Tasman begins to regroup after Motupiko River bursts banks

RNZ News

20 hours ago

Across the sodden Tasman district, with rain still falling, the clean-up continues.
Almost every winter, a flood hits Quinney's Bush Camp, with the Motupiko River spilling into the back of the holiday park, while they are closed.
Manager Andrew Quinney said he saw the forecast and did their usual flood prep last week, before hunkering down with his partner and their six-month-old baby, but this time, the water swept through the front of the property.
"It did come up quickly," he said. "It was a good five minutes from almost nothing to probably shin deep and flowing quite fast.
Andrew Quinney faces months of mahi to tidy up, after the Motupiko River flooded across his bush camp.
Photo:
RNZ/Tess Brunton
"Then it just got worse and worse, to the point where it was almost a metre, probably in some parts, more than a metre high."
Quinney tried to move their animals to higher ground, risking his life to protect their guinea pigs.
The flood was the biggest he could remember, with the stream out front joining up with the river, after it breached its banks.
For 24 hours, they were trapped on the property, with water to their doorway most of the time.
Now they were facing a huge clean-up, with lots of damaged fences and equipment, debris and muck, but their campground bathrooms and kitchen were OK.
"It's quite daunting, looking around and seeing all of the damage, and all of the mess you need to clean up."
Quinney said they were fortunate to have insurance, as he expected it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up and hoped to get some contractors to help ease the load.
They aimed to open as usual on Labour Weekend.
"We have had a lot of damage here in the campground, but I don't want people to forget that it's the whole valley," he said. "The whole valley's been destroyed.
"Everyone in the valley's experienced loss, experienced damage and we've all got a lot of work to clean up."
Nearby in the Korere Tophouse Valley, Tarsh and Daniel Newport's farm was inundated with water, and they lost chunks of their land to the Motupiko River.
They expected more than 100mm of rain, but they got more than 250mm in less than two days.
"You know, when you can hear [the river] from your house, which is probably half a kilometre away, when you hear boulders bowling down the river, you know there's a big volume of water and you certainly don't get much sleep," Daniel Newport said.
Daniel Newport surveys the damage to his farm on the banks of the Motupiko River.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
The flooded river not only scoured out their paddocks in several places, but it washed away 200 tonnes of rock, installed recently by the council for river protection.
The couple had experienced floods before, but nothing like this. They were cut off for about three days and Civil Defence was unable to check in on them for almost a week.
"We'd seen the river come into our property in places we hadn't seen before, and it was quite deep already and we had damage to our gullies, so that's our hill access," Tarsh Newport said. "The second day, the damage and the amount of land we lost was just mind-boggling really."
Korere Tophouse Valley farmers Tarsh and Daniel Newport had land wiped out by flood.
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
Along with losing land to the river, the floodwaters wiped out access to the half of the Newport farm in the hills, paddocks were covered in rocks, and some fences were missing or damaged.
They were grateful their home was unscathed and they didn't lose any stock, and said it would be a case of chipping away at the recovery work.
"Luckily, it's a time of year when dairy farmers aren't quite calving and milking cows yet, or not quite lambing, so that's fortunate from that respect," Daniel said. "You've just got to count your blessings, look for the positive things and take care of your neighbours."
In Tapawera's main street, Mackenzie Laurie has served up hot drinks and food for residents from her coffee cart, and hearing how they have been affected.
Mackenzie Laurie has heard many of the stories from people struggling with storm damage.
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
"I'm seeing broken people come in here, because their whole yard and garden is just mud and rocks and sand now. It's awful actually.
"All along the side of the river, the whole river just burst its banks and spread all down the main road. It lifted bits of road like pieces of paper, so much is destroyed."
Tapawera Campground manager Julie Jacobson said the flooding a week ago caused sewage problems and the town was still contending with a boil water notice.
Julie Jacobson and Aaron Ray are among those still contending with a boil water notice.
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
"The toilet waste pipes bubbled up with water, backing up from the river, so water was just pouring out of actual piping to the sewage treatment plant, which is just across the road over there."
The campground itself, which had 14 people staying when the heavy rain hit, was saved from worse flooding by the Great Taste Trail, which was atop a bank that ran between the camp and the Motueka River.
"If it hadn't have been there, we would have been underwater."
At the local community centre and op shop, Della Webby has worked non-stop for the past week to co-ordinate the flood relief.
She works part-time as a community connector for Tapawera Connect, but after the flooding, she has become a point of contact for those in need of help.
"I've just been here taking calls from people who need help and people offering it, and just trying to get help to where it's needed the most."
She said everyone in the small town, which had around of about 350 residents was affected in some way.
"There's obviously the farmers who have been devastated, losing their fencing, losing hectares of their paddocks, changing rivers, but there's a lot of people living in cabins and tiny homes and small dwellings that have been inundated.
Tapawera Connect's Dalla Webby: "It's hitting home what's happened to them."
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
"They are the ones I am trying to hep the most and the some of the locals who have had the river through their houses."
Webby said she still heard from people in the surrounding valleys, who lived without internet and cell phones, and only had landlines, which in some cases had been wiped out by flooding, so she would make sure their details were passed on to Civil Defence.
"It's just really emotional," she said. "A lot of people have been running on adrenaline through this time, so I'm getting more calls now where people are really upset and feeling the strain.
"It's hitting home what's happened to them."
She said more wellbeing support was needed now than there had been and she was doing everything she could to make sure that those needing help were getting it.
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