The severing of a vital lifeline and road in rural Tararua will be a burden on the farming community as it deals with the cleanup from Cyclone Gabrielle.
The cyclone hit two weeks ago, causing major damage to the region, washing away roads and damaging farmland.
A section of Coast Rd through the Marainanga Gorge was washed away, cutting one of the two main routes to beach village Ākitio.
Fiona Ramsden runs Ware Ware Station and Coastroad Backpackers on the Owahanga River south of Ākitio. With the gorge closed, she is now at the end of the road.
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“The scale of the flooding this time around is nothing like any other flood we’ve had.
“The scale of damage around the farm in terms of slips, road closures, Marainanga Gorge is gone, the damage is just phenomenal.”
She was stuck on the farm for four days as Owahanga River rose over the road to her farm and the bridge going north. The last backpacker left the day before the storm.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Coast Rd through the Marainganga Gorge in Tararua was destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Ramsden used a digger to clear the way off the property and contractors this week were continuing the cleanup.
“All our farm tracks are gone. We can’t get around the farm. Logistics from now in, things have changed a lot.”
Ramsden hasn’t been able to get across the farm to check stock, but a helicopter ride showed her the “scarring of the farm is quite significant”.
“We’ve got weeks of fencing, trying to get all the debris off the fencing. It’s quite a lot to do amongst everything else.”
The farm got 260mm of rain on the first day of the cyclone, then 40mm the second. In a normal year they get about 1200mm.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Ware Ware Station owner Fiona Ramsden says her farming logistics will have to change following the closure of Coast Rd.
Previously it was a 20-minute drive west to Pongaroa for supplies, now it is almost an hour the other way via Ākitio and River Rd.
Coast Rd is used by travellers, backpackers, trade staff and farmers, while Ramsden uses the gorge to access other parts of the farm and move stock.
“Marainganga Gorge is significant, it’s changed everything. We’re all quite upset about it.
“It’s our lifeline in and out. Going to town, even to Pongaroa for supplies, just everything.”
The bridge that connects Ramsden with Ākitio is believed to have a bend in it since the flood. She used her digger to clear logs and debris from around the bridge to prevent damage.
“If that bridge goes, poof, I’m gone.”
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Slipping on the hillside on River Rd.
She will de-stock because of the loss of grazeable land.
“It’s going to be a long winter.”
Because of the damage to the roads and bridges, stock trucks can’t carry trailers.
Ware Ware Station hasn’t been the only place damaged.
Numerous other slips have gone down across the road between Dannevirke and Ākitio and hillsides everywhere have slipped away.
Part of River Rd west of Ākitio has dropped away so a farm driveway and track has been turned into a public road.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
The beach at Ākitio is covered with logs.
The Ākitio township appears unscathed, but the beach is covered with logs and the Ākitio River mouth has moved.
Digger operator Peter Dean of Dean Earthmoving, was clearing a slip on Coast Rd on the hill above Ākitio, where there are huge cracks in the hillside.
“I was here then the storm hit. There wasn’t much else to do, then it was pissing down, and I started cleaning because nobody else could get out. I’ve been clearing some slips up, and I’ve never left.”
There are springs that run under the road he has been trying to divert to a culvert to make the road safer.
Inland from Ākitio, farmworkers Perry Clarke and Declan Edmonds were cleaning up at Te Tumu Station.
“We’re just battling,” Clarke said. “It’s really one step at a time. The biggest concern now is looking after animal welfare.”
He didn’t think they had lost any stock, but they were bringing them all in this week to count.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
The river mouth has changed course at Ākitio.
They received 280mm of rain in 13 hours during the cyclone. Clarke said there had been a lot of slipping on the farm’s hill country, damaging paddocks and fences.
Retired farmer and Ākitio resident Lloyd Newland has lived in the area his whole life and hadn’t seen a weather event as bad as Gabrielle.
He hoped the gorge road would be replaced.
“You can fix anything now.”
The Tararua Alliance had expected to complete its roading network inspection by Friday, identifying damaged roads and bridges, assessing the severity and prioritising repairs.
The states of national emergency declared over Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Tararua have ended.
The areas are in a national transition period, which provides Civil Defence teams with powers needed during the early stages of the recovery, such as clearing roads, disposing of dangerous materials and doing repair work.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Digger operator Peter Dean has been working to clear slips in the Ākitio area ever since the cyclone hit.
