota Evacuation Centre Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
But help was still not coming. And while they refused to openly criticise the government, it was obvious NGOs and aid agencies were getting frustrated.
One of the NGOs, Save the Children, had begun delivering aid to evacuation centres despite the government ban.
Vanuatu's disaster authorities said they were trying to manage relief distribution so as to ensure social equity.
An emergency management expert and senior lecturer at Massey University, Jane Rovins, said Vanuatu's predicament was seen when disaster strikes all over the world.
"The problem in a place like Vanuatu is logistically it's a bit of a nightmare. You have hundreds of islands, some are inhabited and some are not. You have a lack of landing strips to bring in aircraft. You have a lack of deep water ports so they can't bring in the big shipments. You're relying on small boats, helicopters in a remote part of the world."
Aid delivery "complicated by politics"
A ni-Vanuatu academic at Victoria University of Wellington, Pala Molisa, said the aid distribution was also hampered by politics, "such as inter-communal politics, political issues around what communities get what, which leaders are seen to take the lead and so on".
Villagers on South Epi had been waiting for a week and a half with no relief. They listen to Prime Minister Joe Natuman's reassurances that aid is on its way. Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
Dr Rovins said Vanuatu's insistence on controlling aid was a growing global trend.
"We're seeing this more and more where governments are asserting themselves and saying 'we want your help, but you've got to help in ways we think we need help'."
Ian McInnes said a good disaster action plan shouldn't entail full disaster assessments before people get help.
"At some point it breaks down, and it's very important that government and the humanitarian actors get together and work out exactly how are they going to action those plans all the way to the end of the line because if it breaks before it gets to the community well it hasn't done the job."
Damage bill hits $610 million
In the next few weeks the Vanuatu government will wind up its humanitarian relief efforts and look to the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase.
A child helps collecting water for the family Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins
The World Bank has said the country's damage bill is NZ$610 million. There is concern the country does not have the capacity to fund this with huge loans and there needs to be re-prioritisation of existing development projects.
Meanwhile, the Vanuatu government has called for future relief funding and donations to be channeled through its own coffers.
"Routing all aid through governments is a bad idea for all the obvious reasons not least it can be hard to trace," said Ian McInnes, the CEO of Tear Fund and the chairperson of New Zealand's NGO Disaster Relief Forum.
"There can be problems with corruption and that was the case in some of the early food distribution and I saw the government move quickly and rightly to say that they would prosecute anyone found stealing food aid.
Dr Rovins said the real question was whether the government had the ability to deal with tens of millions of dollars in aid.
"If they can prove fiscal management I have no problem with the idea that aid would go straight through the government. They know their country better than others."
Vanuatu is still reeling from the storm they called the Monster but many are calling it a miracle. After all, only 11 people died and major outbreaks of disease have been avoided.
The country has six months to hone its disaster management skills before the start of another cyclone season.
A medical team from the Superyacht Dragonfly run an emergency medical clinic at Cooks Bay Erromango. Children were getting cuts from all the debris left by the cyclone and without proper care many were getting badly infected.
RNZI reporter Koroi Hawkins arrives at Whenuapai for possible passage on a defense force flight to Port Vila. 16 March 2015.
Squadron Leader Steve Thornley is heading up the Vanuatu missions. He says when flying over Tanna Island they saw a lot of destruction. 16 March 2015.
Relief supplies bound for Port Vila being loaded at Whenuapai air force base. 16 March 2015.
First RNZAF C130 Hercules leaves for Vanuatu at 10:30am. Flight time 5 hours. 16 March 2015.
Hanna Butler of the New Zealand Red Cross says the humanitarian needs in Vanuatu are expected to be overwhelming. 16 March 2015.
Second Hercules departing Whenuapai. RNZI reporter Koroi Hawkins will soon be reporting from Port Vila, Vanuatu. 16 March 2015.
Vila Bauerfield International Airport reopened. 16 March 2015.
Vanuatu red cross volunteers unpack relief supplies for distribution as soon as they are off the planes. 16 March 2016.
Evidence of cyclone Pam. Vila Airport yet to receive first commercial flight. 16 March 2016.
Port Vila. Power is out. Water runs only in some places. Police Curfew has started. There is so much destruction. Koroi Hawkins. 16 March 2015.
Birds chirping in leafless trees in Port Vila. 17 March 2015.
Many boats are lying along the shore in Port Vila. They are the lucky ones. Others are at the bottom of the ocean. 17 March 2015.
Command center, Vila National Disaster Management Office (NDMO). 17 March 2015.
Vila National Disaster Management Office control center bustling with activity. 17 March 2015.
In Vila you can hear hammers banging as people try to rebuild lives. A bus driver asked if there was another cyclone coming. 17 March 2015.
The National Disaster Management Office has confirmed the death toll as 11, five on Tanna Island, six in Vila. 17 March 2015.
Heading out to Fresh Wota settlement, Vila's most populous. An evacuation centre has been set up at the school. Reporter Koroi Hawkins is both curious and apprehensive about what awaits him.
Fresh Wota School evacuation centre. Population 600 - equals 600 moving stories. 17 March 2015
Fresh Wota residents Ralph & Mary Yalu and family. Their home was destroyed by cyclone Pam. Their local school is also gone. 17 March 2015.
Relief supplies arrive at Fresh Wota from National Disaster Management Office. Drinking water and food are the major needs here. 17 March 2015.
A ray of hope. Mary Yalu lost her home but gained a grandchild. Pamina is one of many babies born during cyclone Pam. 17 March 2015.
Electricity and water suppliers UNELCO are hard at work. This crew say electricity is restored to many areas, but say it will take months to restore the full grid. 17 March 2015.
National Disaster Management Office truck returns to HQ after relief delivery to evacuation centres. The items include rice, canned food and toiletries. 17 March 2015.
Vanuatu volunteers store donated goods. Most are victims yet work all day with a smile. It is remarkable and humbling. 17 March 2015.
As far as the eye can see in every direction everything is torn, broken or simply no more. paradise lost...for now. 17 March 2015.
The perks of a blackout in Vila. No lights but all the stars are out. 17 March 2015.
Good morning from Vila. Heading to the hospital hoping to speak with the medical superintendent about the situation there. 18 March 2015.
The medical superintendent at Port Vila hospital says a large influx of patients is straining resources but that a mobile hospital to be staffed by Australian and NZ doctors arrives today.
Red Cross Vanuatu says it will wait for National Disaster Management Office to give the OK before it starts distributing supplies. 18 March 2015.
Save The Children says it is already distributing food and basic items to 2000 homeless in Vila, with the government's knowledge. 18 March 2015.
On my way to Mele village. I've heard root crops are inundated, a huge problem for many who rely on gardens for survival. - RNZI Reporter Koroi Hawkins.
A story reporters hear often: "Now we have a water view... we didn't before." 18 March 2015.
Books drying on a slab that used to be the Melemaat Primary School, with 400 students. Schools in Vanuatu will reopen in a few weeks.
A creek at Prima still runs muddy. Houses and remnants of houses lie scattered across the muddy wasteland.
About to take off for a flyover of Efate. Plane door removed for better video shooting.
The Maule is a STOL (short takeoff and landing) aircraft based in Torba Province, run by Wings of Hope flying doctor service in Vanuatu. Reporter Kim Baker-Wilson has butterflies.
Vila looks beautiful, yet desolate from the air.
Emergency banking is available at Tyock Street, Vanuatu - at the ANZ manager's residence. The main branch is yet to reopen. 18 March 2015.
Measles vaccinations are ramping up in Vanuatu after the cyclone. 18 March 2015.
The race to immunise against measles in Vanuatu. 19 March 2015.
Waiting at today's vaccination drive. 19 March 2014.
The children's ward at Port Vila's hospital was a hard place to be. KBW 19 March 2015.
Vanuatu's Director General of Climate Change Jotham Napat says aid distribution starts tomorrow (20th March). Vanuatu State of Emergency declared 18 March.
Chico farm in Teoma has been selling live chickens for 200 vatu - 300 less than before the cyclone. It was too popular. 19 March 2015.
Women and children bathe in water gushing from the rocky hillside at Number 2 lagoon. Heavy rains made this torrent. 19 March 2015.
Relief deliveries have started for Vila. Buses filled with food and other items are on their way. Still no shelter kits but it's a start! 19 March 2015.
NDMO staff say a ferry laden with relief supplies left for Tanna Island tonight. They say more ferries will be loaded tomorrow. 19 March 2015.
Still no power for us in Port Vila. Reporter Koroi Hawkins makes the most of the battery left in the laptop. 19 March 2015.
The newspaper is back in print as electricity to parts of Vila continues to be restored. The front page questions relief aid delays. 20 March 2015.
Govt tax exemptions on building materials are coming into effect. There is a private sector forum on economic recovery today. 20 March 2015.
A mobile hospital is being erected at Vila hospital to help with influx of patients from cyclone Pam.
Unicef volunteers packing 700 school kits for Vanuatu kids affected by Pam. Many schools have been destroyed.
I am going out on the barge Epi Dream to the Shepherd Islands during the the next 3 days. The group was hit badly by Pam. - reporter Koroi Hawkins.
Helping to fill 2000 x 10 litre water containers to go to Shepherd Is. Only one hose pipe. Could be here a while!
Thank goodness for splitters!
D.I.Y efficiency in action.
Progressing well, still a little over thousand to go I think. Six hoses now, and the one from the nearby depot is high pressure. 20 March 2015
Barge has arrived. Now we load it!
Loading 50 x 25kg rice bags to go to Shepherd Islands
Chain gang loading water onto the Epi Dream barge bound for Shepherd Islands.
And we're off. Have tonnes of water, food and medical supplies, and personnel. Hope it's enough. The sea is rougher than expected. First stop Matapoa ETA 2:00 am VUT.
Dawn on Saturday 21 March. Arriving at Mataso Island.
There is no landing so we run up the Mataso island beach. I'm with a doctor, a nurse and a guide. Don't know what to expect.
No shelter kits have reached Mataso in the 7 days since Cyclone Pam.
Rachel, Naomi and little Joycelyn rest in a bit of shade.
A makeshift prayer bell swings over the wreckage of Mataso Island's church. Everyone I meet here says God Bless You.
A woman died of head injuries 6 days after Cyclone Pam. There were no medics here. Grandchildren placed their gifts to her on the grave. 23 March 2015.
Saturday. No medicines in Mataso. Dr Jim said dehydration, respiratory illness and infected cuts are the main concerns. 23 March 2015.
The force of nature. A wide shot of a destroyed house on Mataso island.
Something shiny buried in a tree trunk. Probably roofing iron.
These lads on Mataso made the most of the destruction around them, turning this coconut into a seesaw trampoline. 23 March 2015.
Mataso kids have lost their school.
Some Mataso kids were sick and getting cuts from debris. Dr Jimmy warned them to be careful.
This baby on Mataso was not shy and kept trying to grab the camera. There was no medicines or shelter at the time.
Mataso people have had no water, shelter or medicine for 6 days. The supplies we left are only enough for a few days.
Heading to Epi in the Shepherds group now. 23 March 2015.
South Epi was hit hard by Cyclone Pam.
No learning here at the moment.
Finally I can talk about good news! Helicopter drops water container on South Epi. 24 March 2015
So some help is getting through, and PM says a boat is leaving Vila this morning for these areas.
Helicopter drop includes water and rebuilding supplies. 24 March 2015.
Sakaio and Tessa Cook and family. 23 March 2015
Sakaio and Tessa Cook show me where they hid from Cyclone Pam after telling their children to save their grandchildren.
Sakaio and Tessa Cook and family at home. 23 March 2015
The clinic at Emae was damaged by Cyclone Pam. 24 March 2015.
1200 Emae people are affected and now have poor access to medicine.
At Lemanu Island, North of Epi. Its better off than other areas but they said this was the first relief to reach them.
Nurse Leiwia stands where she delivered Lemanu's cyclone baby Patrick Pam. She says medical supplies are low. 23 March 2015.
Hope to be back on Mataso tody for first time since Saturday. Praying everyone is okay and hoping relief has got through. 24 March 2015.
Last day in the Shepherds has been very heartwarming was able to return to Mataso and see some meaningful assistance. 24 March 2015.
I've helped clear tree-blocked paths and translated for a medical and water purification team. So happy to help a little. 24 March 2015.
Mixed emotions at the medical tent. 24 March 2015.
Met baby Joel again he got a clean bill of health. Good to see relief getting to Mataso. Hope recovery starts soon. KH 24 March 2015.
Steaming towards Eramango 25 March 2015.
Eramango was directly hit by Pam. 25 March 2015.
It's two weeks tomorrow since Cyclone Pam. 25 March 2015.
Got there this morning no food or shelter relief has reached them. 25 March 2015.
Child on Eramango 25 March 2015
Eramango chief Jason Mete interviewed on satellite phone. The first phone call since Cyclone Pam. 26 March 2015.
People came out to watch. 26 March 2015.
Tanna Island. Everywhere so far food is down to a few days supply. So many villages so few resources very little time. 26 March 2015
Water airlifted to villages on Tanna. 26 March 2015
Warship off of Tanna. Has Blackhawk helicopters on it. 26 March 2015
"Flying out of Vanuatu I leave my heart behind with the beautiful people in all the villages I have been to" Koroi Hawkins. 29 March 2015.
